dying engine advise thread
 

I have some engine issues/symptoms that I wanted to ask the group about and get their opinion on what is causing what and advice.

anyway.
-the big issue-
when at normal temperature, I shut the engine off, come back 5-60 mins later while it is still warm and turn it on, out comes very think smoke, smells gross like burning brownies, also I get the feeling somewhere inside the combustion chamber is filling up with fluid (oil, gas, coolant) not sure which one and when i start the engine the tach bounces and for about ten seconds it smokes hard while the fluid exits the engine through the exhaust.

On the other hand if I let the engine cool off for more then 2 hours and come back the smoke is much less and almost not noticible.

-other issues-
coolant and oil are disappearing at a normal rate.

oil smells like fuel

oil cap has white 'mystery goo'

the engine never gets close to overheating

engine pulls as hard as it ever did

doesn't seem to smoke while boost

who has ideas to milk as many miles out of it as I can or possible prolong the death until i can afford to throw more money away :(

Aaron, will you be at the next taco event? I will try to come out and help you troubleshoot.

Dave

There's a thread in the first gen section about people with bad coolant seals, using some sort of alumaseal add into your coolant stuff. So far all have said it fixed the problem. and there still driving the piss out of it. But I don't think its coolant seals due to you not having constant smoke. check the welds on your intake. Boost may have blown a weld, gasket, o ring,or a freeze plug.

Or simpler yet is your car flooding? that would cause your oil to smell like gas. if your flooding after you turn it off it would sit and cause smoke and it would smell like ass due to all the dissolved carbon buildup.

Just trying to give you some not cotastraphy options.

also what color smoke

I have the same problem with my car with the letting it sit 5-10 minutes, except instead of your problem - my car will just die randomly, I can save it sometimes by revving the engine however.

It's not a boosted 12a its a 13bt if anyone didnt already know, but i've seen it in person the smoke is definitely not very excessive, that being said I think aaron's right because last time i drove around with him there wasnt ANY smoke at boost and after having to deal with a few friends of mine with a lot of turbo problems that ranged from burning oil to a blown turbo im getting a little more familiar lol

Jinxed4dub, the smoke is white and what your saying sounds like somethin to look into. I'm gonna give him a call today and see about checkin it out

the white "mystery goo" is normal in the oil cap so you can scratch that off your list. won't go into it but it is basically caused by condensation.

If coolant isn't disappearing, it's probably flooding?

Kinda sounds like it. But smelling like brownies.... that made me hungry.... hahha

Yeah Aaron with this description it sounds like your engine is flooding. DO what I recommended and pull your plugs and determine if there is any fluid on them, if so find out if it's fuel or coolant.

When was the last time you replaced the leading plugs? The msd box eats up the plugs every 5k miles, white goo is normal. You sure its not eating any water? Usually coolant seals like to go on boosted motors in my experience.

There are a few things you can do to fix those problems.
get a catch can and even out the pressure on the engine.
get a pcv valve and suck blow by out of the crank case. This will eliminate all white goo.
only run 20w-50 full synthetic from now on.
change your plugs as suggested
catch can and pcv are the most important things.

guys, please don't shame me, I'm very unframilier with a pcv and it's location, from reading on this site I understand it is a purge control valve ?

I think I will make a one min short clip of a cold and hot start tonight and post them up so people can see what I mean, I may or may not be describing everything fully.

the current plugs were in pretty ratty condition, I had some that were in a little better shape that i replaced with.

I will post a hot start vid clip and a cold start vid.
thanks

pressure contrrol valve. it's basically a controlled vacuum leak that pulls unburnt gasses out of the crank case and burns them not allowing the milky crap to show up. 7's don't have them with emissions removed. so you've got to get one from like a caravan.