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1980 242 GT. A reasonable project.

Happily, this car has not yet become a permanent art installation in the garage. Just before winter set in, I fixed the oil consumption issue. Additionally, I now have a 60k BTU natural gas heater in the garage as well as a 2-post lift.

The lift is a 2-post midrise Dannmar M-6, which is essentially an upgraded MaxJax.
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I might have lost count of how many iterations of turbo oil returns I have tried on this setup. However, what I believe was the 5th(?) overall iteration and 2nd iteration including an electric scavenge pump seems to have cured my oil consumption issues. This setup includes an electric scavenge pump mounted to the driver's side of the bellhousing, plumbed with -10an aeroquip pushlock hose. The final nail in the coffin of the oil consumption was the second iteration of oil accumulator sump that I built, which includes a -6an vent. The vent was the last change and was key to ending/greatly diminishing oil consumption. So now I know for <strike>next time</strike> never again.

First step with the scavenge pump was coming up with a mounting solution.
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Then building the last iteration of the oil accumulator.
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V1(right) and V2(left) of the oil accumulator sump. I did a lot better with the tig on the second iteration (this was my first practical application of tig welding).
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Then mounting it
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Here's what it looks like with engine running and scavenge pump on, pretty much regardless of engine RPM. Top hose is the return from the pump back into the engine crankcase. Bottom hose is the gravity drain exiting the oil accumulator sump.
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And finally buttoning up everything with aeroquip pushlock hose and some thermotec sleeve. I have the pump wired in to my auxiliary Bussmann fusebox, on a fuse that also powers the boost control solenoid and idle control valve.
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To celebrate the progress with solving the oil consumption, I also ordered new genuine leather seat covers for my front Recaro LS-B seats as well as the rear stock 242 seat. The covers are charcoal black leather, ordered from lseat.com. I installed those while on vacation for the past week or two. That was far more time-consuming than I gave it credit for.

Tear down commenced
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Both Recaros got all new lower bolster foam
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Things started coming together
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The rear seat bottom fits very well, and wasn't too awful to install.
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The rear seat back was rather difficult and I wasn't very happy with the fit, so I tried adding another 1" of foam
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Still doesn't fit all that well, but it's good enough for now
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And then I finished up both front seats
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I also made some newer seat brackets and painted them
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Bonus:

I changed the starter... which was one of the only used parts in the engine bay.
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And I added some sound deadening material to the trunk, which didn't do all that much on its own. I'll be doing more tidying up in the trunk at some point, so this gives me a good base to start with.
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The stuff you added to the trunk only needs to cover 30% of the surface area. Ideally you would put a layer of open cell acoustic foam on top of that, followed by carpeting.
 
Awesome to hear the oil consumption issue is solved. To where did you plumb the accumulator sump vent?

Nice to see oil flow in the clear hoses. The froth you see in the sump drainage is pretty mild compared to what actually comes out of the turbo. Whenever I spend time on the VSR at work I get a healthy reminder of just how foamy the oil is after exiting the ball bearing. A good percentage of oil in the turbo actually surrounds the outer ring of the bearing to act as a squeeze-film damper, but the portion that does pass through the bearing is turned into frothed milk for your latte, essentially. This puffs up the oil volume accordingly which is one thing that was working against you (among several others!).

Any idea of depression (or absolute pressure) resultant from the scavenge pump? Might be interesting to measure that. On a certain red/white/blue GT racing car a few years back I dealt with massive oil coking in the center housing, caused by excessive scavenge depression literally sucking mass amounts of hot exhaust gas past the turbine end seal and into the oil cavity and bearing area. Turning down the wick on the scavenge stage solved the problem after much testing. Might be good to check that at some point - simple analog pressure gage plumbed into your accumulator sump would tell the story. Of course if it's now vented to atmosphere then it's no worries, mate.
 
The stuff you added to the trunk only needs to cover 30% of the surface area. Ideally you would put a layer of open cell acoustic foam on top of that, followed by carpeting.

Yeah, that's the approach I took when applying it inside the cabin. I thought I would overdo the trunk because the panels seemed especially resonant.
 
Awesome to hear the oil consumption issue is solved. To where did you plumb the accumulator sump vent?

Nice to see oil flow in the clear hoses. The froth you see in the sump drainage is pretty mild compared to what actually comes out of the turbo. Whenever I spend time on the VSR at work I get a healthy reminder of just how foamy the oil is after exiting the ball bearing. A good percentage of oil in the turbo actually surrounds the outer ring of the bearing to act as a squeeze-film damper, but the portion that does pass through the bearing is turned into frothed milk for your latte, essentially. This puffs up the oil volume accordingly which is one thing that was working against you (among several others!).

Any idea of depression (or absolute pressure) resultant from the scavenge pump? Might be interesting to measure that. On a certain red/white/blue GT racing car a few years back I dealt with massive oil coking in the center housing, caused by excessive scavenge depression literally sucking mass amounts of hot exhaust gas past the turbine end seal and into the oil cavity and bearing area. Turning down the wick on the scavenge stage solved the problem after much testing. Might be good to check that at some point - simple analog pressure gage plumbed into your accumulator sump would tell the story. Of course if it's now vented to atmosphere then it's no worries, mate.

The vent is plumbed to a small air filter that is currently sitting near the engine air intake filter. I haven't found a final home for it yet, but I do plan on keeping it venting to atmosphere for the same reason you mentioned on said GT racing car.
 
Yooo, solid update Tom. Glad to hear the oil issue is solved. Your interior is going to look toooiiiight.
 
Two bolsters came from an eBay seller in Russia, for half the price of Capital Seating UK. The other two came from Capital Seating UK a year later when the eBay price had gone up.

When purchasing 4 bolsters at a time, eBay is a good deal.
 
Russian ebay is great for cheap car parts! For our Lemons E36 we scored 4 plastic fender flares for like $75 SHIPPED from Russian ebay. They arrived in a burlap sack.
 
I've bought a lot of vintage furniture on German eBay, I guess I have to keep heading East!

I bought a couple bolsters and two 'horseshoes' (back bolsters) for my seats from Capital. It cost as much as I paid for the seats...
 
Long story short, I was wrong about having solved the oil consumption issue (at least in part). I pulled the engine and found one melted piston (infamous cylinder #4) along with all other pistons having broken ring lands. I won't get deep into the why, but effectively, the cause is believed to be oil induced detonation over a long period of time, compounded on top of the fact that these pistons already had 240k on them.

Time to rebuild it better than before. Thanks largely to the generosity of Alex and Doug, I will be piecing together a refreshed block built with h-beams and Wiseco pistons.

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Might as well repaint the engine bay while things are apart.

Disassemble
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Sand
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Prime
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Basecoat (Volvo 477 electric silver metallic to match the exterior)
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Clearcoat
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I wish it was as easy as this short series of photos makes it look.

Next step: block machine work.
 
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Sorry to hear about the engine, the replacement will be sure to bring smiles. Fresh painted bay looks fantastic, eager to do the same soon. What gun are you using?
 
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