88' 3.2 smoke after rebuild

[axvel]

hi, i have a 3.2 1988 that was rebuild due to the rod bearring broke and the piston destroyed the crank. The crank, piston bearrings, rods were changed. The engine was put together and runs great, pulls strong.

But i get smoke from the pipe. The smoke is caused by the oil burning inside the muffler. When i used to park at the incline engine down, i understand that oil would end up in the muffler, from one of the valves that was left open.

So TRE guys did a valve adjustment. Engine sounded better. But i still got ocassional smoke on start up. Now the car was not used for 3 months and stayed in the garage. I started it and for 20 minutes (i timed it) i got smoke. Can someone share any input on what should be done? The engine starts up with a half a turn but smoke is embarrassing.

Can it be too much oil? Can one of the valves stay open? Or should it be that way? any input is appreciated.

[ischmitz]

First, how do you know the oil is in the exhaust? Is that an assumption? What color is the smoke an where does it come from, out of the tail pipe or from the general area of the heat exchangers?

To your last question. Yes, too much oil can cause smoke. The oil level should be checked with the engine at operating temperature and idling while the car is parked on flat ground. If you overfill oil it will get ingested into the intake and cause A LOT of smoke. However, this would not stop after 20 minutes. It would go on until all the excessive oil is consumed.

Who did the engine rebuild - that would be my first go-to guy to ask question. A 3.2 should not smoke on start-up, it is not normal. Somehow you get oil where it doesn't belong.

And by the way one of the exhaust valves can likely be open when the engine shuts down. A valve adjustment doesn't change that and this is not your issue. If you really get oil through the exhaust valve into the exhaust ports there is something else going on. Rings come to mind....

Ingo

[axvel]

Hi, thanks for the response, the smoke that comes out of the exhaust is white, thus makes me believe that it's caused by oil. I will check oil level on the weekend. Any other suggestions besides the rings? rings have been changed also in when the rebuild was done.

[ischmitz]

Let us know what you find regarding the oil level.


I think it all depends on who did the rebuild. Changing rings alone doesn't mean a thing. If not done properly there are a several things that can go wrong such as ring gaps could be off, the ring lands could be worn, barrels could be out of spec, rings could be broken during install, wrong rings, etc.

So you really need to go back to whoever did the rebuild and have him do some real diagnostics.

Ingo

[88911coupe]

I wonder if the break in method could have had any effect on this...what specifically did you do when you first started it up after the rebuild? I'm about to face this same delima myself since I'm about to wrap up a full rebuild on my 88 3.2.

[axvel]

Originally Posted by 88911coupe

I wonder if the break in method could have had any effect on this...what specifically did you do when you first started it up after the rebuild? I'm about to face this same delima myself since I'm about to wrap up a full rebuild on my 88 3.2.

Buck, the break in period was the most concern. I never got the car over 4000 rpm. for 3000 miles. I was very carefull although it was tempting.

Also will check the oil level at the motor for toys event on sunday.

[mca]

Originally Posted by axvel

Buck, the break in period was the most concern. I never got the car over 4000 rpm. for 3000 miles. I was very carefull although it was tempting.

Also will check the oil level at the motor for toys event on sunday.

Wow, that is a long time to not go over 4000rpms.

After 500 miles I was hitting 5000, after 750 miles I was hitting 5500, at 1000 miles I was hitting 6000.

How many miles do you currently have on the engine? Have you been hitting the higher RPM range?

I have no idea if this would have an impact on the condition of the engine - unless the rings didn't fully seat throughout the range.

[Schwarzeritter]

Actually I think 4,000 is pretty high. considering that the engine dosent persey rev beyond
6K so 3500. But still 4K shouldt harm you. I'll give you the benifit here and assume you
warmed it up proper each time and didint go all off in a scant.

On aside note : you have two general schools, those who want to revv the snot out of the freshly built engine. And those who let things run to aprox 1500-3,000mi.
And that's a sticky-one in which I'll not get into.

The two major factors are A. who and how they built your engine. B. if you fallowed all the
proper instructions given and warmed things up properly.

Again Mr. Schmit has a valid point and that is too have it diagnosed by the engine builder.
On a worn or well broken in engine if a engine lays dormate for long periods of time
due to the design of a flat 6 they tend to have a little oil sitting in the cylinders, but the smoke shouldt be a day to day thing or a problem on a car after it has been run once a day. But it should clear up rather quickly.
And too much oil will cause white smoke!

Good luck! =/

[axvel]

Hi, thanks to all for the reply's, all of them really good. I've included the picture of the dip stick at warmed up engine temp. It's up to 2nd 2 dots is that too much? or...?

When i started the car on the day of motor for toys event it didn't smoke at all. So i think the smoke was due to car sitting for a long period of time. At least i hope so. Also the car starts up right away with a half a turn.

[ischmitz]

So are you saying the smoke on start-up went away? If so good for you - it proves the point that these cars need to be DRIVEN frequently.

The oil level is a tad high in my books. I like to see it between the dots to give it some more room to expand if you really push it at ambient temperatures above 100 degrees. Other than that you should be fine.

Ingo

Ingo

[axvel]

Ingo, yes the smoke went away, i'm surprised actually but it's running fine. Without any smoke. So maybe because the car wasn't driven for so long it smoked. I didn't start it for along time.

thanks for all the input everyone.