I dont think its the headgasket, no milky substance in the oil and it drives fine. Its hard to tell if the turbos boost good or not, breaking in new clutch so i'm not giving it much gas, but from what i've seen the turbos defiantely work (to what extent I dont know). If there was a bad seal on the turbos and they were burning oil, would they still build boost well?

 

start it up and let it idle for about 10 minutes if it starts bellowing out smoke just sitting at a warm idle and you have no oil in your IC lines. then it would lead me to believe it has bad valve stem seals.

that is considering the car is still runnning good.. did you pull a spark plug to see what it looked like

 

Check the Y pipe, and see if there are any oil puddles in it. There may be a slight oil film, but that will be normal...but look for oil puddles. Also do a compression test, and check your rear IC pipes to see if you have a lot of oil there too. Make sure you dont lose the O-Ring to the rear IC pipe if you take it off.

 

Thanks for the replys, I'll check all that stuff out here tonight.

If the car is idleing, there isn't any excessive smoke coming out, only when driving around after its been under boost.

I'm gonna compression test the front 3 cylinders, that should give me a good idea about all 6 so I'll look at the spark plugs then as well. I'll check for oil in the pipes too.

Thanks for some help

 

I'm curious about this post that mellon had here : http://www.3si.org/forum/showthread.php?t=247066&highlight=blowing+smoke+boost

The quote is:

mine would smoke when I lift off the gas after a hard run.. I routed the rear valve cover hose that goes down to the intake to atmosphere and capped the intake nipple. I went from smoking like a train after a hard run to zero smoke. so evidentally the vacuum in the intake path was sucking oil out of the valve cover.

I'm confused on what hose he's referring to. I'd like to try this to see if it makes any difference to me. The only hoses I see are the hose that connects the rear and front valve covers on the drivers side of the plenum and the pcv valve/hose that connects the front valve cover to the intake on the passenger side. Where is the hose that he refers to that connects the rear valve cover and the intake, and any reason why he'd choose this hose?

 

If the car is idleing, there isn't any excessive smoke coming out, only when driving around after its been under boost.

That right there is usually a clear indication of turbo failure.

The hose that Mellon was referring to was the PCV hose, IIRC.

 

Compression test.

The PCV system they are referring to is the Positive Crankcase Ventilation valve. They only have like a 10K mile shelf life, so you might as well replace it with the $14 mitsu part - its better that the autozone one.

Turbo failure seems to be the likeliest cause if you are not burning oil at idle. That would likely rule out valve seals, as those are more noticeable at idle. I'd check compression just to rule out your rings.

My money's on the rear turbo. Any takers?

 

If you check your turbo and find nada then im thinkin it might not be a bad idea to check the gaskets.. *shrug* I hope thats what it is anyway.. Cheaper

 

simkin, what gaskets are you referring to?

I just did a compression check on the front 3... 127, 123, 127... hows that sound? This was on a warm engine with no oil to lube the compression checker.

I found a bit of oil in the ypipe, but it wasn't "puddled" just a little film by where the intercooler lines attach to the y pipe. Haven't checked the rear intercooler pipe yet, try to do that tonight.

 

Spec is 155 psi, so they all seem low. Pitt is near the mountains though. What's your altitude? That can affect compression.

Put a little oil in each cylinder then test again.

 

if the compression went up with some oil, would that mean the piston rings were worn or...?

is 125 typical for an engine with say 60k miles on it or so?

 

if the compression went up with some oil, would that mean the piston rings were worn or...?

is 125 typical for an engine with say 60k miles on it or so?

Not necessarily. Your pistons should have oil on them when the engine is running, so you would really just be simulating firing conditions. I must say, I would be a bit worried that the engine was warm when you tested, as that would indicate that the pistons should already have an oil coating. Its something to try though.

125 psi is not typical for any engine in good condition. It certainly is not typical of an engine with only 60K miles on it. Since all 3 cylinders have low compression, I think there are two likely scenarios:

1. All 6 cylinders will be near 125 psi because of your altitude. You can find a fromula that factors in altitude (which I don't know off the top of my head). It could be that all cylinders are within spec for your given altitude.
2. Other cylinders will likely be low (perhaps all six) because your engine sat around for several years and now the seals are shot.

Lets hope #1 is the case. Maybe someone can post a formula? I know Blue94inNM pressure tested at 5000 feet and figured his low psi was right on target. Someone in Colorado would probably know too.

 

PS. I pulled my oil pan off today. You didn't tell me it was still filled with oil.

 

Hahaa ooops Hey at least u know that engine runs good!!

My altitude is like 700 feet, I'm sure it affects it a bit, but probably only a few lbs...

I didn't check the back 3 cylinders cuz well, its a PITA and the front 3 were so close I figured they were probly the same.

Ugh.... ?

 

700 feet isn't enough to affect compression much. I guess we can rule that out.

Its low, but try them with some oil in the cylinders. Maybe it will make a difference.

 

Hey Tim, that does seem pretty low. I tested mine not too long ago and front 3 were like 156 130 156, i dripped a little oil in the low cylinder and compression went way up. My rings were looked pretty beat when I removed them, hopefully yours aren't. Was the car truly warm when you tested that compression? That almost sounds like COLD compression for most TT engines.

 

Yeah the engine was definately warm. Didn't try the oil thing yet. I have good/bad news, not really sure. Took off the rear intercooler pipe and I got mad oil sitting on the lip of the rear turbo where the o ring is. Like a lot of oil... probly 1/3 teaspoon. So I can probably say that 1/both of the turbos are next to shot. My dad's thinking that maybe a lot of that oil thats been blowing through there could be gumming up the whole engine, affecting compression.

I guess next step is to get some new turbos? I dont know what else to do to determine what could be wrong with the engine, if anything?