1st gen it-7 smoking bad, help!
 

i have an it-7 car with a recently replaced 12a. the engine came out of a 85 that had been sitting for like 7 years. i did the mmo treatment and threw it in. it runs fine and makes good power. here is the problem.

i took the car to a test day at lil talladega gp (short bike track in al). there is one corner thats a fast high-g right hander. i downshift to third just before it and the engine lands at about 6500. right then i get a TON of whiteish smoke. i have no idea where its coming from. it fills the cabin and i cant see anything, im pretty sure its oil smoke as it seriously burns your eyes and smells pretty nasty.

this only happens once the car is warm, the first 2 or 3 laps are fine, but as soon as it comes up to full temp it starts doing it. happens at other parts of the course but not as bad.

keep in mind its a fully prepped it-7 car, the exhaust is basicly a straight pipe, no emmissions, has an MSD, the distributor is locked down (no vacuume advance) set at 20 degrees BTDC (leading and trailing fire at the same time).

im planning on building a new motor soon but would like this one to last for a few months. what could cause this that would not require tearing down the engine?

Your crancase may not be venting properly causing pressure to build up under power and the forcing excess oil into the combustion chambers under deaccel/ High vacuum condition. However this also sounds like the symptoms of Bad or stuck Oil seals - Try changing the oil and adding a qt of MMO w/ the new oil - this may unstick the oil seals if that is the problem.

Re: 1st gen it-7 smoking bad, help!
 

What do you mean by "mmo treatment"? Do you mean ATF/WD-40 down the carb? I've always used this method and have only had one dead motor in my 5 cars. It smokes like a banshee and doesn't run too well until it gets all the stuff I poured down it out.

White smoke? White isn't oil. Oil is more of a blue-ish black-ish color. It fills the cabin? How does it do that? Through the transmission tunnel? If it fills the cabin coming from say the engine compartment, you've got bigger problems than smoke. If it fills the cabin that quickly you've got a big hole, and thats a pretty big fire hazard. My street car would put a puff of white smoke out of it after shifting for the first 1k miles or so after I bought it. It eventually went awway. Of course, it also disentigrated the clutch disc and the throwout bearing went bad, and the smoke stopped.

If it makes good power, runs good, and doesn't show any signs of being sick I say run it until you get your new motor put together or until it starts getting sick. You do need to find the source of the smoke, or figure out a way to keep it out of the cabin. Around here, a large number of the Spec7's put out oil clouds. The corners used to call it in but figured out their attempts were in vain. :D

by MMO treatment i mean pouring MMO in the inake ports and letting it sit for a few days, turning regularly. the engine had run plenty at idle before i took it on the track. im pretty sure all the MMO was out by that point.

im pretty sure it comes in through the windows. which have to be open. there is a pretty decent amount of exhaust smoke, but im not sure that all of it is coming out there. the car is completely stripped, all the rubber plugs and stuff in a street car are gone, so smoke has lots of ways in.

it pretty much has to be oil smoke. im running 90/10 coolant mixture. that coming out my exhaust is not going to burn my eyes like this did. it would just be steam. if it was fuel smoke the car would run pretty bad, but it runs fine.

if the smoke didnt burn my eyes it would not be a problem. but you cant see a damn thing when it happens.

anyway last night i changed my oil and added a quart of MMO. im gonna put some in my tank as well. took out my coolant and it looked fine. i checked my breather system and it is wide open.

tonight im going to check the oil metering pump and the 2 coolant lines on the intake side that i plugged up, make sure they are still plugged.

if all of that looks good im going to take it to an autox sunday and see if i can get some more smoke. hopefully it will run a little better.

1st off... you should cover all of your holes with at least Racer Tape... preferably the metal tape. I'm surprised tech didn't pop you on that.

2nd... where does your exhaust exit?

It sounds to me like you might be getting some oil spray off of the OMV lines or something thats dropping onto the headers on right handers.

I thought you had the same problem we did until you mentioned the cabin filling up. Every time we'd lift after a long straight, then accelerate, our JY 12a would put out a plume of smoke so bad you couldn't see the track behind the car. A quart of Resolin (available at NAPA) and it hasn't smoked in at least 10 races and a double drivers school.

the exhaust exits in the factory location, right rear. the other thing im dealing with is my exhaust gasket between the header and the rest of the system. i cant find one that will take the heat of the rotary, so there is a decent leak there now, and it can get up through the shift boot pretty easy. there also was a crack in the header that a friend of mine welded shut, have no idea if its holding or not, but it looks solid.

does it matter which line from the OMV goes to what hole on the carb? i cant find out which one goes where.

what is resolin and what do you do with it?

Rislone is a high detergent oil additive in a yellow 1 qt. bottle. Directions say to use it at 25% with your regular oil. It can help free up stuck rings, seals, etc. and is used during normal opperation (not a flush).

Are you using "metal" gaskets in your exhaust? Paper will not cut it - TOO hot. Also make sure that the surfaces are completely flat and true. Once a small amount of exhaust starts flowing thru a gap, it burns away quickly.

It does not matter which Oil Metering Pump line goes to which hole (as long as we are talking about the 2 nipples at the carb.). They are parrallel and identical in opperation.

try thisExhaust flange it does not have any gaskets and can stand up to the heat. I don't know what type of header you have but this flange can be adapted to almost any system. it also come in many other sizes.

well it did the same thing at the autox this weekend. time i guess my new engine will come sooner then expected.

that exhaust flange is pretty nice, im gonna try it out. thanks guys...

some pics of the smoke in action:

http://speedjunkie.net/gallery/album.../aai.sized.jpg
http://speedjunkie.net/gallery/album.../aah.sized.jpg

I am sorry but that looks like shot Oil Control Rings to me - the reason for the smoke in the cockpit in addition to out the tailpipes is the busted exhaust flange gasket :(

Deffinantly blue oil smoke!

I have to run right now but in a couple of hours I'll pose a question in the 1st gen section about an "external" fix for bad oil rings,,,,,,,,

Try the Resolin (or however it's spelled). That's almost exactly what ours looked like.

Hey, it's under $5.00 and if it gets you by as long as it has us, you'll be set for a while.

I had to go to the trashcan in the garage to check the spelling :) I will pose my question tomorrow. Going to bed now,,,,,,,zzzzzz