Edit: It was fuel. Fuel can actually be white. Also, this thread was made before I opened shop and was still doing this as a hobby. Just saying.


Had the car on a road course on Saturday, it ran strong but on the last run it started kicking out large clouds of white smoke from the exhaust. I couldn't recreate it once I left the track. However, now the car is breaking up at around 6K which it was not doing at the track. It cuts power, kicks out black smoke and then continues on its merry way like nothing happened. I have not noticed a major loss of coolant or oil nor do I have overheating problems. Compression test on the way, I am hoping head gasket and not turbo seal. Any other ideas as to what it is or suggestions for diagnosing? Thanks.

 

Well the white is coolant, which is either a headgasket or a turbo seal. If your water temp is staying consistant and at what it was before this happened, and you havent seen any loss in coolant, that rules out the gasket. Could be the turbo seal. Mine spits out white every once in a while, not like that. Black is just to rich.

 

Im sorry to tell you but I believe its the turbo going bad, or just the seals. Mines is doing the same thing, but its burning oil a lot when i boost. Does it smoke only when your boosting?

 

How many miles on the car? How many miles on the turbo? Could be:

1.) Failed turbo seals
2.) Failed headgasket
3.) Failed valve stem seals
4.) Failed piston rings creating too much blow by

or any combination of the four. Good luck

 

Piston, piston ring, turbo seal.....could be alot of things.
Do a compression and leak down test to start.

 

Thanks for all the responses. The turbo is only two months old, maybe defective. The car has 23,000 miles, including 5 or 6 track days. I unfortunately wasn't paying attention to whether it was smoking on boost or when off throttle, too busy trying to keep the car on the black stuff and off of the green. I was told that if the turbo leaks oil into the downpipe it comes out as white smoke, true? The turbo could also be leaking coolant though, I didn't think of that.

Does anyone see a possible link between the white smoke and the car now breaking up at 6K?

 

Mine breaks up at the same rpm, same exact symtoms as yours. Mine does it when I am boosting over 20psi. It breaks up at 5900-6k and then keeps going like normal til I shift. Ive pulled the gap in on the plugs but this didn't help.I am also interested in an answer to this problem.

 

I love when stuff breaks, it gives me a perfect excuse to upgrade.

 

check you spark plugs....

 

Interesting. Do you have white smoke as well or just the breaking up? What mods? Do you know what your A/F is running at per chance? I am rich currently and hoping that is the problem in regard to the breaking up at least. But It seems like the two problems I am having would be related.

 

Already did all my upgrades. I accept the fact that things will break but I can't fix it if I don't know what it is.

 

Were the plugs oil soaked? Did you block test the coolant system? Did you pressure test the coolant system? You have access to a scanner with data and graphing capability?

 

Your best bet is to do a compression check and or leak down test. If you see bubbles starting to come from your coolant reservoir while doing either of the tests, your head gasket is done. Keep in mind that you can still get fairly good compression with a blown headgasket. The only 100% sure shot test for a blown headgasket, is to buy one of the kits that can detect exhaust gases in the coolant. If you are mis-firing, my guess is that the engine is ingesting too coolant to combust properly. Are you losing any coolant? Check to see if the level getting low. Is your oil level getting low? Are there any leaks visible around the engine block?

 

I get a little smoke I cant see it while driving, but i have had people follow me, they say i have a little grey smoke. My car is leaking coolant BAD but on the ground, this just started though. The car has broke up randomly at 6k since I purchased it in January. I have a nology ignition, i think this is the cause of my problem....need a stock ignition.

 

So to update on my problems. The breaking up problem was solved by changing the spark plugs back to the stock plugs. I had swapped in the BPRE7's a few weeks ago, I don't know why they fouled up so quickly.

The white smoke I still have no clue about as it only happened on the race track and I can't recreate it. I did a compression test and got 200psi on all cylinders which actually seems high compared to what other people have gotten. I forgot to open the throttle when doing the test so I may do it again. What does opening the throttle do anyway? Air still gets into the motor at idle with the throttle closed.

I am still a bit baffled by the compression test actually. Why does pressure build up. You are cranking the engine over so why doesn't the pressure exit the cylinder on the exhaust stroke? I'm confused

Also, when I did the compression test I would crank the motor over and on the 2nd or 3rd crank or so I would hear a pop. Is this normal? Thanks in advance guys. Your the breast.