Ok my new motor has a little over 1600 miles on it. Bottom end consists of Arias pistons and rings, Eagle Rods, and Ge sleeves. I just got it back from being tuned. Lately at random times ive noticed it smoking. Most of the time when it does it its when its warming up. it doesent smoke right at start up it takes it about two or three minutes of idling to do it (at warm up). Ands this is a very random thing it wont do it everyday. Also on Thanksgiving day after driving 20 minutes to my friends house as the turbo timer was counting down I noticed it was smoking again. Im very confused cause it doesent do it at set times, very random. Oh yeah the smoke is blue. I checked the filter on the valve cover and there seems to be no oil on it. As for vacum, its still pulling really strong vacum at idle. If it were the rings poor vacum and oil on the filter (blow by)would support that theory. But since both seem to be good im scratching my head. Any support is greatly appreciated.

 

Good vacuum only indicates good compression rings, not good oiling or oil control rings. What kind of rings did you use? how many miles on the rebuild so far and what kind of oil are you using?

 

Using Arias Rings that came with the pistons, 1600 miles on new motor, and im using Mobil 1 10W-30.
People have been saying it could be the valve seals......who knows

 

Is it turbo? If so then it is probably the oil seal on the exhaust side of the turbo that is leaking into the exhaust and causing smoke. Usually when the smoke is random it is the turbo not the motor. It could be the valve stem seals as well I guess. Are you using Mobil 10w-30 synthetic? I would suggest regular oil only on forged pistons. IMO


[Modified by turbohonda, 1:26 AM 12/1/2002]

 

synthetic or regular?

 

You can use synthetic but not till after the first 1000 miles after that on turbo cars it is recomended to use synthetic because it does not break down as quickly as regular oil

 

Go back to regular oil like castrol gtx with little heavier weight. I Think the synthetic oil is too slippery and would not seal your ring. Just my thought.

 

Yes i just switched to synthetic oil. As a matter of fact when it was getting tuned they changed it out. Should i go back to a regular non synthetic oil. Ive never heard of using regular oil with forged pistons. Is this pretty common for Forged pistons to do this with synthetic oil. The motor had a good 1400 miles on it before they switched out the oil.

 

Forged pistons shouldn't smoke...a new motor will smoke until the rings are seated.

As far as oil goes, I guess the newb there hasn't seen the hot debate about synthetic vs. dinosaur lately.

Greddy recommends you use standard non-synthetic oil in turbo motors because synthetic is too thin and will not properly lubricate the turbo seals.

 

first off you dont know me and you dont know how much I know second I just rebuilt my motor ran regular oil for the first 1000 miles and then ran synthetic I have had no problems what so ever like smoking and other bull my car runs strong now if you can direct me to this synthetic vs regular let me make my own decisons
Thank you and have a nice day

 

woah dont cry buddy. here it is and its 24 pages long. https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=163845 have fun!

 

Ok a lot unfolded today. This morning i go and start it up and no smoke. I was all happy but after letting it warm up for 5 minutes I notice it smoking. i didnt think nothing of it I hop in it go to Walmart to buy some oil. When i come out to put oil in it, i pulled the cap off and notice this milky crap on the cap. I was so pissed, this prolly means that the gasket blew on it. Then as im driving home the temp quickly spikes up but it goes back down and never came up for the rest of the ride home. So this means either I didnt put the head on right or GE didnt deck the block right (prolly me). And this is bad timing cause today is the day my car is getting loaded on a trailer and going back to VA. I guess when I get back in March from over seas ill take my car back to arkansas and this time let them install the gasket (which i should of done in the first place). Well please post all your opinions on this matter.

 

I'm not sure about the overheating, but the smoking during warmup sound like the turbo...

During cold startup the car makes the MOST oil pressure because the oil is coolest, and the thicker the oil, the more pressure it takes to ooze it's way through oil passages. This upped pressure can ooze through the turbine side of the turbo, and once the manifold/turbo/downpipe gets warm enough, it starts to burn... which is why it might take 2-3 minutes.

Have you noticed that cooler days is when it smokes, and warmer days it doesn't? Mine was BAD when it was 30 degrees int he morning, and it was barely noticable when I'd crank it on a nice 70 degree day.

This is jsut my experience, BUT, the oil could just as easily be leaking through the headgasket into the cylinders, but it would begin smoking as soon as vranked if this was the case.

Just my $.02. HTH.