help needed, white smoke blowing out of exhaust

[Guest tkch55]

car: r33gtst series 2, around 80000km

mods: stock except for turbo back exhaust, turbo boosted to 10psi, k&n panel filter, oil catch can vented to atmo

when i was driving the car last night, my friend driving behind me told me that he didn't see any smoke coming out of the exhaust, except the exhaust fumes smelled a bit

however when parking my car into the garage, i realised that there's plenty of white smoke blowing out of the exhaust, the white smoke pretty much filled the whole garage, and it smells really bad, which i suspect it was burning engine oil

tried driving the car this morning, plenty of smoke came out of the car when idling, no smoke when driving, but smokes again when pulled up at the lights, which is quite embarrassing.

car still drives like normal, boost still comes on as usual and idle is perfect. drivability of car hasn't changed at all

although i've just changed engine oil from motul 8100 to 4100 turbolight on thursday, i'm guessing that it has nothing to do with it

checked dipstick, no sign of oil loss, oil is still really clean

oil catch can indicator is still showing empty since installation around 3 mths ago, tho the clear hoses that came with the oil catch can are a bit brown, but i believe this should be normal

from what i know, blown headgasket will make the engine oil milky as water will leak in, if it's piston rings then oil catch can will be filled really quickly, is this right? pls correct me if i'm wrong on this one

what are the other indications of blown head gasket and piston rings?

based on that, i'm guessing that i can exclude the possibility of blown headgasket or piston rings, but my question is, if it's a blown headgasket, or piston rings, would the car still drive and boost like normal? how about leaking turbo seals?

the turbo has a pretty audiable turbo whine since car was bought

so that led me to believe that it may be a leaking turbo seal? would that be right?

cheers

[FATGTS-R]

If you are running a catch can then your inlet tract should be clean. Pull off the pipes and check. If they are full of oil then the only place it could come from is the turbo.

But to complicate matters further, I had a blown headgasket on an old daily driver and no water was getting into the sump. Has your water temp increased? And is it like thick white smoke that lingers around or more closer to being steam?

[r33GTS-t-200kw]

could also be ur brake master cylinder leaking brake fluid into the booster, hence through vacuum hoses and then into your engine... it burns white aswell. Food for thought

[Guest tkch55]

thanks for the reply

the water temp is actually quite normal, the smoke is definitely the thick type that lingers around for a bit, and the quantity is so much that it can turn the garage into a smoke heaven in less than 20 seconds

in morning cold start its only a bit, but let it idle further for 20 seconds and the exhaust will start to smoke like crazy

[Guest tkch55]

will definitely check the brake master cylinder booster too, thanks for the tip

i've also recently installed a strut brace with brake master cylinder stopper too, would that put stress on the booster?

[Guest tkch55]

started the car up again last night, it was fine without any smoke at all, took it for a drive for an hour or so, still no white smoke at all, exhaust smells normal

drove it to work this morning, and it's fine still

car still idles, boosts as normal

also checked the brake fluid last night, it's fine

now this puzzled me..

maybe it's just bad batch of petrol or something made its way into the fuel tank? the stopper at the fuel tank filler hole isn't sealed btw, so rain may make it's way in? (dodgy compliance work), or engine oil change from motul 8100 to 4100 turbolight caused this (which i doubt)?

oh well, at least she's fine for now

[Amaru]

Id get the possibility of water getting into your fuel looked at... water cannot be compressed, so get a decent enough amount in there and welcome to the wonderful world of compression lock (worst case scenario, totally bent bottom end).

Has nothing to do with your original post, but sounds pretty dodgy

[Binky1970]

I thought that white smoke meant that the turbo was on the way out or completely shot. That was the problem when my Hilux started blowing a sh#tload of white smoke. (it wasn't on the way out, it had completely gone )

[Angry]

i had the same problem ..when i changed oil weight....fixed it self when i put back the original weight oil i had in the beginning. also removed the catch can for now ..and its stopped.

[West]

Hope you didn't block any breathing line while installing catch can, i had same problem with my old car. Smoke came out so bad that i thought my turbo has gone but turned out to be the engine couldn't breath properly so it force oil through.

Another word is a BLOWN by. Hope this help.

[rs73]

white smoke = water vapour

blue smoke = oil burnt....

black smoke = running mega rich (too much fuel) or too much carbon deposit e.g. on older diesel engines....

[Guest tkch55]

ok the car started doing it again today, only for around 30 secs on idle then it's fine again

this time the white smoke didn't smell as much

checked the vacume line on the brake booster, it's clean so brake booster's not leaking

oil on dipstick is still nice and gold

water in the overflow is still at the max mark, checked the radiator and there's no sign of any water loss

car still boosts fine

what i realised was, this only happens occasionally after more than 30min drives, sometimes it doesn't do it even after an hour drive tho

if water did make its way into the fuel tank, due to water being denser than fuel, it should be at the bottom

hence the fuel pump should only pick up water, and no fuel at all isn't it? if so then i should be able to feel it quite easily when driving i thought?

didn't think that there's a block anywhere in the catch tank system, but if there was, such as too much steel wool, wouldn't the dipstick blow out? and shouldn't blow-by be blackish?

i had exactly the same oil catch tank setup on my old r32 and it was fine, so didn't think it'll cause anything after transplanting it to the r33

tho i didn't have it on the r32 for that long to find out anyway

took the car to a mechanic's place and problem's not occuring, so he couldn't figure out what went wrong either

cars always behave pretty well when they're taken to mechanics to diagnose certain problems...

but i might try taking out the oil catch tank and see how it goes for the next few days or so

anyway, thanx for the advise guys

[r33GTS-t-200kw]

it MAY be valve stem seals on your head if it is only doing it on start up. But then again im only guessing :confused:

[Guest tkch55]

i was thinking that it might be valve stem seals but actually..

i realised that when revving the car in neutral when parked, exhaust spits out water

so in other words inside my exhaust and especially cat, there's plenty of water

checked the hoses for the oil catch can, no sign of excessive amount of water vapour, while engin is running fine

my mechanic told me that the smell that came with the exhaust fumes the first time would have been from damaged cat due to the excessive amount of water trapped in it

cat's stuffed, good excuse to get myself a high flow cat

but now that the exhaust is cleaned and dried, car's fine again

maybe someone hosed in my exhaust? i don't know

[Amaru]

if water did make its way into the fuel tank, due to water being denser than fuel, it should be at the bottom

hence the fuel pump should only pick up water, and no fuel at all isn't it? if so then i should be able to feel it quite easily when driving i thought?

If you sucked pure water into your engine, youd probably have a nice hole in the side of it (as said above, water doesnt compress... get enough of it into your engine and it will bend the bottom end to all hell and back).

Pull the radiator cap off and see if the fluid looks milky/oily.

[Guest tkch55]

water in radiator's checked

i'm sure no water's made its way into the engine, engine oil's nice and clear and so is the water in the radiator..

the radiator cap was pulled off number of times to check the level of water, the bleeding point near the intake plenum was checked also, colour looks fine and water didnt decrease at all

my mechanic's gone through the engine and found no leaks or any blown gasket

i guess i'll just leave it for now, it's not blowing steam anymore

thanks for your replies guys, appreciate it

[skyman]

car: r33gtst series 2, around 80000km

mods: stock except for turbo back exhaust, turbo boosted to 10psi, k&n panel filter, oil catch can vented to atmo

when i was driving the car last night, my friend driving behind me told me that he didn't see any smoke coming out of the exhaust, except the exhaust fumes smelled a bit

however when parking my car into the garage, i realised that there's plenty of white smoke blowing out of the exhaust, the white smoke pretty much filled the whole garage, and it smells really bad, which i suspect it was burning engine oil

tried driving the car this morning, plenty of smoke came out of the car when idling, no smoke when driving, but smokes again when pulled up at the lights, which is quite embarrassing.

car still drives like normal, boost still comes on as usual and idle is perfect. drivability of car hasn't changed at all

although i've just changed engine oil from motul 8100 to 4100 turbolight on thursday, i'm guessing that it has nothing to do with it

checked dipstick, no sign of oil loss, oil is still really clean

oil catch can indicator is still showing empty since installation around 3 mths ago, tho the clear hoses that came with the oil catch can are a bit brown, but i believe this should be normal

from what i know, blown headgasket will make the engine oil milky as water will leak in, if it's piston rings then oil catch can will be filled really quickly, is this right? pls correct me if i'm wrong on this one

what are the other indications of blown head gasket and piston rings?

based on that, i'm guessing that i can exclude the possibility of blown headgasket or piston rings, but my question is, if it's a blown headgasket, or piston rings, would the car still drive and boost like normal? how about leaking turbo seals?

the turbo has a pretty audiable turbo whine since car was bought

so that led me to believe that it may be a leaking turbo seal? would that be right?

cheers

hey there

i had the same problem after fitting upgradded injectors..

heaps and heaps of white smoke came out of the exhaust.

but i let the car idle for about 2 hours and it just went away

never to return and its been over 2 months now.