White smoke??

[Aterro]

Got my engine running, idling fine, doesn't overheat

If I leave it idling and stay of boost, it won't smoke.

Once under boost, it smokes a lot
On boost and at idle.

If I stop the car, leave it for 10/20 mins
No smoke on start up.

I noticed a small amount of white smoke coming from turbo
( hidden by jacket)

So today, I removed downpipe to turbo, to see if there is any oil

There is none, and there is no play in the shaft.


It's a white smoke, foggy.

Any ideas?

[rabbitstew]

When I blew one of my old turbo, it would chuck so much white smoke out of the back of the car it was unbelievable. James Bond would have been really jealous.

It was only only when I was off boost though. If i overtook someone it was fine, but as soon as i took foot off accelerator, hey presto... smoke screen appears.

So sounds similar to what your getting, so my moneys on turbo blown.

[Aterro]

Cheers!
I've checked turbo both sides, and there's no play or oil residue.

If the turbo had blown, even thought it works fine, how could I tell?

If a turbo blows, surely oil should be in inlet or exhaust housings?

Cheers

Just about to do a conpression test also.

[Alex]

Check the breather system isn't blocked. My money is on the turbo though.

[Aterro]

The breather system being the one from air filter, to inlet, to the pot?
If so, just replaced all the lines with silicone ones

Also checked the rocker cover one.

Is there anymore breather lines?

I do have a problem with oil piping up out of dipstick?
But it's pretty lose in the casing lol

Should my turbo have oil residue in it, if it's blown?
Or doesn't it matter?

[youngscottie]

In the main white smoke is usually coolant/water
Although low ash oils burn white
Bridge the coolant hoses to the turbo to eliminate it
Was there any coolant residue in the exhaust ?

[Aterro]

No coolant or oil in downpipe or inlet.

Bridge what? Sorry I don't understand what they will show me?

[rabbitstew]

No coolant or oil in downpipe or inlet.

Bridge what? Sorry I don't understand what they will show me?

The turbo has oil feed going through it to lube the bearings. It also (assuming your phase 2) it has coolant pipes going through it to cool it. The turbo seals can go which either let oil leak inside the turbo causing smoke, or the coolant could leak inside turbo too. Turbo may seem to work fine whilst this happens. Other times the oil can get starved and the turbo siezes or the shaft snaps in two.

If you bridge the coolant pipes to the turbo and the smoke stops then you know the coolant is leaking inside the turbo.

[Aterro]

Ph1.5
I have bits off a ph2 and ph1

I have one coolant line to turbo
One drain to sump
One oil feed

How do I bridge the coolant lines? I'm confused by that statement?

Cheers

[rabbitstew]

Ph1.5
I have bits off a ph2 and ph1

I have one coolant line to turbo
One drain to sump
One oil feed

How do I bridge the coolant lines? I'm confused by that statement?

Cheers

Hmm... i thought there were 2 coolant lines to turbo. I will have to check. I guess if you disconnect it, then block end off so no coolant leaks out then that will stop the coolant getting to the turbo and if thats the problem you`ll see.

[Nad-5GTT]

There will be a return water pipe. If you've got a water feed it's got to exit somewhere :cooter:

[fat roofer]

Have you got a standard oil feed? Or a braided one? If it's braided, check for kinks or if it's got an in line filter then take it out!!! It might be restricting oil flow/pressure to the turbo.

[Trevhib]

How do I bridge the coolant lines?


1. Disconnect the hose that feeds the coolant into the turbo
2. Disconnect the hose that takes the coolant out of the turbo
3. Join the two disconnected hoses together.

Effectively bypassing the turbo. The turbo will run fine for a short time without coolant going through it.

If you see no white smoke, you know that coolant was leaking into to the turbo past the seals (and so need to get it rebuilt). If you still get white smoke, you know this isn't the problem and you can reconnect the coolant hoses to the turbo and keep looking for the problem.

