burning alot of oil at idle and minimal in drive

[1Gina2G]

So i had the car sitting in the garage for just 2 days, so i primed the engine before start up and immediately upon startup white/ grayish smoke comes pouring out the exhaust.

Block is rebuilt 400 miles on regular 10w30, have not done a compression check (no tester)
Head is rebuilt , same specs as the block. No leak down tester
Turbo is also rebuilt, same miles and oil being fed from the head without a restrictor and a home made oil return from 10an braided hose.

My catchcan has 3 lines all connected to the same area of the can itself. One goes strait to the port on the turbo intake pipe. Second goes strait across to the side valve cover port while the last goes to the PCV valve after first going through an added inline check valve that functions like the pcv.

Upon removal of the intake pipe and the intercooler, some small amount of oil was found inside the IC and ic pipes along with some in the coupling of the turbo inlet. Catchcan was cleaned prior to start up and rechecked and still clean along with the intake pipe itself. Also there was no oil in the exhaust manifold or 02 housing.

I drove probably 10 miles or less after in hopes something burning off, but whenever you take off it mostly goes away but so much thick smoke at idle. Does it sound like the turbo or engine ? Thanks

 

[1Gina2G]

Looking at the top picture I don’t see a point of using a check valve or the pcv valve, those just become a restriction for the air flow. Take both of them out and replace the pcv valve with just a nipple the same size as your hose. It should be 1/8” pipe tread on the valve cover side, you can pick one up at most of the parts stores. I would also disconnect the line that runs from your catch can to the intake pipe. Having it ran like that not only puts exhaust gases (blow by) back in to your motor but also cheats your MAF sensor from reading 100% of the air that’s going in to the engine because now it’s taking air from the crank case which is unmetered.

The problem with car shutting off when you let off the throttle could be due to the fact that you’re not running the hose from the pcv valve to the intake manifold. When you eliminate that you eliminate the extra air that the engine is used to getting. Another thing could be if your base timing is not set correctly. If the timing is correct for sure then run the car till it’s fully warmed up. As the car idles turn the BISS screw out a half a turn at a time. Not sure if the evoscan has an option for logging idle air control motor speed but if it does turn it on and log the IAC motor speed while you’re messing with the BISS screw. With ECMLink the IAC speed should be around 35 which is about 15% higher then the slowest speed it can go. If you don’t have an option for logging IAC then just turn the screw till the IAC motor cannot keep up causing your engine to idle high like at 1100 rpms then just turn the screw back in, do it half a turn at a time again giving the IAC few seconds between each turn to catch up. Once the engine drops to your desired rpms you should be set.

thanks for your opinion on the catchcan, its a simple vented catchcan with the breather filter removed, I was told if I put a line from there to the intake that it would work better since there's vaccum, so yeah the port on the intake manifold is still capped off, so are you saying I should have it hooked up back to the valve cover? But would that still be with the PCV on the top part of the VC or just a strait fitting?
Or are you just saying I should take the line from the intake out, cap the intake, change the can back to vented, take out the check valve and pcv from the line and leave the manifold capped off...or where else could I hook it back up to?

today I decided to take the valve cover off and see if I saw anything out of the ordinary. I also cant start the car up until the turbo comes back but I checked the spark plugs and the threads did look oily on 2 of them, and the spark plug gaskets fell like they were loose on those then the others, Im wondering if all this is because of some simple plug gaskets I overlooked..so I ordered all new gaskets for the turbo and VC just to see.

I also looked at the valve seals, or what I thought to be atleast. I'll upload some pics of them soon. nothing looks loose at all, everything looks as it was when I had the head rebuilt. leak down tester is also on the way.

 

[Boostdriven]

On the factory setup the reason that PCV (pressure control valve) is there is to prevent boost from entering the crank case. When the car is in vacuum it allows the crank case pressure to escape in to the intake manifold through the PCV. Now that you're not running a hose from the VC to the intake manifold you can replace that PCV with a regular nipple. PCV valve has a ball inside it that acts like a small restriction to the escaping crank case pressure. With out going all out and welding two larger nipples on your VC the best thing you can do is to replace the PCV valve with a nipple.

The check valve that you have in the upper breather line is also not needed, you can take that out and just use a straight hose. As for the top port on the catch-can, you can have it two ways. You can either have a small air filter on top, which is what I would do, or you can run a hose from there to the intake pipe nipple. Factory sets it up like that for emission purposes only, and if you're really worried about emissions then you should leave your car stock

When you disconnect the hose from the VC to the intake manifold and cap the nipple on the intake manifold you cutoff the air supply that the engine normally gets when in idle. At this point your IAC (idle air controller) has to compensate for the lost air and sometimes due to various factors it will not be able to keep up. Your car may still idle fine but when you let off the throttle shifting the car in to neutral, the lack of air entering the engine could cause it to drop the rpms to low essentially causing the engine to stall.

There are two things you can do. One is to mess with your BISS screw like I talked about before, and the other is to run a hose from the intake manifold nipple to the intake pipe nipple. If you do that you want to be sure that you install a check valve in that hose. You can probably use that same check valve that your going to remove from the upper breather hose. Make sure you install it properly with air flow going only from the intake pipe to the manifold and not the other way around. This will pretty much be like a factory setup but now your bypassing the crank case system. If using that hose eliminates your stalling problem then you can leave it like that or just adjust your BISS screw and eliminate that hose.

