91 Talon TSi - Oil leak, smoke and yes fire from motor, external...

[Gemin Jackal]

1991 Eagle Talon TSi FWD 5spd

Just replaced VC gasket, plug gaskets and the plugs, halfcircle plug.

Car had been smoking and losing oil, originally thought the smoke was from the exhaust due to only seeing the smoke while under heavy boost, my bad.

Oil is leaking from the front side of the engine I'm guessing from the massive collection you can see in the picture. I pressure washed, compressed visible water off, let it dry and warm up. Left home and drove about a mile, simulating heavy boost conditions but no throttle mashing or tire spinning and she did very well, better in fact than I have seen her drive. Started up a hill and ran second gear from 4000-6200 with no tire spin and when I let off the throttle I felt a loss in power, or compression... a jolt I guess. big white cloud emerged from behind, pulled over, oil all over the front drivers side of the engine, and a small fire around the O2 sensor... blew that out and kept an eye on for fear of just shutting the motor down after recent boosting. No more fire let it smoke off what it could, and promptly returned home only momentarily using boost and got no more cloud but the fire had remanifested itself and was again blown out car cooled and shut off.

I don't know if it matters, or if oil could be coming from the dipstick tube but the dipstick was popped out when I first stopped and also upon returning home.

Mods on the car are intake, downpipe, and a manual boost controller currently set at it's lowest setting (since it seems to very rarely reach 12psi or so and only high in the rpm range). However when this was first installed it was, well abused considering the lack of aftermarket boost guage, mileage of the engine (137k, speedo been out for approx 300 miles, waiting on funds to deal with the oil) and lack of timingbelt being done.

If there is any more information I can offer let me know, wil lbe going to a known mechanic soon, I was just hoping to gain some insight here, thanks guys.

I apologize if this counts as a repost, I just have better information now.

Justin Neuroth

 

[Blackmitzu]

Sounds like you have a crankcase ventilation problem. Have you checked to see if the pcv valve is clogged? Ive seen alot of dsms pop the dip stick out, but not blowing much oil out like yours is.

 

[Gemin Jackal]

Checked PCV Valve, didnt let car warm too much for oil sake, and there was plenty vaccuum for it to stick to my finger and be moved around.

 

[92awddsm]

Checked PCV Valve, didnt let car warm too much for oil sake, and there was plenty vaccuum for it to stick to my finger and be moved around.

You need to make sure the pcv seals under boost and doesnt blow back into the crank case. The pcv will still allow vacuum to pass but may not seal when in boost allowing boost pressure to enter the engine.

According to the pics, the oil is coming from the dipstick. The best cure for your problem is to go to the dealer and order both a dipstick and pcv valve. If you dont have the funds, go to advance, kragen, etc and get a pcv valve and either make a dipstick retainer out of closehanger and hook it to the ps pump bracket or crimp the top of the dipstick tube to the point where the dipstick is held securely into the tube. A quick search on tuners alone will net you probably 100 threads with the same problem you have and remedies to the problem.

 

[Gemin Jackal]

Thanks 92awdsdsm, I did try searching the forum, but I seem to have trouble with my wording and have only gotten a few similar results from my search terms I'll try again. So, it is possible that I am getting this much oil out of the dipstick due to something increasing my crankcase pressure?

 

[Blackmitzu]

Yes this is very common for dsms. Another way is keep the dipstick in for the time being is to simply crush the dipstick tube at the top with a pair of pliers to make a tighter fit.

 

[Gemin Jackal]

Well if God can take a day off, so can I, so I won't be back on the problem untill tomorrow. Will start with a new PCV valve and a dipstick when I can locate one, any hints would be awesome, I will go back through the forums also just not today. For the PCV valve hose do I just need to make sure it's clear of blockage or is the fact that I have vaccuum enough to tell me the line is lclear even though it doesn't tell me the PCV is 100%?

 

[Gemin Jackal]

Allright, new PCV valve and as seems par for the course, the not so perfect valve cover... or my not so perfect torque sensing hands pulled the threads right on out of the VC. So new valve cover in the works. Anyone with a nice looking one and possibly an exman I would def appreciate a holler will be checking ebay and turbochargers.com's manifold seems good for the price and will outflow my current and near future needs.

So anyways, new PCV valve installed with a little help from the forum and some RTV, went ahead and let it be a permanently attached thing since I can grab a new PCV when I get the VC. Crimped the dipstick tube down alittle bit for the mean time while a order a new dipstick from mitsubishi or possibly ongreenperformance.

The good news motors clean, dipstick isnt popping out and theres no new oil except from the metal oil filler cap which seems to be the one I don't want anyway yes? So looking for that and the spark plug cover and screws with the VC if posible.

Now the bad, my check engine light is now on, car is still running well, slightly high idle but normal temps normal oil pressure... normal boost levels.

The fire that we survived was centered aroudn teh O2 sensor possibility of this going bad when lit on fire??? ;|

Thanks again for previous and future help you are all appreciated.

 

[Gemin Jackal]

Also I am getting an oil change tomorrow, so far though oil level has been nice and constant.... awfully unsettling when your not used to it, .

 

[Wizeman76]

You probably have a cracked valve cover - same thing happended to me. Oil collects in the spark plug area then runs out of the drain hole at the front of the valve cover spilling directly onto the exhaust manifold and everything around it.

 

[92awddsm]

You probably have a cracked valve cover - same thing happended to me. Oil collects in the spark plug area then runs out of the drain hole at the front of the valve cover spilling directly onto the exhaust manifold and everything around it.

You do realize that this thread is almost a year old and he posted that the problem was taken care of back then, right?