Turbocharger oil leak after rebuild, what is the problem? 

Thank you Ryan...I will be putting out content as often as I can. Stay tuned! -Reed

You're welcome!-Reed

Yes, the turbine "gas seal" is a piston ring (exhaust side). This is the simplest, cheapest and most effective way to seal your basic turbine. Almost all automotive/diesel/light industrial turbochargers will also have a piston ring seal on the compressor side as well. There was a time (the 80's! ) where carbon face compressor side seals were very prevalent...but those days are mostly behind us...save for the required application for that type (high vacuum on the compressor inlet) This turbo was either a seal bore concentricicy (sp) or line bore issue, but could have also been a seal ring that was faulty due to manufacturing or installation. Most likely it was the bore, I have had this same issue pop up from time to time. I did not investigate further as the time it takes to do this out weighs the cost of just replacing parts...but as a caution I did perform seal leakage tests on the next 10 or so T3 turbochargers that used this same batch of housings and seal rings...did not see any issues, nor did I have any other reported failures (as of today). Thank you for your question! -Reed