Lots of smoke! Help!

Danskman · 06-30-2003, 10:09 AM

My son and I ran an autocross on Saturday, about a one hour drive from home. We drove there, ran a lot of laps, drove home - all without incident. When we got home, I shut the car down to go through the house and open the garage door. When I restarted it, it absolutely billowed blue smoke. I pulled into the garage and let it sit for a few hours and started it up - tons of smoke again. Car ran fine all the way home, even stopping for gas, no smoke. Any ideas as to what may have failed? Also, it was 105 degrees here on Saturday, but the temp guage showed no indication of even being close to overheating.

Bones · Bones's Garage

could be a slightly bent valve causing it to stick open and hence leak oil into the combustion chamber , you should have some sort of previously unheard noise with that type of damage though .

yelcab1 · 06-30-2003, 10:37 AM

It's time for a compression check.

Zendalar · 06-30-2003, 12:25 PM

Mine did exactly the same..thought it was loose valve guide or such. Compression was ok, it happened only couple times, the smoking i mean. It just began smoking for no reason and just when I was thinking of tearing open the engine, the b-itch somehow knew that I was going gut her and stopped smoking. It had all the power all the time..just smoked blue so much that the neighbourhood was ...well one could barely see...

It does not smoke anymore...it only happened after I drove her hard...very hard (not overrevving though)

Rot 911 · 06-30-2003, 12:34 PM

Did you over rev the engine? If so then maybe stuck valve. My guess is somewhere during the day you sucked oil into the airbox and it just took awhile to get sucked into the intake. I bet if you open up the airbox you will find some oil. Probably lots of oil.

masraum · 06-30-2003, 12:36 PM

I agree with Kurt, due to the G's of the autocross and potential heat your oil probably got sucked into the intake. (hopefully that's it)

Bones · Bones's Garage

wow I thought I drove my car hard , I dismissed the idea of oil in the air box on the grounds of , logically why would it be there? but hard driving , I didn't think of that!

targa80 · targa80's Garage

The oil does expand when it gets hot, maybe you were on the upper limit of the range with a normally warm engine. With temps in the 105 range and hard driving the oil would have expanded more than normal. Take the car out and run it to normal temps and see if the oil burns off. After leaving my car for several weeks to a month the car will smoke for about 10 minutes. It takes that long just to blow out what is in the cylinders. If you drive it for a while ~ 20 minutes and it is still smoking then you do have a problem.

Danskman · 06-30-2003, 01:25 PM

Thanks for the replies. Tonight I'm going to do a thourough inspection of the airbox, drain the oil, and take a close look at it. I'm a bit wary of running the car for 20 minutes to see if the smoking "clears up". If it's a broken ring, or a valve problem, wouldn't it just make things worse to run the engine? I don't believe the engine was over revved during the day. It was a PCA event, and the top speed in the longest straightaway was 50mph or so, so 2nd gear was all we used. I checked the oil the night before (engine warm and running) and it showed about 1.5 quarts low. I added just under a quart. If I had overfilled, I would think that it would have been an issue earlier in the day. I'm hoping I see an oily mess in the airbox tonight.

Bones · Bones's Garage

Good luck with the investigation , let us know what you find , I'm personally dead curious . I changed my plugs after 12, 000 miles at the weekend and they were in an amazingly correct condition/excellent colour with very little carbon deposits , new plugs made a positive differnce though , I thrash my car and have done for the last 100.000 miles (it's covered 144.000 miles) so I'm curious to know just how long SC' s can keep up the grin factor .

Danskman · 07-01-2003, 08:48 AM

Hallelujah! There indeed was some oil in the airbox, not a huge amount, but it was there. Cleaned that up and did an oil change, adding 9 quarts to try to stay on the low side. Car fired right up, smoked a bit for 20 seconds or so, and then clean. Took the car for a drive, and it seems to be missing a bit. I'm sure the plugs are major oil-fouled. Tonight I'll replace plugs, cap and rotor and look for an improvement. At least no more smoke!

