Blown Engine?

[redfury]

I was driving on the Turnpike today, the car felt like it was boosting wierd, I go WOT to about 80mph or so and let off to merge with traffic.

About a couple miles later, I notice the car is pinned at 75mph and will not go any faster while floored(in 5th gear), I move over to the center lane and a huge cloud of white smoke starts pouring out the exhaust, I let off and its followed by a cloud of blue smoke.


I pull over, check the engine, a little oil on the valve cover, and my low oil warning light turns on, big noise coming from the engine.

Now I thought it wasa blown head gasket, but the car doesn't overheat, and doesn't lose the coolant what so ever.


The car had a bad dent in the oil pan, could have caused my engine to run low on oil and blow, the car starts, and idles good.


Any info would be appreciated, the car is a 95 and I dont think a brand new 6-bolt will be worth dumping into a 10 year old car, I would probably look into another DSM if the costs are over $3000 to repair.

 

[DSMcamaro]

You can have a blown headgasket without any loss of coolant and without overheating. But what you described did sound like an engine blow. I would do a compression test and go from there.

 

[Dred]

Sounds like you just blew your turbo. Mcmaro i right tho, do a compression check, if your compression is ok, and you can't see any leaks coming from the headgasket, it is ###### your turbo. What I would do if I were you, i'd take off the intake filter assy and check the turbo shaft, see if there's oil there and if the shaft spins freely or not.

 

[ddavisaf]

I think the compression test that DSMcamaro should be your first step.

The noise coming from your engine... can you describe it better? Was it from the block, the head, tranny side, timing belt side? Did it sound like ticking, or grinding, or what?

Since your car is FWD it's very easy to remove the oil pan. I'd recommend this so you can inspect for metal shavings. This may help us determine the cause of the problem if your compression test is within range.
Your turbo may be shot, but the noise at idle isn't usually present. To check your turbo first pull off your lower intercooler pipe. Watch out though, because if it is a bad turbo it will drain a ton of oil out of the pipe.
Pulling off the intake pipe doesn't always help you determine a bad turbo. There is almost always oil in the pipe if the car runs without a catch can. Notice the line running from your valve cover to the intake pipe? This helps relieve excess crankcase pressure and will dump a little bit of oil into the intake pipe. If your pcv valve is bad, it may dump more than a little oil. Post back the numbers from the compression test. Also post how low on oil and coolant the car was when you checked.

 

[redfury]

The strange thing is the dipstick shows that the oil level is fine, but my low oil warning light is turning on then off. The noise, is a knocking noise coming from the valve cover when the RPM's come up to 2200RPM or so.

The coolent level is fine, almost full, and the car doesnt overheat.


I am starting to lean towards blown turbo, I have to wait to monday to take it to the shop.

 

[Lazer RS]

Well hopely you never spun bearings...but for sure check compression and check pan for shavings. get that done first. even if with bearings spun, it can still idle good and you wouldnt notice... haha this reminds me of a camaro that came into the shop last week, guy said it was making funny noises.. the car idled fairly good too, anyways we rip it down to find that his crank had cracked at a main bearing, and a huge chunk was just sitting in the there, but it could still spin fairly freely. Funny thing was it sounded with a slight tick, thats it.. haha Sorry for off topic but...