 

[black97spyder]

1Gina2G- if your turbo is off then take your exhaust mani off and shine a bright light into your exhaust ports and look at your valve stems, if any of the exhaust side valve stem seals are bad there will be wet oil residue running down the valve stems.

This is What I did today and Boostdriven was right about that on my motor, even tho it has roughly 4,000 miles on the head, most of the valve stem seals are bad and are letting oil into the cylinders under vaccum.

Oh and BTW Alex, those pictures are still Trying to send. You should get them shortly

 

[1Gina2G]

okay so I got a bunch of gaskets for the turbo today, along with a new VC & plug gasket sets so I replaced those and got the VC back on, still waiting on the turbo to get back. Good news is I'm %99 sure that the leak down tester I ordered will be here tomorrow or the next day...

otherwise, Justin says that the insides of the turbo check out like new, but also noticed oil running from both sides of the turbo, indicating either to much pressure at the feed and or a slow return. apparently an oil restrictor is not needed if feeding from the head, so I should be fine for pressure, but the homemade return was used for this..so even though I did not notice anything physically in the tube or with the hose being really kinked I will go back to an OEM hardline..actually wasn't sure at first how the 1Gs and 2gs have different oil returns so that may have messed me up. but nothing was said about if this could have caused my smoking problem but I guess the leak down test and next start up will show a lot.

if all the cylinders and valves check out i'll hook up the turbo, and do a BLT at the TB elbow right before I install the intercooler so check for bubbles in the coolant as well as a cold BLT. i'll start it up and see how everything goes..I'll keep everyone updated on what happens.

 

[black97spyder]

Did you look at your valve stems while your turbo is off? If the valve stem seals are bad you will be able to visually see oil residue on the valve stems on the exhaust side, take a bright light and look at the where the valve stem goes into the head. If It's dark and oily looking instead of burnt whitish then you valve seals are probably going bad.

 

[1Gina2G]

Did you look at your valve stems while your turbo is off? If the valve stem seals are bad you will be able to visually see oil residue on the valve stems on the exhaust side, take a bright light and look at the where the valve stem goes into the head. If It's dark and oily looking instead of burnt whitish then you valve seals are probably going bad.

I have not because I don't think it's worth checking out right now, I would if I had a spare gasket but with the engine potentially severely damaged I am trying to save some $. with that said, the entire time I've been thinking its the turbo from everything said in post 1 and on, especially now that the return was slowing flow one way or another, causing build up. I looked up the manifold with a light from the bottom, and all around the manifold, no traces at all along with the 02 housing side, which I thought was strange. I think there might have only been just enough oil to burn off or something, so basically made me wonder if anything would be seen with all the time between the last start.

so if anything I'll check it after the next start....but hopefully it doesn't call for that..really dieing to know how this test goes soon. I can't afford to redo the engine this soon so i'm hoping for the best.

 

[1Gina2G]

Okay so its going to be a week or so before the turbo gets here & installed so i was wondering once i finally go to start it up wouldn't it be a good idea to use a thicker oil then 10w30? I was thinking atleast some regular 10w40 and maybe even 15w40 as ive read some people do but i would worry about the really high pressure, ive only had 10w40 once just for idleing checking leaks and the pressure was alot higher on cold start up.

 

[1Gina2G]

Okay so when / if the turbo comes this week i will have it installed with all new exhaust gaskets and crushwashers ect. And switching back to a new OEM hardline for the oil return.

Just did alot of reading about how 10w30 has a really low flash point and alot of people use really thick oil in the summer sometimes just for smoking. One person mentioned 15w40 really cut back from smoking while 20w50 became the preferred oil...so i will be using 15w40 on this next start up.

New valve cover and spark plug gaskets. Small chance this was it but wth.

I should have the replacement gauge for my leak down tester soon, if soon enough I'll be able to test the engine after the next start & drive..Im really hoping the car wont smoke so that i can give it plenty of time to warm up before the drive.
I just was never able to see any actual percentages for cylinder leakage, but pressure would leak from the start going gradually up, which seems bad. Again this is with the engine cold.
I'll keep everyone updated.

 

[1Gina2G]

okay so I got the turbo bolted back up and along with a slightly different pcv / catchcan setup, new VC & plug gaskets and thicker oil (10w30 to 15w40) the engine starts up just fine with no smoke, and proceeded to let it warm up just fine with all the gauges reading as they should

I took it out for a very nice drive today and I boosted more then I ever have. came back home and let everything cool off with the fans on, let it run for a good 10 mins just cause. Sure enough I'm getting oil drips where the turbo return meets the pan. this is with a modified 2g oem hardline return. So i'll be attending to this tomorrow.

not sure what really caused / fixed this issue but I suspect it was the turbo like I was originally thinking, in some way or another. On a side note I also talked to my local machine shop who built my block and told him about everything and said he also thought it was the turbo even though the oil burned right away, since he's seen that happen. IDK important thing is theres no oil burning now and that I managed to get the car completely painted in the time that this thread was started. hell yeah

 

[black97spyder]

Awesome man glad you got your situation figured out!! I bet it was a turbo drain & catch can issue, but you checked and replaced basically every small issue could think of.

Just wish my smoking problem was as easy of a fix as yours

 

[Roderick850]

could you get a video up possibly so we could see the car running the sound of it and the color of the smoke?