After talking to a couple friends, they thought that maybe my steep driveway had something to do with it. If I was right up to the top on the oil, and then parked on my steep uphill driveway for a couple minutes, combined with a high-temp day, that maybe was enough to get the oil into the induction system. Anyway, I'm a happy camper.

Thanks for all the input.

Rot 911 · 07-01-2003, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Danskman
Hallelujah! There indeed was some oil in the airbox, not a huge amount, but it was there.

No charge for the consultation!

Joe Bob · Joe Bob's Garage

Is you driveway on an angle? Hot oil and the angle probably burped some oil into the airbox.

Might wanna get a garage door opener...8^)

targa80 · targa80's Garage

So you did drive it for 20 minutes after all. Glad to hear it was only oil in the airbox and not a ring problem.

Danskman · 07-01-2003, 10:40 AM

targa80
Yes, I did drive it. It was quickly apparent that the smoke was thinning out and going away. If it had kept billowing out, I would not have had the courage to drive it or kept it running for any length of time. The sight of all that smoke on Saturday was very disheartening to say the least!

BTW, excellent pics of your restoration process. Where are you on that now?

Schrup · Schrup's Garage

Good news Mike, I'm glad it wasn't your valve. I will be doing my own oil changes from here out. I let a pro euro mechnic do my last and now my level gauge pegs when I drive it hard on a hot day. I have been keeping an eye on my airbox for oil, none so far. I would say your driveway is the culprit along with the heat. BTW the mechanic put in 12 quarts. How many did you have in?

Danskman · 07-01-2003, 11:23 AM

pschrup
This is the first oil change since I've had the car. I don't know how much was put in prior. On Friday night before the autox, the level was about half way between the min and max dots on the dipstick. I added about 3/4 of a quart, thinking we'd be tossing the car around pretty good and I didn't want any kind of oil starvation. I've since found out that the car has to be HOT when the oil is checked - not just idle warm, and to not add any oil unless the dipstick reads right on the min mark.

BTW, all the horror stories of changing the oil in a 911 flashed before my eyes as the oil exited the oil tank. BE SURE you have a high capacity drain pan! I'm really glad I did!

What's up with your Weissach? What's next on your restoration list?

Schrup · Schrup's Garage

Next week I'm installing a prestitched Alan Gunn Leather steering wheel kit. I'm waiting for a order from the host with lobster red floor mats (hope there close) to switch out my 911 mats,then I'll look at my options for them. I ordered swepco & magnetic plugs for the tranny. Also cap, rotor & plugs. I bought a Aluminium race jack, 4 3ton jack stands , 5 gallon drain pan, 2 oil filters , 6 collapsible washers , fuel filter & about $600 worth of tools.So my work is cut out for me next week. So I have my work cut out for me next week.

Danskman · 07-01-2003, 11:59 AM

Sounds familiar... I purchased a couple oil filters, air filter, cap, rotor, spark plugs, front pads and discs, all four hood/eng lid shocks, all shift bushings, v/c gasket kit, 20 drain plug seals, a gallon of Swepco for the tranny, ATE blue brake fluid, fuse assortment, fuel filter, pedal pads, and some flowers for my wife!
BS S03's will be installed tomorrow. This is way too fun. I'm hoping to make a DE at Thunderhill on the 26th of this month.

Please let me know how the steering wheel project goes. I need the same. Big one on my list is having the seats redone as original. Have you done any investigation on the seat restoration?

Bob's Flat-Six · Bob's Flat-Six's Garage

Mike, Good to here your smoke was from just to much oil.
I think the oil level and checking it with the dry sump system gives most new owners a problem. I can here the oil circulating up to the cooler when she warms up so when it does I know it's warm enough for a true oil reading.
An owners manual comes in handy too if you didn't get one with the car.
Cheers