smokey piazza

[mcmuthafart]

i seem to have a fair bit of somke coming out when i put my foot down is that worn piston rings?

[golum]

most pobably or a dead turbo, what colour smoke?

[mcmuthafart]

white turbo seems to work fine but im no expert

[Chris]

White smoke, sounds like something wrong with the turbo. If it be a seal you would have darker smoke. Start the car and listen to the turbo spinning while you pull the accelorator cable and listen for strange noises from the turbo.

[Bugle]

Yer before I pulled my car apart I had big problems with the turbo compressor oil seal.. Big cloud of smoke when I floor it. Lots of oil in the intercooler pipes.

[mcmuthafart]

yeah bugle i seem to have oil in the pipes to....

[GeminiCoupe]

Oil in the pipes isnt always the be-all-end-all sign of things to come. I have a little bit of oil in my pipes - put it down to the last motor/turbo combination going pop. Although, its a good indicator of whats going on.

Basically, if its pushing out ALOT of oil smoke and youve got fresh all in your cooler pipes, airbox [it pools down in the bottom where it sits on an angle] yet the breather on the rocker cover seems ok, chances are turbo seals are gone. Noises/lack of boost isnt always a symptom when the seals gone, so it could well be the turbo.

If its the rings, grab a compression tester and have a go. That will reveal wether its bottom end related or something else.

Cheers,

Nick-

[Rodeobob]

A leak down test will give you a better indication that a compression test but a comp test is better than nothing.

Some oil sludge in the pipes between the turbo and the head isnt unusual in a turbo motor. Dont be too stressed if you find some. It should be all sticky and stuck to the insides of the pipes, not runny.

All i can say is that white smoke in a diesel motor means low compression. Thay wouldnt mean dick on a petrol motor so i probably shouldnt have mentioned it.

Bob.

[mcmuthafart]

yeah well theres is a small amount of oil in pipes this is up high tho.. ill check down at lower point and comp test when i get some free time thanks for the help

[faffled]

my piazza blows smoke to, wen u put ur foot down but i just spent $1600 on a hi-flow turbo... could it be the rings?

[wedgenut]

Smoke isn't always down to the tuirbo, it could be valve seals, teke your foot off going down hill and let it engine brake for 10 seconds then accelerate again, a burst of smoke that goes away after a bit is usually valve seals or worn guides or both. It could also be the rings and it isn't always that the rings only are stuffed, if the ring grooves have wear the rings actually pump oil into the chamber. As the pistons travel down the rings are held against the top of the grooves and oil gets wiped in underneath and behind the ring, when the piston goes back up the rings get pushed to the bottom surface of the grooves which forces the oil to the top surface of the rings, when it goes back down it leaves this oil on the walls to be burnt off. Each ring does this so the excess oil from the wall of the bore gets progressivley pumped from ring to ring until it gets spat out by the top ring. This "ring pumping' is more common than you would think but can be fixed with remachining of grooves and fitting ring spacers. Some models have 1.5mm ring grooves and you can clean them out for 2mm rings which is another possible fix depending on the model. It is worth doing only if bores and pistons are otherwise within wear limits but usually you are up for a rebore.

It would have to be pretty bad to justify a strip and rebuild though.