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running rich, blue smoke?

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Old 06-01-10, 09:22 AM
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running rich, blue smoke?

im currently tuning my tii with an safc and a wideband guage. i know im running extremely rich, (12.5 or so) and blue smoke poors from the back of the exhaust.

now when the car leans out to stoich 14.7 or even 13.5 on the wideband, theres no smoke at all. my omp works properly and the engine only has 7k original miles (crazy right?)

is the exhaust blowing blue smoke because the oil is not being burned with the fuel due to the richness? the more adjustments i make in the right direction the less smoke and better a/f readings, just wanted to know if my guess made sense.

thanks!
Old 06-01-10, 10:28 AM
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Originally Posted by flipside27
im currently tuning my tii with an safc and a wideband guage. i know im running extremely rich, (12.5 or so) and blue smoke poors from the back of the exhaust.

now when the car leans out to stoich 14.7 or even 13.5 on the wideband, theres no smoke at all. my omp works properly and the engine only has 7k original miles (crazy right?)

is the exhaust blowing blue smoke because the oil is not being burned with the fuel due to the richness? the more adjustments i make in the right direction the less smoke and better a/f readings, just wanted to know if my guess made sense.

thanks!
Running rich typically causes black smoke, unless you have a cat still on the car. I mean, the theory is plausible, but I'd be more concerned with correcting the fuel issue and then checking everything out. My course of action would include fixing the fuel issue, driving for 50 or so miles and pulling the leading plugs to see if they are contaminated with carbon/oil.
Old 06-01-10, 01:16 PM
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welll blue smoke means oil.. the only reason oil should be coming out of your exhaust in that rich of a color is because your premixing or your omp is fucked up .. and suppling more oil then it should. the omp is vac operated unless its a s5 (i think its all electric) so if those two arent your issue then i think your oil control rings are fucked, i might be wrong but yea.....

my s4 i premixed and ran with the omp and i run rich *** ****(100 gal to the tank) and i had blue smoke but again... i had a omp..(acting funny) and i premixed (rich)
Old 06-01-10, 01:20 PM
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it depends on how blue it is.

when i started my car up this morning, it spewed out blue smoke. but thats because it was rich tilled it warmed up then it was all fine.
Old 06-01-10, 01:35 PM
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If you hooked up an A/F gauge to any car, you'll see that it dumps massively rich for the first couple of minutes of starting.

This is completely normal with any internal combustion engine. This is proven by the fact that every car will sit at a higher tach, initially, then settle into it's normal routine... Nearly very car on the planet does this. The rest either SHOULD or just don't.

What's you're SAFC set to (what's the AFR) at idle?
Old 06-01-10, 02:01 PM
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12.5 AFR isn't rich at all if you're talking about at idle. Once the engine is warm, 12-13 AFR is where it will idle the smoothest. On cold starts, I see 11.0 to 11.5 for the first few minutes, which eventually ends up at 12.5 AFR. But even with the mixture at 11.0, there's no smoke pouring out the back. You'd have to be in the 9-10 AFR range before than should happen, and it sure as hell wouldn't be idling correctly.
Old 06-01-10, 02:26 PM
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for some reason i thought that the car did that all that time.
Old 06-01-10, 02:31 PM
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Not in the idle range, it isn't, no. I'd found that 12.5-13.7 idles differently than the 14.5 that I trimmed mine down to. Keeping inside the same range, at most times, during driving, things are niiiice and happy.
Old 06-02-10, 08:48 AM
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well now ive got the afrs a little more balanced from 1k-45k rpms, and it seems as if it only smokes when at idle. when driving the smoke is gone and theres no trail. im not over heating my oil level is fine, but there is a small ammount of smoke comming from the turbo itself. now the thing spools perfectly and at the right time, just smoke...

to answer trbospdant, its set to 13.5ish around 800rpm idle

idk wtf is going on guys but thanks ffor all the help, any more ideas?
Old 06-02-10, 09:46 AM
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Good AFR at idle... NOT good smoking a turbo (I couldn't get used to it, I always coughed a lot).

