During the process of getting a bunch of maintenance issues fixed, it was now running reasonably but would blow an embarrassing amount of oil smoke out of the right hand side exhaust. I was advised that the turbo needed rebuild / replacement requiring engine out etc. Talking to someone else that had a similar issue, he told me that having separate exhaust pipes can do some funny things with vacuum and suck the oil through the turbo. The separated exhaust system was already on the car when I purchased so I thought it was worth trying and took it to a shop to install a balance pipe. The oil smoke is now gone! They are the stock turbos so I'm sure they are well worn and will need the work done shortly anyway, but stoked that such a cheap fix has done the trick for now
Hey Dave that's good to hear. I believe it's not so much vaccum as the harmonics of the exhaust pulses. With an X or H system in place the pulsations are consistent (1 2 3 4 5 6 1 etc) through the system. Not so with two separate systems on a V motor (1 - 3- 5- 1 and 2 - 4 - 6 - 2). It's come up a few times in the community over the past... JFC nearly 17years I've been on the forum. Much cheaper and easier than new or rebuilt turbos that's for sure...