I've got a really bad feeeling about this...

I have an '82SC with about 150K miles on it. It had been running strong and only consumed about a quart of oil in the last 4K miles. I was driving home last night from a meeting at about 80-85 mph just crusing, never winding it out, the temp. guage was just under 1/2 way up. No problem. Eexcept, after I got off the freeway, maybe 3 miles later, no pushing it all, I came to a stop sign and the car died. It started right back up, but with lots of white smoke out the exhaust. The idle then swung up and down and almost, but didn't, die. I pulled over and reved it slightly to 1200 just to make sure to get home, by the time I got home there was no more smoke and the temp was normal.

This afternoon, when I got home from work, I started it up and there was lots of white smoke again. It didn't seem like there was more mechanical noise than usual, but the idle stayed up at the correct higher warm up idle. I then shut it off for fear of causing more probs. Does anyone have any ideas...I'm worried it may be a broken ring or worse.

[john walker's workshop]

the oil level was probably high in the tank, and as you came to a stop, it may have sloshed up thru the breather hose into the intake. happens all the time. keep the level 1/2 way between the marks on the dipstick to be safer. is there a brass tube full of brillo pad material in the breather hose, or in the tank outlet to the breather? there should be. it's there for that reason. hard turns cause that too. a non-problem.

Thanks for the comments. To add to the info: I haven't added oil in 4k miles and I've driven much faster in those 4k miles than tonight. There was zero smoke before this happened yesterday. Does this help in the diagnosis. Thanks for your reply!

[This message has been edited by ckrause (edited 10-26-2001).]

[Zendalar]

A good thing about Porsche is that there is lots of oil in the engine. Lack of oil when measuring from dipstick is not so important as long as you can see oil flow when engine is running (from filler hole). Temperature counts. White smoke be too rich fuel mixture, blue smoke is usually oil. And you can smell if its oil or gas.

[john walker's workshop]

sorry, BLACK smoke is from too much fuel. anyway, you still might have had oil slosh thru the breather hose, even if the level was not real high, depending on the maneuver you did before stopping. if it doesn't smoke anymore, then that's probably what it was.

[Joe Bob]

Happens to me when I am running the engine hard and then do a U turn on a mountain road...the oil tank throws a gob of oil into the intake. Of course it's right in front of the Harley guys when it happened last time. Killed every mosquito in a 1/4 mile area.....cleared up about a mile or two down the road...

I have been told that there is some kind of "brillo" pad like filter that can go inline of the overfill line. Have not tried it....but sounds like it might work.

[Early_S_Man]

The 'Brillo Pad' filter device is officially called a 'Flame Trap' and the same one is used on carbureted, MFI, and CIS cars! All came with one from the factory, but it is a slip-fit into the air cleaner housing, or air box, amd may have been removed intentionally of accidentally! There is a slight 'barb' at the end that sticks out of the air box, so theoretically, it might have 'stayed' with the large vent hose that goes to the oil tank filler ... if that hose was ever changed!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa
1992 Dodge Dakota 5.2 4X4 parts hauler

[BRink]

I had a similar incident with my ’79 SC except it happened after I drove the car hard. I did some research and found there were two upgrades to the oil system for the SC. Once in ’80 and the other in ’83. In ’83 they upgraded the oil pickup screen which was supposed to solve the stalling problem. I changed mine and have not had the problem again.

Hope this helps.

BRink

[JMPRO]

I had the same thing happen to my 78sc just a few weeks ago. After a hard drive on the freeway ,i pulled off and parked in a lot that was slanted to the the rear of the car. When i started the car to leave a really big cloud of white smoke came billowing out, so big a cloud it obscured the building behind me . That scared the poop out of me. I drove slow for a few blocks and the smoke cleared up so i got back on the freeway. I drove slow all the way home {30 miles}. It has not happened again. My question , should i pull the plugs and clean- replace, should i clean the air intake any more than just wipe out air box ? -Jerry 911 SC targa

[sammyg2]

Ha! So that's what that smoke was from.
My first time in a 911SC was with Mikey when his car did that smoke screen trick. I always wondered what that was from, and why mine hasn't done it yet. (knocking on wood).

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Gerald Gore II (Sam)
73 914 350 small block (sold)
80 911SC

[Zendalar]

Hmm, warren, I think at least when my car is at stake, when I start the car and there is lots of "mist" which is white. If I put my hand in mist and smell it, its raw gasoline. After a while the car warms up and smoke goes away (and gas does not smell anymore). My car was burning lots of oil before and that was blue smoke.

When I cold start my Carrera 3,2 it makes lots of white smoke which goes away after a little while when it warms up. I believe this is normal for 911s...?

Thanks for all the input!!! Based on your input, I started the SC up and it smoked, but less than before. I drove it around for a while and it stopped smoking after a few minutes. The next time I drove it there was no smoke. It appears that it was a one time oil suck after a good hard drive of 30 some odd miles. Thanks again!!

[pjv911]

Just for the record it is possible to get white smoke from fuel. It will happen if raw fuel goes though the engine without ever burning. The black smoke we are used to seeing is partially burned fuel ( CO ) and the white smoke is hydrocarbons (raw fuel)that have been heated through the exhaust.
I do however agree with the oil overflow theory. I just thought i would add my 2 cents to this post.

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69` RS carrera clone
2.7 CIS