From my understanding, oil-control rings don't just "go bad"... It's a gradual wear-process, leading to excessive blow-by and increased oil-usage and smoking. Eventually it becomes unbearable and the engine must be rebuilt.

Well, I recently got a really good deal on a 1987 Turbo II that had been sitting for about two years, but only had 102k miles on it. I purchased it, and it drove home OK and ran with absolutely no smoking... My intention was to clean it up and replace a lot of the worn-out items in the engine-bay--basically freshen it up.

Well, I start it up after a full tune-up and engine-bay clean-up and the thing starts smoking... smoking like crazy. As the engine warms up, the smoke increases to the point of being ridiculous--so I just shut it off and came inside.

Obviously I'm hoping it's the turbo, because as far as I know, turbo oil-seals can just "go bad". I'm just crossing my fingers it's not the engine. Anyone ever experienced "instant" engine oil-seal failure--or should I be focusing the blame 100% on the turbo...

Thanks for any response.

 

Are you sure the smoke is burning oil? If its white it could possibly be coolant also...

 

How can you be sure?
Pull the spark plugs and look at them...
If the oil control rings are the culprits, the spark plugs will tell you...

(With the exception if the turbo compressor side pukes so much oil, but pulling the intercooler hoses will confirm this.)

So...
1) Pull IC hoses and check for oil.
If that's clean, then...
2) Pull spark plugs...


-Ted

 

Sounds like a plan. I guess my main question was: Can oil control-rings just "go out".... Like, good one day--smoking like crazy the next.

 

Yes, it's possible.


-Ted

 

Son of a bitch... Well, that's possibly $500 I didn't want to spend on a rebuild, lol.

Let's just hope it's the turbo... I checked the plugs and they had some black residue on them after 20 minutes of run-time. I guess I'll know by tomorrow.

 

Soft seal kit is only $300, not $500

 

If I rebuilt the engine I'd buy new all new springs, coolant seals and contol-rings with inserts--probably over $500, considering control-rings are $200.