PLZ HELP!!!!Legacy GT UP DP issue

So last week, justin (aka evil mr. grimm) replaced the UP and the DP on my 05 LGT.

The UP was Crucial (with the black coating on it) and NO place for the EGT probe. (others on legacygt.com hav had issues with copper gaskets that crucial includes as they blow easily). The AP removed the CEL caused by removing the EGT so i didnt implement the resistor fix.

The DP was the completely catless Lachute (front half heat wrapped). We used a new OEM gasket for the turbo side of te DP and re-used the donut gasket on the cat back side.
THe cat back is all stock.

So i dont hear any leaks (doesnt mean there isnt any). However i get this nasty smell of exhaust fumes and some smoke under the hood. As per Justin (from day of install on wednesday) it could be the black coating burning off from the UP.

Anyways, today i noticed some black oil on the garage floor and now I am really concerned. Justin's out of pocket over the wk end, but i'm wondering if any of you can render any help/advise. Located in woodbury. I know there are a couple of LGT folks here that are more mechanically inclined than me and they live on the east side of town.

issues again are:
-Exhaust fume smell when windows are open
-oily residue on garage floor and light smoke from under the hood.

And yes i admit i am a stupdn00b when it comes to this.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thx

 

anuj i just got home. my guess is that everyone else was correct about those crucial gaskets...they leak. i never said the exhaust smell(wasnt any exhaust smell and/or leak when you left) was from teh coating on the up pipe, i said the smoke was. the smell was the coating curing smell, not exhaust. i should be at the shop tonight test fittnig our crossover if you want to stop down.

also i'm not sure what your oil leak is from, we didnt touch anything that had to do with oil.

 

how much oil?
the oil return line would be something to check.

 

yeah thats what i was thinking. the only thing is we didnt touch the turbo at all.

 

The return line was the culprit on my WRX immediately after updp install a few years ago.

 

that is true........ i've done alot of down and up pipes and it has nothing to do with any oil lines. I guess you guys could've accidently loosen things here and there to have caused that leak.

 

well to do teh DP you touch the turbo.. ha ha.. but yeah like Justin said he shouldnt have had to touch anything significant with the turbo other then teh 5 bolts holding the DP on and the 4 on the Up-pipe....

get a flash light and look over all the fittings etc... see if oil is leaking anywhere... the smell is more than likely the coating as said... if it was exhaust you would be hearing a leak.. kinda hard to miss those...

if all else fails drop by my shop and I can take a look... although thats probably a pretty big hike for you....

 

it could be an exhaust leak with dirty carbony condensation water

 

yes sir its seeming like it....since its black and has the viscousity of oil but not the slightest smell of any type of oil that i've encountered before.

i reckon this will wait till appropriate gaskets are procured on monday. i will not be the least bit surprised if its those copper gaskets from crucial....plus the fact i didnt read up on their (gaskets) poor performance till after the install (we didnt even heat cycle and re-torque). we just torqued it once .

i kinda got in panic mode with the thick liquid on the garage floor. updates to follow. thx for the re-assurances guys.

 

i work in EP ...and i've been to ur shop b4.. u did the brakes on my 02 legacy last year (new pads resurfaced OEM rotors)...and they still grip better than my 05 brakes.
i'm in capable hands with justin but if advised to pay you a visit by him, i shall do so w/o any hesitation.
cheers n thx

 

another option for the smoke could be the heat wrap. i know mine occaisionly made some wiss of smoke, when really hot.

 

no probs man... like they all said it doesnt sound like anything to major.. have to stay away form the crucial gaskets by the sounds of it.. I re-uesed my factory ones and tightened down once, (2yrs ago) and still no leaks...

 

UPDATE:
so i went over to Nate's shop and Dan figured it was the loose banjo bold on the turbo.
The oil was seeping out and apparently flowing down the side onto the DP and the lower return line and buring along the way.
He did tighten it and the smell seems to have reduced but not completely gone. (THX DAN!!!)

I would thing by now any remaining oil would have burnt off (form the heat wrap on the DP) considering this was resolved monday...but on occasion i still get that smell of either the oil or just exhaust fumes from a leak thats not detectable.

I'm getting pretty upset over the smell. I will pop by FS and ask around for help in determining the cause of the smell.

 

also even if it burnt with heat it was still soaked everywhere... i say give the car a good detailing in teh engine bay etc.... soak it in engine degreaser and high pressure spray it... get hatever oil is still over anything off....

that exhaust smeel isnt a leak.. I COULD NOT hear or feel a leak anywhere.... but probably the fact that now it is a bigger exhaust and No cats... yes lets start that thread again... ha hah a

 

A new copper washer could help, or re-annealing the old washer, which is prob what we should have done. The fact that your center section was doused with oil told me it was the fitting on the oil feed. Plus I gave it a quarter turn rather easily.

 

FYI a lot of LGT folks who have a catless DP experience that unburned fuel smell. That's what is delaying my decision on which DP to get.

To me that fuel smell has to mean the engine is running rich. Is the AP adding fuel to make things safer or what? My turbo RS was catless and even with the quick job tuning the Haltech I never had much of any fuel smell coming from the exhaust.

 

This unburned fuel type smell is definitely there. Its really evident (and reproduceable everytime) on WOT but not so much if i'm easy on the gas pedal.
Over the weekend i gave the turbo/uppipe area a decent inspection and did not find any significant oil accumalation from the leak caused by the loose banjo bolt before.