That should be sorted out, as well... Hope it's not center housing seal.
Old 06-02-10, 05:20 PM
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so i think my turbo is blown... it was leaking coolant when i checked it last. and im pretty sure the oil is probably spilling too...

i read up the symptoms and they all match up. ill replace it tonight and let you all know whats up. i also found a drop of oil on the rim of the tmic... anyone else experience a blown turbo here? ?
Old 06-03-10, 02:15 AM
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so i swapped the stock turbo that wasnt used for 22 years or so, and replaced it with a turbo with 150k miles on it. thus the problem got worse.

which leads me to believe that because there was a change, the turbo is still the culprit. when removing the turbo manifold, i noticed a few drips of oil in the exhaust port as well as the tmic...

the car is not over heating at all, still runs/spools/idles perfectly. the only weird thing that really happened was getting off of work, and the wideband guage wasn't receiving any power at all. didnt turn on when i turned the key to auxiliary or after start up.

wtf is happening?
Old 06-03-10, 11:46 AM
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Yes, I would say the turbo is leaking oil into the exhaust, so replace it. If your wideband isn't getting power, check the wiring and the fuse it's fed off of.
Old 06-03-10, 06:28 PM
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to many smurfs cause excessive blue smoke.

ill look at the continumtransfunctioner tomorrow.

Old 06-03-10, 06:32 PM
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remove the plugs after you start the car and it has smoked for about 20 seconds, if they are totally oil soaked then you have an internal oil seal issue, if not then look at the hot side of the turbo to see if theres oil past the turbine, if so then the turbo oil seal is bad.

the car should not be SPEWING blue smoke even if it was running pig rich. no it is not normal.
Old 06-03-10, 07:23 PM
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thanks guys

KARACK: i drove the car around the block and let it idle for a min, shut the car off, and pulled the spark plugs after the car cooled (about 3 min after shut off) the spark plugs had a bit of carbon as expected, but they were completely dry!!!

i dont have the tools to take off the down pipe to check the hotside of the turbo, but it was leaking oil last night.

thanks alot man for solidifying the issue haha, whiped a gallon of sweat off my forehead.

BLWNRTR89: SEE YA TOMARRRROOOOOOOOO HOMIEE
Old 06-04-10, 02:08 PM
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... Smurf killer.
Old 06-05-10, 02:34 AM
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replacing with a newer and non smoking turbo sometime next week lol
Old 06-05-10, 02:55 PM
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I wish I knew I could get a smoking turbo...

I'm REALLY tired of having to park in the 'Non-smoking' section.

HAH!

Glad you got your **** sorted out.
Old 06-05-10, 05:41 PM
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yeah man, im really really praying that this will fix it. nothing else can explain it, and i have a bit of evidence now pointing at a failing turbo. might be picking one up tonight! wish me luck!!!
Old 06-05-10, 08:38 PM
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someone mentioned that if i run 20w50 instead of 10w30 (current oil) then there might be a bit less smoke??? doubt it, but can someone prove it as a temp fix. i still gotta drive to work
Old 06-06-10, 10:21 AM
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okay guys... i found some bad signs here

i checked over the original turbo that i had on the car, and there are major oil spots on the exhaust ports where the turbo manifold meets it. the marks are soaking into the metal as of now since the turbo was sitting for a few days, but wouldnt this more likely mean oil seal failure than a blown turbo?

if it was just the turbo then the leak would be more on the hot side of te turbo, not the exhaust ports right?the only thing that contradicts this is the fact that the sparks plugs were not soaked in oil.

any thoughts?
Old 06-06-10, 12:45 PM
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yes thicker weight oil will help reduce oil burning through the engine and turbo but it won't get rid of it completely.

there will be a small amount of oil in the turbo if it wasn't fully warmed up before you shut it down and pulled the turbo off. oil does tend to leak down into the chamber when you shut the car off but it burns off relatively quickly, if there is a bad oil seal and it is spewing out that much blue smoke then you generally would be seeing it on the plugs first.

is there more oil past the turbine or is it dry?
Old 06-06-10, 05:42 PM
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yeah... i checked the spark plugs again... they had a coat of oil and black discharge on them after running it for a while...

i also pinched the vacuum line to the omp to see if the smoke would stop. and it continued to pour out as if nothing happened at all.

am i fucked
Old 06-06-10, 11:05 PM
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Far as being fucked, sounds like it, but the tell-tale sign is drenched plugs, but no way to totally tell unless you have the car running, adjust the idler screw up to rev (about 4500-6500rpms) and check it in real-time.

'Course, if your ******* hurts, a lot and you have a bad case of ****-breath, you're pretty much bent over.


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