The car is a 99 Civic SI with stock head and head gasket and 9.0:1 JE pistons, eagle rods, race engineering block guard. The car is turboed with the standard drag kit and has 550 cc injectors with the AEM EMS controlling with boost at 12 psi. The compression test checks out fine. The car will randomly smoke at idle, if boosted hard or not boosted at idle. It never smokes until after its driven, meaning it does not smoke at start up or until it is driven. Also, the car does not smoke when its moving, only at idle. The car will sometimes smoke at idle, sometimes it won't. There is no set pattern and no way to make it smoke or not smoke, its just what ever it decides to do. The car has between 1500-2000 miles and used a quart of oil in 2 weeks with about 400 miles of driving and some very hard runs, including 3 trips to 145 and several runs to 120 and 130 and many hard miles in between. The car runs great and pulls very strong. It is running rich up top for safety.

Does anyone have any idea what it could be?

 

Its possible that its not the car burning oil, but the turbo is. A buddy of mine had a turbo type R with a motor built from the oil pan up and his car used to smoke once in a while and stain his rear bumper. that was from the turbo burning the oil.

Are you running coolant lines to the turbo, sometimes that helps cool it off and can keep the turbo from runnin warmer thus burning the oil. Hope this helps.

 

It very well could be that, it has stained the back of my car, I have to paint clean it to get it off. Did your friends car have a bad oil seal leaking into the exhaust or anything? How did he resolve the problem? This turbo does not have the lines for coolant. It is only oil cooled.

 

I am not sure about the oil seal. I know on my mitsu i had a td05 that took a **** and it leaked all the oil outta the exhaust pipe.

contact
http://www.forcedperformance.com
ask to speak to rob or frank. MAybe they can help tell if the turbo is bad.

 

ttt

 

My guess is for the turbo. Let it idle, and once you see smoke just rev the engine to about 1500 to spin the turbo. If the smoke stops, its a textbook example of bad turbo oil seal.

 

sounds like the oil seals on the turbo are gone/going...
jack up the car and see if you can see a puddle of oil on the underside of the turbo.

 

I almost have the same EXACT setup as you, and had the same EXACT problem. I have a 95 civic w/ a B18C1 motor, JE 9:1 pistons, crower rods, race engineering block guard, but I'm using the PMS for engine management. How many miles is on the motor? Is it a new rebuild? I just kept driving the car and at around 100 miles the smoking was gone.

 

The motor has around 2000 miles on it.

 

So your saying your not only running boost while your breaking in the motor, your taking it up to 145 mph? If it's a fresh rebuild, then

 

The car was not boosted on in first 500 miles, then boosted at 7 lbs very moderately and till about 1300-1400. I never took it over 90 mph. Then until now which is somewhere between 1500-2000, probably closer to 2000 I have raised the boost to 12 psi and boosted hard.

 

IMO, you should not run the car boosted till 1000 miles, but if you did the job right till 500, then... ok.

It sounds like a bad seal on the turbo. Do you have a turbo timer ? Seals typically go bad from repetative hard boost, then shutting off the car and letting that hot *** oil sit in the turbo and turn to sludge.

Try this test to see if the seals are going. It might work...

Bring the car to operating temperature, let it idle from 3-4 mins. Go for a 10 min drive, alternating between cruising and boosting. At the last leg, before you pull in to park, boost the car for a period of time... then park it, but do not turn off the motor, step out of the car and watch the tail pipe. If the oil seals are bad, more than likely, smoke will start coming from the muffler.

BTW, what color is the smoke ?

 

The smoke is blueish. I have always allowed the car to idle for several minutes after boosting. I have also already done what you suggest, on more than one occasion, and sometimes it will smoke and other times it will not. This is what perplexes me.

 

HEAD i think the head gasket or valve seals are bad, not the turbo. Isn't blueish smoke when oil gets trapped in the combustion chamber??? If so a bad head gasket or seals could be bad. The reason why he doesn't get it consistently is because the motor isn't completly screwed.

What do yall think???

 

This just sounds too much like bad turbo seals. A turbo rebuild runs about $150 will all new seals.

 

i think i have the same problem too...how long does a rebuild usually take....

would i be able to change the compressor housing too? sorry for the off this topic question

 

If your gonna get a turbo rebuild or just want a BETTER t/3 t4 hybrid I recommend

http://www.forcedperformance.com

Truly a great shop and the service is excellent. Should run you more than $300 for a WHOLE REBUILD, not just seals

 

Thats what I think it is. If the headgasket was bad, the compression should not have checked out okay. I took off the charge pipe from the turbo and no oil was in it. I guess I am going to have to take off the down pipe to check it, I just wanted to get opinions before I did that, because its a real pain.