13b4me

I was driving down the road a few miles from my house, and my oil level light/buzzer comes on. I wasn't too alarmed because I reinstalled my oil cooler lines and lost the crush washers a few weeks ago, so I've been driving it while waiting for my new ones to come in. It has a miniscule leak from that area, which I don't worry about, since I check the oil daily and top off. If the buzzer happens to comes on while turning right, I know I'm a quart low.

Well this time the buzzer stayed on, so I drove about a mile up the road to the grocery store and pulled into the parking lot. A large cloud of smoke followed me, and when I got out, I noticed HEAVY smoke coming from between the firewall and intercooler (top mount), from the turbo area, and from under the car. Everything is covered in oil, including the UIM, battery, alt, trailing coil, fan shroud, pulleys, etc. The engine crossmember is completely covered as well. Most of the smoke was billowing out from the firewall area. Definately oil smoke.

I let the car cool down (it wasn't running hot at all) until it quit smoking (about 20 minutes), and I checked the oil. It was about 2 quarts low, so I topped it off again. Started the car, and could see no obvious leaks that would amount to the half quart of oil under the car. I decided to drive the car home (about a mile away), and I got about a half mile before I had lost a quart and the buzzer came on again. I made it home but the car was smoking as bad as it was the first time.

I'll check it out further tomorrow in the daylight, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any good ideas based on the description I gave. I searched thoroughly and couldn't find anyone else that had this problem.

Oh and the car still idles/drives fine, and the smoke isn't coming from the exhaust, so I can pretty much rule out control rings. Any thoughts?

TehMonkay

iTrader: (-1)

After it cools down again turn it on and rev the engine up, some leaks require pressure for the oil to seep out. You may have cracked a rear iron if it's on that side, look between your housings, between the front cover, and under the oil filter.

13b4me

Oh and FWIW I was babying the hell out of it. I wasn't even getting into boost tonight at all.

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

Sounds like oil cooler lines to me. That's exactly what happened when mine went out. Mine failed underneath the foamrubber sleeve so it was hard to find the leak. Do what TehMonkay said, and jack up the front of the car let it run for a lil while, if that doesn't work, have a friend rev it a little to raise the pressure while you look for the leak.

13b4me

Yea the oil cooler lines were busted when I bought it. Just replaced them less than a month ago. I would love to say I hope it's not that, but really that would be the least of my worries.

MPLSrx7

be really careful, dont drive it. my e shaft bolt walked its self out. so the main pulley was flinging the oil everywhere. thats what sounds like is going on with your car.

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

You drove a mile with the low oil buzzer/light? Come on 13b4me, you know better than that.

13b4me

The low oil light comes on when it hits a quart low. Still drivable at that point. Would you rather me pull off a narrow 55mph road with no shoulder and just leave my car sitting there?

MPLS I'll check that out thanks.

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

True, but it could of also come on because you had no oil...

13b4me

I'd still rather have a blown engine than a destroyed/stolen/vandalized car.

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

Sheeesh, remind me to never move to NC. Crazy vandals there?

13b4me

Well I was about 1/4 mile from one of the local high schools, and right on the border of redneck country when it happened. There's really no telling.

jl1rx7

iTrader: (1)

did you look at the front main seal right under crank pulley. I had a leak there once, it **** oil like none other when i put it under load, but next to nothing at idle, took me forever to find it. I have an NA, but it should be close to your turbo when it comes to that. Anyway hope this helps. Good luck!

13b4me

That's what it's doing. No visible leak at idle whatsoever, but under load it apparently loses about a quart every half-mile. I'm about to go outside and start digging into it a bit. Just making sure I got plenty of coffee in me first.

jl1rx7

iTrader: (1)

for me it looked like the omp was leaking, hell took what i could off and still keep it running, had someone run the throttle and it still looked like the omp. Only when i tried to take out the omp and broke all three bolts, did i find out it was the front main seal. Which buy the way is bitch, got take off the main crank and all that stuff. My old mechinic told it was very common for them to fail. Again I had only have had na's, but that front cover i think is the same.

13b4me

This is depressing lol.

jl1rx7

iTrader: (1)

tell me about, when i broke those bolts.. i cussed more than sailor! Two off them broke off while i was backing out, finger loose easy hod no idea they broke unitl i started to put them back in!

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

Ive only ever had two items fail that caused a similar amount of oil to be spread.

First was a front cover "gasket" which was actually just RTV. It blew out and gave the car a complimentary oil-spray under the hood. So much so that it ran out from around the headlights

Second was an oil cooler line. Busted near the back of the foam protective sleeve (the "front" line) and blew a random spray all over the entire front/top of the engine. I'd start by inspecting these first and then move to other culprits such as MOP etc.

13b4me

I don't think it's the oil cooler line. It had that problem when I bought the car. I saw that spray first hand (with the hood up no less lol). The front cover gasket sounds close. There's oil running from around the headlights up to the hood scoop. The only thing that baffles me is the majority of the smoke was coming from the area between the tmic and firewall. Like the rear main seal maybe. I dunno I'm going outside now to get dirty.

RockLobster

iTrader: (7)

A completly shot, rear main seal would exhibit what you describe.

Classic symptoms of a main seal leak (front or rear) are little to no leak until under load, increasing leaking with RPM. Some times they might not leak at all while the engine is not running.

When my front main seal went out it only leaked oil when really driven hard, and the pully would spray it all over under the hood in a fine mist.

13b4me

Ok I got most of the junk off the engine. The intercooler, i/c piping, TID, fan/shroud, alt, airpump, etc is off the engine. It's extremely wet around the OMP, oil pan, front cover area. The rear of the engine is actually fairly dry, so I can only assume the smoke was from oil hitting the turbo or downpipe. I'm guessing I either have loose oil pan bolts that rotted the gasket, badly leaking OMP, or front main seal. Also I checked the e-shaft bolt and it's perfectly tight. Tomorrow I'll get the PS/AC crap out of the way and keep on truckin.

Oh I also checked the turbo while I was at it. It's dry as a bone, and exhibits nothing but standard clearance play. At least that's some good news.

RockLobster

iTrader: (7)

Sounds EXACTLY like what mine did with a bad front main.