Ever since I bought my FD it has smoked some under boost, but now I've removed all emissions and put some fresh turbos on there. I did the full Nonseq conversion, and just did an oil change with castrol gtx 20w-50.

Now it will smoke in the following conditions:

a) when the engine is cold
b)almost every time if the engine revs over 4000 RPM, boosting or not

It doesn't smoke enough to fill the whole neighborhood, but definately enough to choke out anyone behind me/attract cops. As long as I cruise at low RPM it doesn't really smoke at all..

any ideas? I'm hoping it's not the oil control rings; could it be oil injection or PCV? if it is the oil control rings is there any other recourse than pulling the engine?

 

what about your oil injection lines, how old are they?

does it look like you are dripping oil from anywhere?

is there a small oil puddle under your car when you park over night?

any oil that you can see under the upper intame manifold?

did you replace your own turbos? did you notice anything strange when you did change them?

is anything caked with oil resedue?

 

Also, compression is good on the engine as of ~3000 miles ago and no signs of other engine problems, it starts and purrs nicely. car has 103k but I have no way of knowing if it's the original engine or not.

 

the smoke when the engine is cold is throwing me off....

 

I guess I mean that is smokes a lot easier if it is cold. (if I rev it, etc)

the turbos looked good when I put them on, they were a low mileage set. no oil dripping anywhere, the oil inj. lines were not leaking that I could see, but I don't know if the injectors can get stuck or anything.

 

my lines broke close to the engine block. it started a small leak that led to my turbos, so everytime it got HOT i would have a nice cloud of white/ grey smoke. i have no clue on this. where does the smoke come from exactly.

turbo area
rear of the motor
under the manifold....

 

oil metering pump?

 

What color smoke? Also smoke at higher rpm's usually means bad rotor oil seals.

 

As to the cold start smoking, if its white smoke my car does the same thing and goes away when the car warms up. I talked to a local 7 mechanic and this is what he emailed me back...any of the tech guys on here, feel free to chime in
"We've seen a few cars where defective parts in the PCV system have caused the crankcase to pressurize and cause oil leaks and smoking."

 

White smoke is water vapor from a leaking coolant jacket o-ring. Rebuild the motor before it gets worse. Mine is doing in now on 80k motor. The situation is similar to a blown head gasket on a piston engine but on a rotary you have to tear the motor down completely to fix it.

Blue smoke when its cold is most likely leaking/wornout rotor side oil seals. When the engine is cold the oil inside the rotor dribbles past the seal in to the combustion chamber. It then burns off when you start up and out comes the smoke. If it goes away after warmup your motor is probably ok for now but the problem will only get worse over time. Like a blown o-ring, worn rotor side seals also require a complete engine rebuild.

When I bought my FD the first thing I check is smoke on cold start up. Any smoke at all that can't be traced to the turbos or metering pump or other bolted on stuff is coming from the engine.......don't buy the car then or jack down the price to cover a new motor.

 

no offense 8U but I have gotten so many different opinions on what the smoking could be from needing a new motor to just being part of the same ol same ol. When I get some free time later on I am just going to take it in to a local mechanic I trust and have him troubleshoot the sucker for me.
Considering I am learning as I go with 7s all the time, could someone explain the PCV system for me and why the mechanic would think that it is the problem with the smoking. The smoke is not thick at all but consistant until the car is at running temp and then I see nothing.

 

Do something for me real quick.
Remove your oil filler cap, keep it off and go drive. Is it still smoking???

I had a similar problem like you did, went through 2 sets of new rebuilt turbos only to realize that I had capped off the nipple on the oil filler neck causing my oil system to pressurize. This in returen caused excess oil to be forced through the turbos/any cracks it could go through and burn up resulting in plooms of smoke from my exaust. I removed the cap and the car never smoked again =)

I hope your problem is something as simple as this, good luck

greg

 

lol, if it is as simple as that will mail you a case of beer greg....thanks, I will check it out

 

Don't forget a little white / bluish smoke upon cold startup is normal on rotary. It should go away after 1 min or so after the car is warmed up. Rotary engine doesn't seal 100% and any bluish smoke is just oil slowed leaked over night that got burned off.

I think the original poster said that he's got full exhaust. If so, you'll have a lot of smoke since the cat is gone. Are you burning oil and having to refill more often than 1/2 to 1 qt per 3k mi? I wonder if you are burning oil or excess gasoline (leaky injectors). What color is the smoke??

 

unfortunately it isn't really so much smoke on startup as smoke on revving for me.. that's a good idea about taking the oil cap off and driving around a bit to check the pcv. that is assuming it's not going to spray oil out the filler neck. anyone try that and get a big mess in the engine bay?

 

how you fix the smoke coming out when you pass 4000 rev ???

I have a smoke problem right under the intake manifold, it looks coming out from the down pipe, do you guys think my turbo is gone ???

thax ANDY

 

that sounds like an exhaust leak or maybe your turbos are leaking a LOT of oil. this thread is about smoke out the tailpipe..

 

Although you've recently replaced your Turbos, I think the smoke is coming from your Primary. Perhaps the Seal Plate O-Ring is still escaping a little oil. Turbos spool continuouly as long as the Engine is fired, so their ability to "smoke" is not restricted while under- boost condition only.

 

interesting idea. but yesterday I just checked the intercooler big pipes and there wasn't really any oil inside them

In fact, last night it didn't really smoke much at all so I think it's the PCV. If it was the engine seals, it would be smoking consistently, I'm thinking.

 

what color smoke is it and what does it smell like?

 

mine is a faint white at start up but not thick....and it goes away after warm, no smoking during driving. I had someone drive behind me to confirm this. There is no smell other than a slight octane smell.