Turbo Grind, White smoke. Engine cutoff. Sad face.

So as you know from the last thread i just recently got my gillis installed and wow it made a huge difference. That being said, the turbo has always sounded a little hissy but we could not locate any vacuum leaks and when i put the gillis in i actually replaced the only problematic hose i had (wastegate hose that now goes to the gillis). I want to mention here that i've never seen smoke come out of my exhaust.

When i put the gillis in, i set my PSI to 14, then bumped to 16 where it stayed until yesterday. On my way home from work, i had an engine shutoff while making a left turn. I tried to restart the car but could not. This had happened once before, but it was due to the hose going from the IC coming lose. I parked to the side and checked all hoses, nothing seemed to be loose. I got back in and started the car, fired up just fine.

Finished driving home but noticed that not only was my boost level not building up but my turbo was making a gosh awful whine. My Father in law was with me at the time and we gleefully compared it to a pack of rednecks under the hood screaming "woo" like they were at a nascar race. It also sounded like a metal to metal grind from 1psi to about 6psi and then the "wooo" sound. I babied the car back to the house, and we got to looking under the hood.

My FIL restarted the vehicle and let it warm up, then started giving it throttle to see if he could locate a vacuum leak or a loose clamp. I noticed that as the turbo wound up, white smoke was puffing out of the tailpipe. He says "it's the turbo finally opening up, there's oil that's built up in there and it's blowing it out." Now i want to mention here that he's an ASE certified mechanic and has worked on thousands of vehicles including TCs, SVOs etc etc, but i have a hard time believing that. I set my gillis back down to 8 psi and drove to work this morning, had the cutoff issue again. Any ideas? I'm at a loss here. Is my IHI going out? Lack of oil getting to the turbo? I always let the engine run sitting for about a minute before i pull out and before i turn off the key.

1987 Turbo Coupe, Gillis and K&N are the only mods i have on this vehicle.

Cutoff - how much gas is in the tank and when does it cut off?
Going around a curve hard? Fast take off in a straight line? regular low effort cruising down the street? Also check the lower IC hose for: proper placement and make sure the upper lip isn't folded in on it self and can't seal. Make sure the clamp in in the proper position all the way around. Make sure the VAM hose is on securely on the back of the VAM and there are no holes in (usually holes develop out of sight)

There shouldn't be white smoke out the tailpipe if everything is OK.

Metallic noise - take the compressor inlet pipe off the turbo. Look for bent or damaged compressor blades. Try wiggling the shaft back and forth and end to end. There should be almost no perceptible side or end play. Look for witness marks of the blades hitting the housing - either sides or the back of the housing. End play or witness marks tell you it needs a rebui;d

3/4 full of 93 Premium
It cut off as i let off the throttle to turn but was still going straight. Turbo was wound up slightly, probably 3 PSI and i backed out of the throttle and it died.
I'll take the vam off tonight and check all of the hoses there. The hissy sound actually started when i swapped the airbox with the K&N and i assumed it was just due to more airflow.
I'll try to get some pics as i get to the compressor inlet. Maybe even a sound clip. The smoke only comes out when the turbo is engaged and spooled up.

For your cut off problem, have you ever changed the ignition switch on the column? This a notorious ford problem.
I also had a cut out problem when I used the wrong filter sock on the fuel pump in the tank. It would cut out for just the time I needed to make a left turn with the tank under 1/2, but would then come back before I got creamed by a car.
And another problem I had with cutting out was the car would die because the connector to the inertia switch had melted and even though voltage was getting to the pump, it was too little to run the pump.This seems to be a common problem as well

I turned the turbo down to 1 PSI on my gillis and started the car up today to drive to my FIL's to look at again. It started making a gosh awful rattle underneath in the exhaust and immediately started spitting out white smoke. Billowing white smoke. I shut her off immediately. Not sure why all of the problems all of a sudden. Going to park her for the rest of the week and take the IC and turbo off this weekend and check my lines.

Oil levels are holding, pressure is holding, no coolant in the oil. No oil in the coolant. Only thing i can think of is that i bottomed out pulling into a steep driveway yesterday, maybe i knocked something loose underneath? Not sure how that could affect my turbo though. It just sounds like the turbo is grinding and running dry.

Because its pretty easy to do...I would do a compression test!

If the center section of the turbo is starting to fail...it could puke coolant into the exhaust. Which would account for the white smoke...but that is pretty rare...I would suspect headgasket first.

Travis

Possibly... the white smoke started immediately after the grinding whining turbo issue started. It would be a rare coincidence if the head gave out the same time the turbo did... Unless the oil/coolant got together down the line and wreaked havoc on the turbo at the seals... I'll see if i can get some video later of the smoke. I have color issues with my eyes already so maybe im not seeing the blue

ok well there is definitely a leak into the turbo... Lets see if these links work :/

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3dGFa8q...sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3dGFa8q...sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3dGFa8q...sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3dGFa8q...sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3dGFa8q...sp=sharing

there's a ton of play with the turbo, i think it's pretty well shot. im just curious if the turbo went out and caused the fluid leak issue or if the leak caused the turbo to go out.