oil tubes replaced....now it smokes!!

[doc18015]

Recently had the oil tubes replaced on my 85 3.2 because of oil leaking. Now the car does not leak but it smokes almost always. What happened? Was the oil that was leaking, redirected into the engine/exhaust somehow? Definitly oil as it is blue.

[dentist90]

If coming out exhaust I would suspect overfilled with oil.

If coming OFF exhaust it's possible just some oil that was spilled on the pipes during repair.

[gregg911]

I'd have to agree with the overfill theory. I overfilled my SC once and it smoked like the Batmobile.

Keep driving it, if it doesn't stop, check where the tubes penetrate. You will see a seal, if there is oil at that point (which there should be none) it may be leaking and find it's way around the head to where the valve cover meets the head and to a point above the heat exhanger section of the exhaust. At that point it's got no where to go but to drip onto your exhaust. Once the car heats up, you'll get smoke.

[doc18015]

The smoke is definitely coming from the exhaust ends not oil dripping onto the pipes, etc. It is being burned internally. Assuming the leak were still there as before the oil tube(s) replacement, why didn't it smoke/burn oil? Is there a way the oil is redirected or are the oil tubes a channel for lubrication only? Could I have blown a valve seal ? The car runs beautifully......without any oil leaks now;butthe smoking issue.The car is at the mid-mark on the dip stick, tested hot. Not overfilled.

[Porsche_monkey]

If you are not leaking oil onto the exhaust I do not see how the two can be related.

[doc18015]

Just had the work completed by a local P-shop. I am fastiditious with the car and hated seeing oil on the garage floor. Took it in and they replaced the oil tubes with compressionable(?)ones. Never smoked before not even when sitting for 3-4 weeks at a time. Possible that the valve seals let go? How can they be checked?

[al lkosmal]

Sounds like it was overfilled with oil. To remove and install the oil tubes, they drained the oil and refilled afterwards. Check your oil level. If too high, drain some out and go driving until is subsides.

[ossiblue]

You may want to check inside your airbox to see if there is excessive oil residue which may indicate overfill. Otherwise, I agree with the others that there is no direct correlation between oil tubes and internal smoking.

[Kemo]

Originally Posted by al lkosmal

Sounds like it was overfilled with oil. To remove and install the oil tubes, they drained the oil and refilled afterwards. Check your oil level. If too high, drain some out and go driving until is subsides.

I overfilled mine once, It smoked like a mosquito truck. After researching here a bit, I simply drained out oil from the sump, about 2quarts or so, wiped out any obvious oil from the airbox and checked the oil level. It was on the low side but on the stick so I went for a drive to warm up the car. Got the car to temp, added oil and checked using stick and got it in the safe zone. Then I went and drove the hell out of the car until the smoke was gone. Then, I pulled the airbox cover, again, and cleaned out what little oil was left in the crevices...this took a while and there was alot of dirt and stuff. I'm guessing that I wasnt the only owner of this car that overfilled it.

[doc18015]

Oil level is low if anything (less than midway between the two marks). I will pull the air box and check that out this evening.

[TerryBPP]

Originally Posted by doc18015

Oil level is low if anything (less than midway between the two marks). I will pull the air box and check that out this evening.

Did you check the oil while it is running?

[doc18015]

Always ....when running and hot. Nothing changed there. Is there a way to check to see if a valve seal was broken/missing? This is seeming like a case of overfill then damage somehow. The shop that did the work is excellent. I have used them for years. S**T Happens though.

[ja78911sc]

Originally Posted by doc18015

Always ....when running and hot. Nothing changed there. Is there a way to check to see if a valve seal was brOKen/missing? This is seeming like a case of overfill then damage somehow. The shop that did the work is excellent. I have used them for years. S**T Happens though.

"this seems like a case of overfill then damage" If you checked the oil level and it is OK then this scenario is unlikely.

Unfortunately things fail at any given time. My guess is two totally separate issues.

[gregg911]

If you are looking for broken/missing valve seals, you could drain the oil and look for seal pcs.

If you are wondering if the shop damaged your car, I don't think that you can damage anything other than the tube itself when replacing with the collapsible tube type. I seem to remember when I did mine that there was a mechanical stop built into the tube so that you couldn't jam it past where it is supposed to fit. So I don't think that it is damage done during the replacement.

If the smoke is coming from the exhaust and it's never smoked before then the car was most likely overfilled which is easy to do and hard to burn off once it's done. I tried driving the oil out of mine but decided it was too embarrasing to drive so I finally left mine running in the garage with (2) ventilation fans pointed at the exhaust to blow the smoke out of the garage and let it idle for about 45 minutes. It took a while but I finally burned it all off, replaced the plugs and moved on.

[doc18015]

Jut got back after driving it for nearly 50 min. both city and highway. It smokes less but still smokes. Left it idle for another 10min. or so, still smokes. If it was overfilled, it should have burned off by now. Funny thing is it runs great. I am surprised with this. The oil is new(less than 250 miles)....20w50 Castrol as always. Less than 60,000 on the engine .

[john walker's workshop]

pull the plugs and see if there are any crusty, burned on oil deposits on any of them. not that unheard of for a 3.2 to have worn out guide(s) at 60K.