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Author: Subject: Aargh! Smoke!
David Jenkins

posted on 20/5/05 at 09:08 PM Reply With Quote
Aargh! Smoke!

OK - I went out for a blast this evening, 'cos it was probably going to be the only dry spell this weekend. Did around 15 - 20 miles, all was fine, until I accelerated hard up the A12. As I zoomed away, I suddenly left a huge blue-white cloud of smoke behind me - not over-revving, probably only 5500rpm. I eased off and the car stopped giving out smoke. Water temp and oil pressure fine, engine running well. Drove cautiously most of the way home, then put my foot down to overtake someone - big cloud of smoke again.
Pulled into my drive, and left the engine on tick-over - running as sweet as ever, no ticking or rattling. Temp & pressure still just fine. Rev up the engine and there's no smoke at all, nor when I lift off. The only odd thing is that the dipstick had lifted a cm or two.
Now the only thing I've done is change the plugs (won't be that!) and changed the dipstick to what I think is the corrrect one... and added some oil to top to near the max level.
Tomorrow I'll do a compression test, but I'd welcome any suggestions for possible causes, tests I can do, whatever.

Buggerit!

David






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omega 24 v6

posted on 20/5/05 at 09:28 PM Reply With Quote
looks like an oil overfill or surging in the sump and up the bores. Probably no damage as you've noticed it quick but can be very expensive in extreme cases.

[Edited on 20/5/05 by omega 24 v6]

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JohnN

posted on 20/5/05 at 09:40 PM Reply With Quote
Sounds like too much oil to me, particularly with your mention of changing the dipstick & adding more oil.....
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owelly

posted on 20/5/05 at 09:45 PM Reply With Quote
Or sucking oil into the inlet through a breather if thats possible.....?





http://www.ppcmag.co.uk

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lukefab

posted on 20/5/05 at 10:21 PM Reply With Quote
It sounds very much the same problem that I have been having.
I finished up putting a bottle of Stop Smoke in mine because I could not find what was causeing it.
I would be interested to know what you put it down to.

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Dave Ashurst

posted on 21/5/05 at 05:46 AM Reply With Quote
quote:

left the engine on tick-over - running as sweet as ever, no ticking or rattling



That doesn't sound right..

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David Jenkins

posted on 21/5/05 at 08:11 AM Reply With Quote
Cheeky beggar!

David







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jambojeef

posted on 21/5/05 at 10:03 AM Reply With Quote
agree with overfill or maybe blocked crankcase breather?

If it was blowing out the dipstick you might be building up pressure in the crankcase - see if you can find the breather pipe - usually caked up with gunge in my experience.

Geoff

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tks

posted on 21/5/05 at 12:34 PM Reply With Quote
is it injected or carbs???

if carbs what kind of??

if you overfill when pressure rised oil will pas the piston rigs and come in the combustion chamfer...

where it will burn and give the blue smoke..

is your sump baffled?chopped?

your engine only smokes when unther load/stress...

also revs don't say anything.. because on the motor way your engine revs 4500 at much more throttle % then when in neutral... soow the quantity of fuel isn't the same..

TKS





The above comments are always meant to be from the above persons perspective.

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jack trolley

posted on 21/5/05 at 03:16 PM Reply With Quote
Black Smoke - too much fuel

Blue Smoke - burning oil coming past piston rings or valve stems

White smoke - new pope

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Dave Ashurst

posted on 21/5/05 at 04:02 PM Reply With Quote
Dave,

I had exactly the same symptoms when I gave my car some welly after I'd first run-in my engine.

It was still on a dgav downdraft carb with the crank breather venting to the intake manifold. I'd shortened my sump, baffled it and increased the volume. Not having a clue how much oil to put in I topped up the oil ready for its first good blat and overfilled it.

After a while burning round S Warwickshire in the early morning I noticed that on hard acceleration I was laying down a thick creamy white smokescreen. It was OK if I drove carefully so I turned North for home on the M40. As I came up the j12 exit slip to turn right at the T junction at the top I noticed a porsche coming up fast behind me, also indicating right. I stopped at the junction with the porsche hard up behind me . Junction was clear so I couldn't resist accelerating hard onto the top road. The porsche also gave it some boot behind me.

Last thing I saw in my rear view mirror was the porshe dropping back, pulling to the side of the road with hazards flashing and a huge sausage shaped cloud of white smoke lying down the road behind and drifting away from it.

Guess his wipers couldn't cope with the oil vapour.

Oops

It was fine after I'd drained some oil out.

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britishtrident

posted on 21/5/05 at 04:23 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
OK - I went out for a blast this evening, 'cos it was probably going to be the only dry spell this weekend. Did around 15 - 20 miles, all was fine, until I accelerated hard up the A12. As I zoomed away, I suddenly left a huge blue-white cloud of smoke behind me - not over-revving, probably only 5500rpm. I eased off and the car stopped giving out smoke. Water temp and oil pressure fine, engine running well. Drove cautiously most of the way home, then put my foot down to overtake someone - big cloud of smoke again.
Pulled into my drive, and left the engine on tick-over - running as sweet as ever, no ticking or rattling. Temp & pressure still just fine. Rev up the engine and there's no smoke at all, nor when I lift off. The only odd thing is that the dipstick had lifted a cm or two.
Now the only thing I've done is change the plugs (won't be that!) and changed the dipstick to what I think is the corrrect one... and added some oil to top to near the max level.
Tomorrow I'll do a compression test, but I'd welcome any suggestions for possible causes, tests I can do, whatever.

Buggerit!

David


The dipstick moving indicates the sump is pressurising --- which sugests either your crankcase breather is totally inadequate or compresion ring problems --- don't expect this to show up in a compression test.

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David Jenkins

posted on 21/5/05 at 08:35 PM Reply With Quote
Dave,

I'm thinking more and more that it's down to over-filling, especially when my symptoms are exactly as you describe (even sounds like I have the same engine setup as you). Today I did a compression test - warmed the engine up then tested each cylinder and got 160psi for each one, which is at the top of the specified 'good' range.
I put the original dipstick back and I'm a tad over the full mark, so I'll drain a bit and see what happens.
As for the 'slightly out' dipstick - I'm not 100% sure I'd put it back correctly in the first place! The engine has one of those crankcase breather valves that vents to the manifold, and when I rebuilt the engine I gave that a good overhaul, so I doubt that's the problem.
BT: I'm not discounting ring problems - but currently the evidence suggests problems elsewhere.

Next dry day will tell!

Thanks to all,
David


[Edited on 22/5/05 by David Jenkins]






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garage19

posted on 22/5/05 at 09:59 AM Reply With Quote
David,

I used to have exactly the same prolem with my Astra GTE 16v.

It was a common problem with them.

The sump was a bad design and if the oil level was high, you were corneing hard and booted it you would get oil surge and a huge puff of blue smoke out the back.

Confused the hell out of me as engine was running sweet.
Only when i read about the prob in a mag write up on the 16v GTE i sussed it. Apparently you can cure it on he GTE buy fitting the 8v sump and pickup.

I would suggest a baffled sump for he crossflow might help.

Cheers,

Doug.






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David Jenkins

posted on 22/5/05 at 10:05 AM Reply With Quote
Doug,

If you had been on the A137, A14 or A12 this morning then you'll have seen that the problem is fixed!

I took about 500mls of oil out and went out for a blat round the local roads - gave it full throttle up to full revs, while pulling hard uphill. No sign of smoke.

Phew!

Again, thanks to all,
David






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907

posted on 22/5/05 at 10:13 AM Reply With Quote
Hi David,

Isn't it nice when you can solve a problem without spending any money.



Paul G






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David Jenkins

posted on 22/5/05 at 10:16 AM Reply With Quote
Makes a change!







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