need help troubleshooting lots of oil smoke
 

when i start my car i billow clouds of smoke - enough to fill my culdesac. it doesn't need to warm up, it just starts billowing immediately, and it only spits it out faster if i rev the engine up from idle. starting and idling is not a problem - it sounds smooth as ever... it just doesn't look it :P

initially i thought my coolant seal had gone, but i started the car again and noticed it does look/smell more like oil, and it lingers in the air for several minutes unlike water vapor would. There were also 2-3 times this past month where i noticed a short release of smoke behind me on the freeway as i shifted gears at high rpm

i spent all day yesterday searching around on this topic, and from the sounds of it i probably blew a turbo, but I need some help on what to look at to verify if that's the problem. whether i'm going to be rebuilding my engine or my turbos, i want to try my best to determine which is the problem before i start into it!

I already tried starting it up without the oil filler cap on to see if it's building up pressure somewhere, and that doesn't seem to be it. That would also eliminate the pcv valve right? Are there any other tests or visual inspections anyone can suggest to help me narrow it down?

Thanks.

check your turbo's....

i had this when i got my car...it didnt smoke immediately but after about a minute or so. and it got worse and worse til i fixed it. i had oil on the bottom of my car all the way back to my muffler. i thought maybe one of my oil lines or something was bad, but after i put dye in the oil and used a black light, it took me a day to find where it was coming from. on the top of the engine if you take off the intake and all those pipes, and take off the water pump ( i think thats what it is, ive only had my car for a little over a month), it was a bolt right on top of the turbo. i got about a good full turn out of it. then again lately i have started to smell oil again, and i looked at the same bolt and i got about 1 1/2 turns out of it....maybe its that....i dunno....worth a check?? my car only had 18k miles on it when i got it

any pointers on how to check my turbos? what do i look for?

im sure you can go to a local service center and get dye put in your oil. and drive it for a day...thats what i did....then spray a bunch of degreaser to clean off the oil, then get under there with a black light...and it gloes a bright green....was pretty easy for me to find mine

i thought about that, but it spews so much smoke i don't think it would be safe for me to drive around for a day. for sure i would hinder everybody's vision and get pulled over.

if a seal on my turbo went out, the oil is then going directly into my exhaust, right? Would I even be able to see it from outside the piping and turbo in that case?

It also could be an engine oil seal. I thought it was my turbos are first but then i replaced, and the problem still continued so it lead me to believe i need a new engine soon..

exactly. i'm trying to figure out how i can verify which it is.