GPoodle

Hey all. I recently turbo'd my car, and actually the day I turbo'd it, it began smoking like CRAZY. Blue smoke out of the exhaust and if I have the hood popped and rev it, a lot of blue smoke comes out from somewhere on the back of the motor.

I couldnt have overboosted because all day I never hit more than 0.52 bar according to my VAFC. I did hit redline once because the tires broke loose in boost.

Another thing .... The flange that connects to the head off the turbo manifold was slightly warped, so there was exhaust leak there, and also I blew out the wastegate AND turbo gaskets so by the time the day was over (after maybe 30 min of driving), my .42/.48 wasn't even entering boost until around 5000-5500rpm!


So, looking at the pic, you can see theres a milky substance in the valve cover and that's noticable on the retainers and rockers in the head. I didnt notice any coolant though when I pulled the oil pan, and I also havent noticed any white smoke although it's been around 10 degrees here so I cant tell whats normal moisture, burning oil, and burning coolant

I did a compression test and the cylinders were ~ 145-150-150-145 so thats fine. I also noticed a small amount of oil even before the turbo install on the very small section of head gasket that pokes out on the front-left side of the motor if that matters, I dont think its a leaky solenoid or cam seal.


I'm HOPING that this is JUST a fucked up head gasket (since its better than replacing pistons and rings and since I've never gone that far into the bottom end) in which case I'll replace it with an OEM version and ARP head studs. Let me know what you guys think.

THANKS!

azcslef

I'm pretty sure that can't be a good thing
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You might try pulling the cylinder head off, when it warms up a bit outside, and see what the pistons look like. If they look ok, replace the headgasket like you said, and replace all the gaskets on the whole turbo setup. If the flange was warped, I'd take it to a machine shop and have them mill off some off the material so its flat again if its really bad, if not make sure the gasket is sealing (sounds like it wasn't). Hope everything works out for ya!

GPoodle

Yeah I remember hearing that the peanut-buttery substance is an oil-coolant mix

MiraiZ

sounds like an hg problem to me

MIKES

any time your oil looks like clay, oil and coolant have mixed together. HG forsure.

tjbizzo

It is not that uncommon to have just a *little* moisture condensation in the valve cover since a) H2O is a combustion byproduct, and b) the valve cover is fairly cool relative to the rest of the engine. If it is in the bulk of your oil in the oil pan, then yeah you've got some big problems. I would first suspect a bad oil seal in your turbo for causing the blue smoke. Also, if there were a crack inside your turbo cartridge somewhere that could be letting water into your oil, although that is unlikely.

GPoodle

Thanks for the replys guys

I plan on purchasing a new OEM head gasket, and ARP head studs before I take the effort to pop the head off. I've never heard that water condensation could build up in the valve cover, thanks for bringing it to my attention tjbizzo!

I think Im actually getting a better picture of whats happening here. Right now I'm leaning towards the turbo just having bad seals, but the motor starts smoking bad the instant you start it up and give it gas, so I dont see how the turbo at that point could be hot enough to burn oil? And I still dont understand why there is blue smoke comming from the rear of the motor? It literally billows out.

Any more takers?! I will be ording a HG today though.

JonGP4

its not the turbo that burns oil, its the heat from EGTs that burns it.. and yes my turbo i first put on had bad seals.. and it smoked instantly.. i htink u just have bad seals on ur turbo.. and yes.. its been known to have alittle condensation on the valve cover.. if u feel more comfy changing ur headgasket go for it.. it won't hurt nothing.. but don't expect it to get rid of the smoking

rtype11

poodle, check your PM

GPoodle

Hmm well that sucks if it is the turbo. I've got one of the weird T3's that has the four bolts, and one of them is further out in a corner and I made a manifold custom for it so I'd probably scrap that since the welds are thick and its Schedule 40

A new possibility that rtype11 brought to my attention is that I could have a clogged PCV valve and that a/the valve seal/s is/are shot and it's letting oil into the combustion chamber. When removing the oil cap I DO have quite a lot of air pressure comming out so I will further investigate this before ordering the HG and head studs.

First though I'll unbolt everything and throw on the old manifold and see if it still smokes.

Thanks