It is possible the lower part of the DP/heat wrap could have some oil accumulated but as clean as the top portion was, it seems highly unlikely.

There is either a leak by the turbo or by the other end of the DP that goes into the Cat back with the donut gasket.
I now hv a full set of new OEM UP gaskets and Donut DP gasket in my possesion. The turbo side DP gasket was OEM new already.

I need some one with the right tools and experience to help me resolve this once and for all as this is getting really annoying with the smell.
Appropriate funds for their services can be negotiated.

Volunteers plz?
Thx

 

dude...twisted, simmer down a bit man. your car isnt going to blow up lol

first off, why do you need to change exhaust gaskets if you cant hear any exhaust leaks?

the smell....dude, you dont have cats, this is a smell of a high performance car. if you dont like smelling raw exhaust you are going to have to put the stock exhaust back on, sell the AP, and drive a stock car.

i'm seeing a little case of the pete-syndrome here man

 

its gonna stink like oil for a long time dude, when i did my turbo swap into my car i got oil everywhere, it stank for 2 weeks, expecially if the exhaust is wrapped its gonna smell, maybe forever

 

No i'm not afraid my car will blow up anymore

I just got the gaskets as a precautionary measure. Those crucial copper gaskets have really bad reputation. If they go anytime in the future, then i wont hv to wait for gaskets to address the issue.

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37326

I do need someone to verify that the smell is NORMAL. If it isnt then of course it needs to be addressed. IF it is normal, then i really need to get a DP with a high flow cat asap as this smell makes me dizzy. Its impossible to drive this daily with this smell (at least not with any window open)

Maybe i'll stop by the shop and hv you drive it later today and tell me exactly what it is i am smelling. I know one thing , its not very subtle a smell.

 

yeaht thats cool, bring her over tomorrow night and we can go for a drive and i'll smell her up for you

 

uhhhh.....gimme some of them SMELLLLLSSSSZZZZZZ.

 

^thats the only thing I keep thinking of, in this thred.

TEH SMELLLLLSSSSZZZZZZ!

 

Some smell is normal with a catless setup but making you dizzy? That's not normal. My bet is you have a small leak someplace. You cant hear all leaks.

 

Finally someone tht thinks i'm not CRAZY....thx for the support

 

making you dizzy? unless you were sitting in your car with the windows up and vent on for a half an hour your not gonna get dizzy.

 

I dunno....sounds to me like a dp/midpipe joint leak. I had a leak at that joint in my old car and could really smell the catless goodness in the cabin of the car. One I finally got around to fixing it, the smell was drastically reduced.

A fully sealed catless exhaust system should be nearly smell free from within the cabin. If you think about it, the only place the smell should come from is the muffler tip which isn't anywhere near to where you sit in the car.

 

you may not hear them... well being that we do 45% of our business is exhaust work, then I havent had one that you couldnt hear it.. even if it was very minimal... even if it isnt loud you will always feel it, when you cup your hands around anywhere there is a joint.. I did to about 90% of his exhaust system... didnt feel any leaks.. but it WAS a 2 min look over as I was real busy, and Dan came past and found the loose banjo washer...

Dizziness isnt normal even from catless, unless you are a real NANCY BOY... ha ha ha and after meeting you I know you aint.. well too much anyways.. he he...

Hope you can get this sorted out... not fun driving if you are funky form smelling your kittyless car.. ha ha ha

 

my only thought would be that downpipe to catback joint. that is where we had to reuse your donut flange because you didnt have a new one. i did atv it all to heck though.

 

Especially when it's the sweet sweet smell of Sunoco 104 coming out of that catless pipe :yumyum:

I have to agree that the exhaust smell is going to be normal with that setup. Better that unburned fuel smell than that smell of an engine running really lean and making your eyes water.

 

i have a strong feeling at this point it is the DP/mid-pipe leak.
I smell it when stopped and when moving at almost any speed < 60 with any window down.
I'm very certain i'm not being a little bitch and making a big deal about it and it is a really annoying smell.
More updates tomorrow evening, after i get mr. grimms vote in.

 

lil bitch lil bitch... ha ha just kidding man... well you drive it, so you would know if you smell something or not... and what has changed or is different since the change...

 

u tosser....u wanker....LOL j/k mate

 

ha h aha.. Aussie terms of endearment

 

ok so here's the promised update.
well for starters JUSTIN only has 4 senses...he lacks the smelling one...or he killed it whilst driving his catless rex for years LOL.

grimm says he cant smell ****, but i insist its smelly (methinks it needs further verification).

Of course he didnt feel any leak by the DP/Cat-less-back portion either.

So we concluded, that if this smell continues to annoy me and my occassional passengers over the next couple weeks, I can order a Catted DP and we (more like he) will swap it out.
He's so nice he said he'd do it for some Jager


so any of u legacy folks keep tuned as this might turn into a:
LACHUTE CATLESS DP FOR SALE thread.
easy!

 

Did you check the dp to turbo connection? What about the uppipe?

 

yes on the turbo, no on the up pipe. the car has no exhaust leaks...it purrs like a kitten. if there is an exhaust leak leaking as much "nasty exhaust fumes" as twisted is saying, we'd be able to hear it.

honestly i believe it is a case of a person not smelling catless exhaust before. we were driving and he was saying how strong it was smelling and i didnt smell a dang thing. when we stopped i could smell a catless exhaust, that is it.

 

you gotta pay to play, my car smells like sour krout with these injectors at idle.

 

Mine smelled like that when I was running lean...

 

meh, lean at idle is fine with me.