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2G 2G GST smoking after 6 bolt swap

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S'tan

Probationary Member
21
1
Feb 8, 2021
Beaverton, Oregon
Hello,
I was just wondering if anyone could provide some guidance to help me resolve an issue I'm having with my 97 GST. I recently did the 6 bolt swap on my engine, with a few upgrades along the way. I've rebuilt the engine before but this was my first time using parts that were not stock, so I was fairly sure I knew what I was doing, generally speaking, and I was able to find the information I needed on the things I wasn't sure about. When I finished, I felt everything went well and the engine started right up on the first try. It ran rough at first because of the spark plug cables and ECU configuration had to match the new components and after a bit of tinkering the engine sounded closer to what it should. However, it was immediately obvious that the car was smoking excessively (white smoke, indicating coolant in the oil) and something was wrong. To get to the point, the cause was not equipment malfunction, it was user error. I had connected one of the oil lines (oil filter housing) to a coolant line, because I had mistakenly believed that it was an oil feed line. Rookie mistake, and now I had to fix it. I ended up doing around 3-4 oil flushes, and even added a couple of those oil flush treatment bottles, and also removed the everything downstream from the turbo so I could clean out all the residue that was left on the exhaust system, and cleaned out the oil catch can. Once everything was clean, I added some fresh oil but the problem is that the car still starts smoking up as the engine warms up. I figured there would be a bit of smoke at the beginning but had expected that eventually all the residue would burn up and the smoke would stop, but the car keeps smoking. My question is what else could be causing the car to keep smoking and how do I stop it?
(Just a few more notes, in case they matter:
The smoke comes out of the muffler, not anywhere else. It is also not very thick, but it is noticeable, and it starts to smoke up as the engine warms up, not right when the engine starts. It has a brand new MLS head gasket, ARP head studs, head and block were resurfaced, and when I check the dipstick the oil is clear and honey- colored so I don't think there is any more coolant getting mixed with the oil. When doing the flushes, I used some cheaper oil that was thinner than normal (0w-20) because it was on sale and it was just going to go to waste anyway, so I didn't think it would be a big deal, at first. I have now put in the oil I would normally use (Castrol full synthetic 10w-30))
My brother also has a modified dsm, but his works fine and he mentioned that he uses rotella oil for diesel engines, and also read that that oil is generally favored by the dsm community, so I'm wondering if perhaps using a thicker oil could help solve the issue (in the even that the oil is still too thin and some of it is getting past the piston rings. The spark plugs look dry but the pistons look a bit moist)
I am not an expert, nor do I pretend to be. I just like working on cars, so any help/guidance is appreciated. Hope I included enough info, but sorry for long post.

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I took off one of the plugs on the head, thinking it lead to an oil gallery(I was tired and didn't think about it as much as I should have). I connected that line to the oil filter housing. My brother later told me that the plug I removed on the head lead to a coolant gallery, not an oil one. I tried to show the connection I had made in the picture. The red circle is where the plug that I removed was, and the green arrows follow the line I connected to the oil filter housing. Everything else had been going smoothly, until I realized that the 6 bolt block does not have a plug on the block that the 7 bolt does. I don't remember what I was thinking but I do remember that after checking to make sure that the turbo had a feed and return line for oil, and coolant, I still had one more line left over to connect and at some point
 
(I pressed 'post' by accident)
- Continued:
... I got confused and decided I needed to connect the oil filter housing to an oil gallery. Once I had finished everything else I had turned the engine on 3 times, and had it running for around 20-30 seconds total, when I realized my mistake. And unfortunately that was long enough for the oil to get mixed with the coolant. That was the only mistake I did and because of that mistake my car has been parked since, and I haven't been able to enjoy the upgrades I put in.
 
Here is where I had connected the line that caused the issue. The green arrow follows the hose, and the circles are the connection points I had used

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Here is where I had connected the line that caused the issue. The green arrow follows the hose, and the circles are the connection points I had used
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That still wouldn't put coolant i to the combustion chamber but it would certainly contaminate both cooling and oiling systems. Did you not notice those are coolant lines?
Here is where I had connected the line that caused the issue. The green arrow follows the hose, and the circles are the connection points I had used

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I took off one of the plugs on the head, thinking it lead to an oil gallery(I was tired and didn't think about it as much as I should have). I connected that line to the oil filter housing. My brother later told me that the plug I removed on the head lead to a coolant gallery, not an oil one. I tried to show the connection I had made in the picture. The red circle is where the plug that I removed was, and the green arrows follow the line I connected to the oil filter housing. Everything else had been going smoothly, until I realized that the 6 bolt block does not have a plug on the block that the 7 bolt does. I don't remember what I was thinking but I do remember that after checking to make sure that the turbo had a feed and return line for oil, and coolant, I still had one more line left over to connect and at some point
Your brother is wrong. The line at the head is oil. Both lines at the oil filter housing are coolant. One in one out.
 
My question is what else could be causing the car to keep smoking and how do I stop it?
Anyways you connected a oil feed line to a coolant line. I don't know how long exactly you ran the engine being like this and how much coolant got into the oil passage and vice versa, but I imagine that the oiling system got a lot of coolant, and the cooling system got a lot of oil in it since at least you ran the engine until the engine gets hot. I hope it hasn't damaged the engine bearings, new cylinder wall/piston rings and the turbo.
The coolant/moisture might still remain everywhere inside crank case, intake manifold, lifters, exhaust pipe etc. And even flushing the engine a couple of times I don't think you can take all the remaining coolant/moisture out from crank case.
If it fortunately didn't damage anything and the smoke is really related to the remaining coolant, then probably the smoke will stop once all the remaining coolant gets evaporated, if you go driving the car (not only idling) it would make it evaporated way quicker.

Another thing came up to mind is since you occupied the factory oil feed for the turbo by connecting to the oil cooler coolant line, did the turbo has a oil feed while you were running the engine? If not, maybe the turbo got shot and that is causing the smoke now.
.
 
(I pressed 'post' by accident)
- Continued:
... I got confused and decided I needed to connect the oil filter housing to an oil gallery. Once I had finished everything else I had turned the engine on 3 times, and had it running for around 20-30 seconds total, when I realized my mistake. And unfortunately that was long enough for the oil to get mixed with the coolant. That was the only mistake I did and because of that mistake my car has been parked since, and I haven't been able to enjoy the upgrades I put in.
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