Smoke, help

[Midtec]

1973 911 t


On stopping in a car park after a decent A road run yesterday, I was a bit disturbed to see and smell burnt oil smoke wafting out of the engine grill after switching the engine off - turned out to be coming back up through the fan, presumably from oil dripping on the exhaust(s). While it would be wrong say 'pouring' out, the smoke was unmistakeable and continued for a few minutes. Is this normal ? Should I be worried ? Any idea how hot things need to be to ignite ?! This is the only time I've seen this to date.

[Walter_Middie]

This is fairly common. Do you have CIS? Check under the air filter for a small amount of oil on the bottom of the air filter box. There is a drain in the back that allows excess oil to drip down the back of your engine and onto the right side exhaust. If the oil level is too high or even normal, and you drive the car hard, it will dump some excess oil here and smoke when it hits the exhaust.

[ossiblue]

As Rex said, this is fairly common--if you have an oil leak (which is fairly common). I would suggest you try and track it down, though it doesn't sound like it's too large a leak at present. As far as igniting, my limited experience has not come across a fire from ignition of leaking oil--gas, certainly, but not oil.
I wouldn't worry, except on the issue of having a leak and as previously posted, it could be a fluke from the hard drive and nothing more.