Sorry I've become kind of a lurker lately, I've been busy with my senior year and whatnot.
Unfortunately I've had a major problem with the Capri. I'll give you the long version to hopefully give as much as evidence as possible. I'll start at the very beginning, I guess.
A few weeks ago, when I'd start the car up in the morning and would first leave my driveway, as the turbo would spin up it would make kind of a "weeeee" noise for just a second. I attributed it to the cold and figured it was just one of those turbo noises.
Then, as I was coming home on the freeway, that noise suddenly happened again, except that it wasn't for a second... it was constant. "Weeeee...weeee...weeeeweeeweeee...weeee", etc. I suddenly lost a lot of power and the car slowed down to about 55, even with my foot close to the floor. I decided since it was driving okay and I didn't see anything bad coming out the back, I'd keep babying it until I got closer to home, because frankly, I didn't want to be a white boy with a broken down car near Flint (it's the most dangerous city in the nation or something). I stopped at a gas station, didn't see anything, and the car was idiling okay there, so I got back on the freeway. I decided that as soon as I got close enough to take backroads I would, to get out of the way and take my good ol' time, but try to get it home. As I exited the freeway, the car was really sputtering, and I looked back and saw a huge cloud of smoke, so I shut it down immediately.
After getting it home, we started to do preliminary analysis. The engine itself is fine- it pulls great vaccum, and still ran up the point that I shut it down. It burned up all of it's oil, down from full to below L. The oil was COVERING the intake from the turbo up through the engine, where it was burning and causing the smoke. Everything seems to point to the turbo, but I want to see what you guys think. Initially I got suggestions that I seized the bearings in the turbo, but as I've been slowly pulling everything apart, I've gotten to the intake side of the impeller thing and it spins with little resistance and seems undamaged. I have yet to actually remove the turbo, because if it's something else I'd like to save myself the hassle of pulling it out.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Scott