1996 Eclipse GSX smoking while idling

[5280eclipse]

I'm pretty new to the DSM world and have only had a 420a for daily driving, until recently i decided to purchase a 1996 Eclipse GSX. It has a 14b turbo on it with hard piping to a fmic. Tonight I started it and i was going to put something in the trunk and i noticed a small amount of smoke was coming out from the exhaust(Which is the stock exhaust) and so when i got in the car i pressed the gas and out came even more smoke. So i decided to check under the car for any leaks or anything of the sort to find only two droplets of fluid which were oil. What could be causing this smoke? I'm new to the 4g63 and don't know much about it and have had a decent amount of mechanical skills. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

 

[Cooper-97gst]

We'll what color is the smoke? White? Or faint tint of blue? You might want to check the turbo in and out shaft play...

 

[5280eclipse]

Its white.

 

[turbo98eclipse]

Sounds like a headgasket... hows your coolant level?

 

[5280eclipse]

The coolant level i haven't checked but i am going to now. But what i did check was the oil level from the dipstick and it was really low. And i turned my key to the third click, and the oil pressure gauge is low.

Also its dark outside right now so i can't see if there is a blue tint to it or if it's pure white. Also barley a week ago the car was emission tested and passed. But it kinda sucks since I have only had the car since the beginning of the month.

 

[SleepingTSI]

How many miles are on it? My first 2g would smoke when I let it idle to warm up in the mornings and I ended up having to replace the valve seals in the head and it took care of it.

 

[5280eclipse]

It has around 173,xxx

 

[Kdouglas89]

Check for boost leaks, and make sure your exhaust manifold isn't leaking. I was having white smoke coming from my car when I was leaking from mani to turbo. As soon as I put my stock manifold on, it quit smoking.

 

[SleepingTSI]

You should also pull the plugs to see if it's burning oil/coolant in the combustion chamber, or if it's leaking in afterwards like Kdouglas89 suggested.

 

[Talonman86096]

Don't go off the stock oil pressure gauge it's usually not close to accurate. If your worries about oil pressure get an aftermarket gauge

 

[William2GNT]

Are you burning through oil quickly? Is the smoke noticeable while driving? The 2 replies you've already received would be things to check out from what I've researched. My 420a smokes heavy at idle and all my researched has pointed to valve stem seals. Some kind of leakage going on.

Since you have a turbo, maybe it is a seal within that component that is causing this. Anyway, I will stop talking, since all I am doing is repeating information.

Here are some links I came across that may be helpful to you:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/maintenance-repairs/414757-98-eclipse-gs-t-burning-oil-problem.html

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/361479-white-smoke-compress-test-done-head-gasket-changed-help.html

Good luck!

 

[5280eclipse]

Well yesterday it was warmer out in Colorado so i decided to take a look at my issue to find that the oil line is damaged. So going to fix that and then go from there and see if that fixes my issue.

 

[perez84]

if its smoking at idle say a red light. then it goes away as you hit the gas then im guessing its your valve seals. thats just another option.

 

[cliffkemp]

Check a few things

1. Is it smoking at first start up and then go away after warming up? if so, the 'oil' you saw may just have been water and soot and on a cool morning, it will look white.

2. Your car does not have the original turbo on it and may not have been hooked up correctly and could be a used turbo that may have a seal issue. If it does, the smoke will never go away and will get worse. As said before, check shaft play and rebuild/ replace if play seems excessive (check to see if you can touch the cover with the wheel and if you can, it is toast)

3. If it is a headgasket, more often than not, it will not cool down at idle meaning, your temperature gauge will keep going up and you will see bubbles in your resevoir once up to temperature and keeps getting hotter. If it is the headgasket, depending on where it failed, your oil will turn to snot in many cases.

4. If it does it at idle and goes away after going down the road or revving up the engine and holding at 'cruising' rpms, you have a valve stem problem.

5. If it does it all the time and none of the other apply, another issue may be your rings are done or cylinder walls are gouged. One way to check this is take the oil cap off. It will have some pressure behind it or, worst case is, take the dip stick out and you will see smoke puffing out of it as well.

Any of these issues can be fixed fairly cheap if you are mechanically inclined. The rings and cylinders are a little expensive though. With the miles on the car, it would be best to pull the motor and redo it so you know what you have after you get done. Anything else is a bandaid but, it is up to you.

 

[5280eclipse]

Well from being under the car for 10 minutes today because i finally got enough free time to check my car a bit more in-depth, to find that there is a silicone oil return line that has some metal wiring wrapped around it and it has significantly kinked my oil return line both ends of the line.(Was from the previous owner.) It's a really bad kink. Replacing that today, but i turned the car on today to get it into my garage. And there wasn't any smoke at idle or the rpms i took it to. (which was like 2500 at max.) and there wasn't smoke, and that was just around the block. But when i boost, the car smokes. But it makes sense with this kinked line.

 

[1G Eclipse94928]

Well from being under the car for 10 minutes today because i finally got enough free time to check my car a bit more in-depth, to find that there is a silicone oil return line that has some metal wiring wrapped around it and it has significantly kinked my oil return line both ends of the line.(Was from the previous owner.) It's a really bad kink. Replacing that today, but i turned the car on today to get it into my garage. And there wasn't any smoke at idle or the rpms i took it to. (which was like 2500 at max.) and there wasn't smoke, and that was just around the block. But when i boost, the car smokes. But it makes sense with this kinked line.

dude, you have a kinked oil line, DON'T DRIVE THE CAR. I know your excited cause its a new car, but your damaging it, and could blow the seals on the turbo for starters. Fix that up and if it starts smoking all the time now, do a compression test and if thats all good I wouldn't be suprised if you blew the seals on your turbo too.

E: did you ever check your coolant level?

 

[1sick_gst]

DON'T DRIVE THE CAR.

Fix that return line asap. That kink is causing an improper return and pushing oil past the seal.

 

[5280eclipse]

I just logged on for the first time in awhile. So I thought I'd update. The return line is fixed now. Smoke went away. And drove it until two weekends ago it broke down.