cheers matty, thats good news.
whats it cost to change a seal, or do u have to get a rebuild when a seal goes???

would i be better off just getting a new turbo?

Sounds like a turbo oil seal mate. This has no effect on shaft play.
Matty

Turbo is stuffed, mine was doing the same thing at idle, it also had no sharft play. I swapped turbo and all is good now.

this was smokin like a chimney at idle, then a few days later i started it and it seemed ok

i mucked around chasing a similar problem on my turbo a series, would blow smoke worst when backing off/engine braking

turned out to be valve stem seals

symptoms. bit of a loss of power oily smoke POURING out of exhaust, oily crap all over air filter.

i assumed turbo either gone completely or seals rooted, but, took the exhaust manifold and turbo of my ute on the weekend and basically no shaft play at all and its clean, and the intercooler is clean as well. AND it all ran smooth as before i pulled it apart. i even started it a few days after the smoke incident and seemed strangely ok.

What is going on????

should i do a compression test before jumping to the conclusion that the turbo/seals are gone???? is it worthwhile/expensive/difficult to change seals? if they're worn out what else in the motor could be ready to go???

if it does turn out to be turbo, what needs to be changed to fit a T28 or similar, i dont have alot of time to be mucking around with custom parts at the moment i need it back on the road asap. what are my options