I just finished my turbo installation a few days ago. The car runs ok. Could be better but I contribute that to it not being tuned yet. Anyway, after a hard boosting session, I get smoke which appear to be coming from behind the motor, where the intake mani is. The longer my heavy boosting session is, the more smoke I get. When I drive without boosting, no smoke. Could it be a lack of oil? I don't think its the head gasket cuz I have a Cometic and I'm using ARP head studs.

 

Is it around the headgasket area or above? If it's near the gasket:

I am putting my money down on your headgasket being at fault. Did you use the ARP MolyLube and torque them in a 3 step sequence? It is quite possible they became loose and under high pressure your head is lifting up due to the bolts becoming loose. First of all, do a cylinder leakdown test. To see if you have a blown headgasket or a leak, you can get a radiator pressure tester. Remove your plugs, pump the tester up, crank the car and see where water shoots out from or leaks from on the block.

Before yanking the head though, I recommend re-torquing the studs and seeing if they backed out... If you find that the torque settings are all the same as when you put them in, then you will more then likely need a new headgasket.

Are you overheating?

 

The headgasket and studs are new. They have like 1000 miles on them. I;m not sure what method my shop used to torque the studs. I'll try the test you mentioned though. If is it my head gasket, wouldn't I get white smoke coming from my exhaust as well?

 

I am not overheating.

 

Have you done a compression test? If not, that should be the next thing you do.

 

I would do a cylinder leakdown test soon. Are you sure this smoke only appears under heavy load? When my friend blew his 16a on nitrous he had a steady stream of smoke pour out from the back of his block and more when under load. Long story short, byebye pistons.

Also, you are not referring to smoke coming from your breather on your valve cover are you? If so, you should be ok. A little bit of smoke under heavy load is normal due to the crankcase ventilation. If you were blowing white smoke out of your breather at idle then you would have something to worry about.

 

I;m not actually sure exactly where the smoke is coming from. I just see it coming from the back of the engine.

 

So I am assuming you drive the car hard, pull over, pop the hood, and observe smoke coming out?

Have you looked at it after you have driven the car regularly under normal operating temp for around 15 min?

 

I do exactly that. I have checked it after light driving and I don't get the smoke.

 

You either are...
(lets hope it's A)
A. Dripping oil onto your downpipe, from an oil leak on the oil feed... or

B. you have a leaking headgasket

C. your rings went bye bye


What you need to do is...

1. Find out if your car is leaking.
2. Find out if you are burning coolant or oil. Check coolant level in the radiator after driving. Check dipstick after driving. What does it smell like?
3. Check compression and do a leakdown test.


Chances are its either the rings or headgasket. But it could even be something as silly as a smokey clutch... or leaky oil feed line. Or even valve seals...

 

I found the problem. It's a leak from where I tapped the oil pressure gauge. The oil drips right into my exhaust pipe. Thanks for the help guys.