[Trevhib]

What is interesting is that this seems white smoke problem seems to have started since you fitted the silicone hoses for the breather system. :scratch:

[youngscottie]

The feed into the top is an oil feed the coolant feed and return are on the sides and the oil return is on the bottom
Coolant passes through the turbo mainly to help the oil cool the turbo and help at switching off time
If the turbo is passing water you will get white smoke normally at idle and light load
When on boost the pressure in the air circuit is higher than the coolant thus it won't pass into the exhaust
If you bridge the coolant hoses together to remove the turbo from the system run it and don't get smoke then you've found your fault ( it could take a while to clear the exhaust)

Before you bark up the wrong tree is the motor using coolant or pressurising the system
I'd be inclined to remove(pull back ) the turbo from the manifold and see
Look for any white residue if there's any there then the problems upstream of the blower

[Aterro]

1. Disconnect the hose that feeds the coolant into the turbo
2. Disconnect the hose that takes the coolant out of the turbo
3. Join the two disconnected hoses together.

Effectively bypassing the turbo. The turbo will run fine for a short time without coolant going through it.

If you see no white smoke, you know that coolant was leaking into to the turbo past the seals (and so need to get it rebuilt). If you still get white smoke, you know this isn't the problem and you can reconnect the coolant hoses to the turbo and keep looking for the problem.

My issue with doing that is,
Under normal start up conditions, it won't smoke.

Example:

If i start it, let it get to temp via idle, no smoke....

If i go for a spirited run, it will smoke on boost heavily, and then on idle too.

Once I've physically stopped the car. and allowing time to let the coolant hose cool, i start it up, and it won't smoke......

Ive also noticed, that my header tank, ( from cold) between minimum and maximum, once warm fills all the way up to the top...... ( by top i mean the cap)

[Trevhib]

Then take it for a spirited run. Well, at least up to the point you'd normally see the smoke.

Phase 1 cars didn't even have a coolant circuit on their turbos. As far as I know it's still possible to order a turbo for a GTT that has only the oil feed.

I'm not advising running permanently without the coolant going through the turbo. Just long enough to eliminate this being the problem.

The coolant level problems you talk about may or may not be related. Something sounds wrong somewhere though. It's good that you've noticed this stuff and are looking to rectify it :agree:

[Aterro]

Well,

It still smokes.

I removed both coolant pipes ( yes there's 2) haha
Blocked them off so no coolant was getting to turbo.

Went for a drive and smoke. Wooo

Checked the coolant header and there is a film of light brown mushy stuff in header tank.

Guessing it's a small crack somewhere, where coolant and oil is mixing.

Conpression test figures are weird at 128-118-112-100( not in correct order)
( the tappets have been over adjusted, ( not me) so I carnt fit a feeler gauge in.
Possibly giving me false compression figures?

Guess it's a new engine for me then.

[youngscottie]

If there's smoke out the exhaust then it will leave traces of origin
I'm not sure if you know how to identify this
But I'm fairly certain your head gasket is most likely the cause

It sounds like the last bloke rebuilt it poorly
I'd have the head off and checked inc liner potrusion and condition

Then rebuild from there myself
(It's worth remembering to much fuel can wash the bores
If your tuning the carb without wideband as per your other thread
Then rebuilds could be a regular thing)

[Aterro]

I've not done any tuning yet.

Was just trying to get it running correctly first.
Eg the restrictors problem and then buying a known working carb off a lad on here as when I bought it, it was way overfueling, now it's running, it doesn't stink of fuel like prior.



Im awaiting a 2.5 inch downpipe to come in stock, then matching it with a innovate lc-1.

But that will be fittedafter I've found the smoke faults.

[Trevhib]

Good to have eliminated the turbo coolant jacket.

Scottie isn't saying you should tune it first. He's saying you should probably open up the engine to check the cylinder head gasket, the condition of the head and a number of other things. You're right, it looks like you have water and oil mixing somewhere. There are a lot of places and reasons why this could happen, some bad and some not so bad.

Blown head gasket
Crack in the head
Crack in the block
Crack in the oil cooler part of the radiator
Blown seals in the turbo
A few others

What Scottie is saying is that once you've found the fault and fixed it, tune the carb (i.e. getting it fuelling correctly) as a priority thereafter, as it could be bad fuelling that's caused the problems in the first place. :agree:

I know it's no use to you now but when I saw what the previous owner initially failed to mention when you bought this car, I feared it would be troublesome. :( Keep going with it though. As I said back then, you're getting to know your car in the process and that's got to happen one way or another if you want to look after it :agree: