White smoke when cold

[grungeisdead]

Aloha,

changed the oil on the g at 176k with 5w30 mobil fully synth, its now on 178.5k and ive used 3 litres in that period topping the car up with oil.

it breathes heavily, but the charger pipes and intercooler have no more than a fingerful of oil at the most, just a light coating all around.

there is a spattering of oil remants around the bonnet where the oil breather vents to atmos, as the vapours condense on the bonnet.

ive had to top the coolant up twice (amount of the expansion tank) in 3.5k.

2 weeks ago when the car was started from cold, when setting off and on overrun (lifting off the throttle) there was quite alot of white smoke out the exhaust, enough to cause alarm to people behind me (best thing to deal with tailgaters), the smoke was gone after 5 minutes.

the last two weeks have been smoke free, just showing a very small puff of whitey smoke on gear changes, even when warm.

started the car today (-1/0 degrees outside), not been driving since friday night and we had smoke screens again (white smoke from the exhaust) until it had warmed up again.

the car was hit off the limiter twice at the awesome gti rolling road day, ive hit it twice by accident in 3.5k.

when the car was on the rollers at awesome and it hit the limiter, it kicked out a load of oil from the oil breather (as it vents to atmos)

car only smokes when cold, or on overrun or pulling off, doesnt smoke at all on boost and if you apply a bit of boost when cold, it doesnt accentuate the white smoke (dont use boost when cold, but just wanted to check if it made a difference)

charger was last serviced in june (full set of seals, kluber grease and new belt) and has done 8k since.

engine was fully rebuilt 28.5k ago with the following new oil pump, new rings, all bottom end shells, seals, gaskets and a thinner metal headgasket.

i will have one of the other cars for driving about in february but just want some input from you guys if you think the symptoms seem charger or headgasket based?

id be doing the work myself bar the charger seals which i would probably take to pete, but i have a spare dead charger to practise on first if neccessary!

cheers guys =]

[hayesey]

I'd do a compression test on it if you are getting so much oil vapour out of the oil breather.  Not sure about the white smoke, older cars do tend to produce a lot when it's very cold. 

[grungeisdead]

no smoke this morning when cold, but had two little puffs of blue smoke, 5th gear, medium load going up an small incline.

will get a comp and leakdown test done asap and see what the results are.

cheers paul

forgot to also say that although the car is on 178, the engine has 50k less miles on. (replaced at 150k miles with rebuilt 100k motor)

[Karlos the jackyl]

As hays said , check the compression  ,if compression is ok  then you'll be off to the shops to buy a set of stem oil seals.

[lance]

personally i wouldn't use fully synth oil.

[grungeisdead]

not really sure on the recommend oil for G's, ive always used 5w40 fully synth on my 16v lumps, but i fear it may be too thin for the G, as its likely to run hotter than the 16v.

i assume most on here run 10w40 semi.

can valve stem seals be changed in situ, or does the head need to come off?

cheers karlos - you still got any G bits knocking about in your garage of wonders

[Yoof]

In my experience stainless exhausts (and manifolds) take ages to get rid of all the condensation inside them, especially if they've been through short journeys, or been used in the cold alot.

Oil consumption isn't good though- you sure there's no puddles in the bottom of the I/C?

Pull the plugs and stick a picture up of them, will show if it's burning any.

[scotsjohn]

If necessary seals can be changed in situ.

[grungeisdead]

i took the intercooler off, mid-december as i was worried about the loss of oil when it was on the rolling-road, and held the intercooler upside down on both the inlet and outlet, nothing dripped out. the oil was like condensed vapour around the tubing, nothing major, cleaned out all the pipework, supercharger outlet, intercooler inlet and outlet, main boost tube from where rad is up to tb, all of that only dirtied one face-flannel sized towel.

will get pics of the current plugs, they have only been in for probably just over 1k miles so should show any problems, i had checked them when i first noticed the smoke, and when checked on the chart, they showed a perfect burn. hopefully after a good run in the car, they should show up any problems.

i do some short journeys, but try not too often, mainly i do at least 25 miles at a time and drive for 30mins-1hr on average.

thanks for the advice guys, im over to my engine builders tonight to drop off a flywheel, so ill borrow his compression tester and check the results, as well as flicking a pic of the spark plugs.

danke

[lance]

you can put a air line into where the plug goes in, it keeps the valves up once the cam in out and tappets then change the seals mate.

[Karlos the jackyl]

not really sure on the recommend oil for G's, ive always used 5w40 fully synth on my 16v lumps, but i fear it may be too thin for the G, as its likely to run hotter than the 16v.

i assume most on here run 10w40 semi.

can valve stem seals be changed in situ, or does the head need to come off?

cheers karlos - you still got any G bits knocking about in your garage of wonders

Yeah you can change the seals using a compressor , but to be honest you'd be better to just pull head and check everything is ok .


Yeah got quite a few bits i still need to get rid of fiberglass bonnet and tailgate ( hayes wants the bonnet i think), will put the tailgate in the classifieds when I get a chance to remove it from the car.

[grungeisdead]

plug 1 - looks normal

plug 2 - looks normal

plug 3 - looks normal

plug 4 - looks more carbon deposit based rather than oil based deposits (this plug being nearest to the dizzy).

done around 1k on those plugs

didnt get a chance to check compression today as the engine builder is moving into his new gaff!

[grungeisdead]

thanks lance & karlos for the info, thats good to know.

im happy to whip the head but just not at the moment, will have one of the other two running in the next couple of weeks, so i can deal with the G properly over a few days rather than rushing a job

[grungeisdead]

well to wrap this thread up, the car started smoking again tuesday last week, blue smoke on overrun, and under load at low speeds and smelt very rich so ive taken it off the road, and started to strip down the engine, will send the head away to get inspected, to see if it is a valve stem seal or worn valve guide that had gone.

will post back up when i have sourced the problem.

engine is being replaced with a 97k G we picked up, as and when i can this week, and im putting the car back to standard specification. just acrruing a few bits and pieces to allow me to convert the mk2 with the 170bhp goodies. will be dropping the injectors off with PPP for peace of mind to ensure they are still fully operational and clean.