Blueish smoke from tailpipe
Evolved Member
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 6,902
Likes: 151
From: Grand Island, NE
Thanks for explaining why the valve seals were touched.
As I said, I had the same symptoms with my DSM. The first thing I noticed was oil disappearing and the smell of oil burning. There wasn't any smoke. Then one summer day I made 150 mile road trip and stopped at a burger joint for about 1/2 hour. When started the engine there was this embarrassing cloud of blue smoke.
Back home I had the car idling in the garage and no smoke. So, I closed up the garage and went away for about 15 minutes. When I reentered the garage it was filled with blue smoke. So, the car was smoking all along but not an amount that was visible.
Thinking of the work you had done, the seals that were touched would be the cam seals, valve cover seals and valve seals. Only the valve seals are a path to the exhaust.
The other possibilities are rings or the turbo but not on a 7800 mile engine I would hope.
As I said, I had the same symptoms with my DSM. The first thing I noticed was oil disappearing and the smell of oil burning. There wasn't any smoke. Then one summer day I made 150 mile road trip and stopped at a burger joint for about 1/2 hour. When started the engine there was this embarrassing cloud of blue smoke.
Back home I had the car idling in the garage and no smoke. So, I closed up the garage and went away for about 15 minutes. When I reentered the garage it was filled with blue smoke. So, the car was smoking all along but not an amount that was visible.
Thinking of the work you had done, the seals that were touched would be the cam seals, valve cover seals and valve seals. Only the valve seals are a path to the exhaust.
The other possibilities are rings or the turbo but not on a 7800 mile engine I would hope.
Are you sure you didn't notice any smoke before? My car blasts out a little smoke at WOT and has done so since day one 60,000 miles ago.
Likely the smoke caught your eye because you just worked on the head and mechanic's hypochodria set in. This same neurotic behavior once drove me to change my rod bearings for no reason
.
Make sure everything is good, just don't break something trying to fix something that isn't broke.
Likely the smoke caught your eye because you just worked on the head and mechanic's hypochodria set in. This same neurotic behavior once drove me to change my rod bearings for no reason
.Make sure everything is good, just don't break something trying to fix something that isn't broke.
Not good--the oil is down over a quart in less than 2 weeks. I am going to pull the spark plugs to see if I can determine which exhaust valve stem seal is failing. I will have all of the exhaust valve stem seals replaced (intake vavle stem seals should be ok). Along with pulling the plugs, I am going to remove the turbo manifold to see if there is any oil moisture around the exhaust ports.
Any other suggestions?
Any other suggestions?
I don't see why the piston rings would be bad. That normally only happens when an engine has a butt-load of miles on it. Also, as it turns out, I do not believe blue smoke is coming from the tail pipe under load--I had a friend follow behind me the other day and he said the smoke was actually blackish. I don't have a pig-rich tune, so the black smoke must be because I am not running a CAT.
^^yes, a compression test would tell if u got ring failure but in only one way though...ie: if you have low compression, throw some oil down the spark plug hole, if compression goes up after that = ring failure....if compression does not go up, you either have a HG leak or a bent valve or non-seating exhaust valve/non-opening intake valve which also will probably = lifter failure or camshaft failure (ie: cam lobe worn too much)
note: i didn't say that you probably have a bad ring or anything else, i just posted that for info so you can find out what is wrong with your car. most of these situations will probably not apply to your car because...it's got low miles, correct? just for your info so you can eliminate some options.
note: i didn't say that you probably have a bad ring or anything else, i just posted that for info so you can find out what is wrong with your car. most of these situations will probably not apply to your car because...it's got low miles, correct? just for your info so you can eliminate some options.
Last edited by RedLanEVO; Jan 27, 2008 at 01:58 PM.
^^yes, a compression test would tell if u got ring failure but in only one way though...ie: if you have low compression, throw some oil down the spark plug hole, if compression goes up after that = ring failure....if compression does not go up, you either have a HG leak or a bent valve or non-seating exhaust valve/non-opening intake valve which also will probably = lifter failure or camshaft failure (ie: cam lobe worn too much)
note: i didn't say that you probably have a bad ring or anything else, i just posted that for info so you can find out what is wrong with your car. most of these situations will probably not apply to your car because...it's got low miles, correct? just for your info so you can eliminate some options.
note: i didn't say that you probably have a bad ring or anything else, i just posted that for info so you can find out what is wrong with your car. most of these situations will probably not apply to your car because...it's got low miles, correct? just for your info so you can eliminate some options.
my car is 10.9 at its leanest...and i still see smoke out of the exhaust...
i doubt there is anything mechanically wrong with your car..i think it is all in the tune...good luck and keep us posted what you come up to
i doubt there is anything mechanically wrong with your car..i think it is all in the tune...good luck and keep us posted what you come up to