smokin 5GT - still :-( - any ideas?

[The Baron]

Hi Guys,

Our 5GT is still poorly.

We had a blow up on track and blew the head gasket - replacement blew again soon after so we replaced the head and gasket with a fully recon'd & uprated head and uprated gasket, new bolts etc.

Engine runs sweet, no oil in water, no water in oil, no noise, good boost etc.
Smokes like a bitch! :smokin: :sad2: :confused: see these 2 vids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzObScQb4A8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaVG1QTAGEs

Gave car a test run and it drives sweet and runs sweet it just smokes.
Smoke seems a light blue/grey in colour - oil.

We have since compression tested the car and we have
1=10.8 bar 2=10.3 3=10.6 4=10.5 so roughly 150psi across the board and max of 5% difference. so that seems fine.

We've checked a few other things but apart from the smoke there does seem to be a bit of crankcase pressure. Take the top hose off the oil breather pot and it smokes quite a bit... not sure what is acceptable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsGsMoxb5Vc
Is that excessive?

Any ideas what we should check next?

To me it doesn't seem bad BUT the smoke can be worse than the vids show at times.
I wouldn't say the smoke is intermittent BUT it doesn't smoke exactly the same ALL the time - but probably most of the time.

We've not actually done the oil breather pipes yet - but not sure how they could make it smoke as bad as it does?

I'm not that familiar with the oil pot - is it just an old fashioned oil catch can?
Does it need any maintenance? I have to empty the OCC on my scoob after a track day! LOL

Thanks for any advice from the R5 experts on here as this one is a puzzle to me...

Cheers
the baron. :)

[R5MJH]

We had similiar smoke on old engine it was piston rings in end but 1 of our piston comps was low yours are not:scratch:

[Brigsy]

Just looks like condensation to me?

[Romil Davda]

Symptoms and vid would indicate turbo... What turbo do you have and what psi you running?

Can you take off the Air filter and scheck the compressor wheel for play? (back/fouth and also up/down). If you can check the exhaust side also?

[andybond]

Just looks like condensation to me?

What Brigsy said.

My five does that when its in a sulk ( when I have left it for a while )

[Jonny5]

How many miles have you done since rebuild?

[The Baron]

What Brigsy said.

My five does that when its in a sulk ( when I have left it for a while )

Pretty sure it's more than condensation. I can see your point but unfortunately the video doesn't do the smoke justice. Sometimes it fills the road behind the car! :eek:


It was driven for possibly 10 miles like it is - pretty sure that would have burnt off condensation wouldn't it?

[Jonny5]

I would say if everything else is ok try and give it a good run 30-40miles and see if it clears.

[Red October]

I had exactly the same issue. Blew the head 2 month ago, had a full rebuild up top all uprated with a £600 big valve/ported head, gaskets/bolts etc by a ex EP motorsport employee, ran it all in for 100 miles then the smoke exactly like yours, i was really annoyed................. Turns out my T28 was shatting oil and water past the seals then mixing into the exhaust to create the exact same effect, sometimes white sometimes blue, grey, black..................!

[The Baron]

I had exactly the same issue. Blew the head 2 month ago, had a full rebuild up top all uprated with a £600 big valve/ported head, gaskets/bolts etc by a ex EP motorsport employee, ran it all in for 100 miles then the smoke exactly like yours, i was really annoyed................. Turns out my T28 was shatting oil and water past the seals then mixing into the exhaust to create the exact same effect, sometimes white sometimes blue, grey, black..................!

mmm interesting. it does have the symptoms of turbo seals BUT the fact that we've done all the top end work has maybe sent us a bit of a read herring.

weird thing is the 1st time we di the head gasket it was ok for about 50 miles not a puff of smoke. when we later did the head and gasket it smoked from the off.

any conclusive way to test if it's the turbo or not?
other than swapping it out?

we only replaced the turbo last year - T28 also - we were running under 18psi so that's disappointing if it crapped itself at that.

[Red October]

Think someone else has mentioned it but just remove the air filter and check for play in the shaft. Mine had 3-4mm of movement and when i swapped it for the previous T25 i had everything returned to normal, the T28 was oozing oil and water out of every oriface!

New big head, rejetted carb and 26PSI peaking somtimes at 30 blew the turbo.

I took the head apart and adjusted numerous things because of the head rework seemed the apparent failure again, but true to 5 GT standard you fix one thing and another expensive part decided to give up:cry:

[chipis]

it might be oil in turbo leaking to the exhaust downpipe. had the same issue, in evening in seemed everything allright and next morning my car was like james bond car with smoke cloud behind after acceleration, even more than you have in the vid. removed turbo and there were a lot of oil running through turbine wheel. and by the way the turbine wheel hadnt had any abnormal shaft play

[jamie_clioGTT]

TURBO... if you blew it up on track im guessing turbo would of been hot with no run down if it went bang? anyway had this loads lol.. take your exhaust off from turbo and you will probably find oil in the exhaust housing..

[youngscottie]

Split the turbo from the manifold if is clean/dry inside then chances
Are nothings coming from the engine
Then split turbo from downpipe if it's wet in there and dry in
The manifold then the turbos the fault

Before any of that I'd take it a good run as exhausts hold oil for ages

[michael tierney]

when the head was off was there any pick-up(alluminium from piston)on the bores or scoring?

[Tony Walker]

Vent rocker breather to atmosphere and give it a run. Takes 2 mins. Pressure in sump causes pressure within the turbo via the return pipe, this then passes oil. I've not watched vids just thought I'd mention a simple test.

[The Baron]

when the head was off was there any pick-up(alluminium from piston)on the bores or scoring?

bores were good, no bits of metal in engine or oil.

[The Baron]

Vent rocker breather to atmosphere and give it a run. Takes 2 mins. Pressure in sump causes pressure within the turbo via the return pipe, this then passes oil. I've not watched vids just thought I'd mention a simple test.

interesting, thanks for the comment Tony.

do you mean where the rocker pipe T's in to the pipe from oil pot to the air inlet on the turbo?

I've never quite understood what is going on with that set up.
What's suckking and what's blowing? :laugh:

I know the one from the pot to the engine inlet manifold sucks on the pot and causes a vacuum to draw crank case fumes.
But what does the one from the side of the pot that goes to both the rocker cover and the turbo inlet do? I presumed it was a vacuum pipe too?

[Tony Walker]

the one way valve in the inlet stops boost pressure entering the crankcase, and sucks in vapours when on idle/light throttle, on boost theres no vaccuum so the turbo inlet sucks the vapours out. but most people get rid of the pipe to the manifold and turbo and use a catch tank for the breather fumes. it looked like the fumes where coming from the sump and not from your rocker cover? make sure your breather isnt blocked in to the cover, it has a plate under the rocker cover and this gets full of crap.

just blow down the pipe off the rocker cover to check its clear. obvioulsy blank off T'd bit

[Chunk]

If any oil got into your exhaust it could be that burning off, I thought my turbo was fooked as it kicked out so much blue smoke on boost, took it out for a good drive and eventually the smoke just stopped dead, so must have been oil in the exhaust from the previous turbo leaking

[Coops]

easiest way is just remove the turbo and run the car, if it still smokes then its the engine