---- Stagea Blows Hella Smoke, What Happened ?!?!?!? ----

So after running the Stagea for about 2 years after the 300kw tune we hit the first hitch in the story. Two days ago i headed up to the local shops to get some stuff done, its only about 2-3 minutes up the road, so not too far away. When i arrived, i parked the car and jumped out, that is when it hit me..... that undeniable smell of car failure.

I pop the bonnet (hood) and all i see is steam like smoke coming from the turbo manifold area. As im already here and have an appointment to get to, i leave it and head off knowing i have a mission ahead of me when i get back to the car so i can go home.

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Notice the oil stains and burned look on the heat wrap over the manifold below the black rubber hose.

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When i return from my chores at the shops i play with the oil return line. As can be seen in the image, the oil return line has managed to turn itself onto the manifold and the heat shielding has slipped down allowing the two to make contact. The rubber hose has become brittle and split spraying oil all over the place in the engine bay. I pull it away from the manifold as much as possible.

Knowing im only minutes away from home i start her up and make a bee line for home. When i get home the condition has clearly worsened, way more smoke pissing out of the car from the front end. I cant see what is going on but im assuming my "playing" with the line has made it worse. now my engine is way too hot to work on and its also waaaaay to late to crack out the tools.

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The oil return line in its "old setup"

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Starting out with the fix, the set up is clearly tight and a pain in the ass to get to. We needed to strip some of the intercooler pipes and the "oil in" line on the turbo. Even with all the removed it was really tight to get the to the oil return line. Much frustration, blood, sweat and tears ensued in the attempts to get the oil return line nut cracked and off the vehicle.

With no spanner of shifter being able to access the area due to the constraints some "alternative" tools were used to get at the nut. We have a long vice/multigrip tool with a 45 degree kick on the head. this was the only tool which could get at the nut. HOWEVER, it could only get about 1/8 of a turn (or less) on the nut AND it left the nut in a position which could no longer be griped by the tool..... more frustration happenin in frustration city ;)

Using a firm grip and pulling on the rest of the fitting of the oil return line the nut shifted a little more allowing the vice grips to grab the nut again.... this was a cut and paste situation moving less than 1/8 of a turn at a time, but eventually it came off.

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The oil return line MUST concede!!! lolz

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Now with the top end undone it was time to get under the vehicle to disconnect the line from the block so we could do the surgery on the pipe. I was confident that i would be able to "fix" the pipe at least temporarily to get the car drivable so i could go collect any new parts i needed, cause in the state it was in before starting the job or at this very moment the stagea wasn't going to be going anywhere.

Out came the trolley jack and the jack stands and we were away, it was pretty tight under the car too with the steering gear as well as the exhaust and screamer pipe all in the way of being able to get clean access to the fitting on the block. Again with a little time, effort and patience we managed to get it off and out of the car for a good inspection of the damage which had been caused.

When first looking at the damage it didn't look that bad, but upon closed inspection it was far worse than it seemed. The line was absolutely McNuggeted where it had made contact with the manifold, fortunately for me i do plan ahead a little where i can and i had made sure the oil return line was a bit longer than necessary, while making sure it maintained a "downward direction" for just these kinds of situations.

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Ah it aint that bad.... wait, what...?

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The fitting was cut off completely and stripped of the rubber hose still attached, the burned area was cut off on the rubber hose side of things and and additional 2.5cm (1 inch) below the burn for safety. The hose was then fitted the other way around, that is burned end at the block and block end at the turbo to make sure we had "good hose" where it counts (near the heat) and any discrepancy still remaining at the burned end (if any) was away from the heat and should not perish any further.

With all the work done and fittings re attached it was time to put her back together and see if we had the length in the oil return line. After some jibber-jabbering and quite a bit of swearing we got it in and lined up to where she needed to be. The oil return line was made to run towards the front of the car, as opposed to running towards the firewall how it was before, to avoid this issue happening again, its not as neat but it saves burning the hose again and having to buy a new one ($120-$150AUD). The heat shielding was also fixed with a metal zip tie and should not be moving any time soon. With all that sorted the intercooler pipes were re fitted, hose clamps tightened , "oil in line" re fitted and anything else which was removed/shifted was put back in its place and it was time for a few test runs.

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Back together and the oil return line re routed in a forward direction... looks ugly but works

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I knew it was going to be a smokey adventure since there was oil all over my manifold, heat wrap and block on the turbo side. kicking it over, she coughed a bit but quickly settled into her rhythm with the notorious RB burble we all know and love, lol.

After warming up there was a little smoke coming form the turbo area, like a lit cigarette, but not anything major. Knowing this was just the beginning of the smokefest which was coming i decided to take her for a few laps and get her on boost a little so the exhaust temps would rise and hopefully burn off the rest of the oil on the manifold.

3 laps around the block cracking gate and the smoke was bellowing out from under the cars front end, pulling into the driveway we did a quick check to make sure it wasn't an oil line popped off or coming from the line we fixed. Nope, it was all good under the hood and it was just the manifold itself which was smoking. With this sorted it was just time to pack up and leave it be for now. As the turbo timer counted down the final moments of the cars operation we could rest easy knowing it was a job well done.

Now its just a matter of taking the Stagea on a few local runs to make sure it holds well and the rest of the oil burns off the manifold and we are as good as gold. hopefully it will be another 2 years or more until we have the next issue, but if its only minor issues like this, then there is really nothing to worry about.