Car is running EXTREMELY hot..

[MountainDew]

I just got my TSI last night. It seemed to be running fine. It would smoke when I got on it. I figured no huge deal. Noticed the engine was running pretty hot.

Well today I've been driving around town. Did a few pulls, nothing huge. It keeps smoking, blah blah blah, yada yada yada.

Well when I pulled in the garage I shut it off. I forgot my turbo timer wasn't on, so it didn't idle before shutdown. I heard a strange noise, popped the hood and heard a bubbling sound. I'm ASSUMING it's the oil, being very very very hot and bubbling. Took the oil cap off with a rag (Was too hot to not use a rag) and there was smoke coming out.

Oil Pressure at idle is at about the lower bar ont he gauge, temp gauge is in the middle.

I'm getting a little bit worried.. I bought this car because mechanically it seemed like in good shape. But it's smoking like crazy, especially at WOT. Plus the bubbling oil is making me very nervous.

What's wrong with it? I was kind of thinking the intercooler was a part of the problem. It might be gummed up with blowback and isn't getting much air through. It's got a stock T-25 on it.

If it's a problem inside the motor, I'd prefer to tear it down now and fix it, this car will be my DD during the school year and I'll be commuting quite a bit. Could it maybe be a headgasket? How hard would that be to replace?

Any help is appreciated. I love the car, but I want to fix this now so I don't run into some major problems later down the road.

 

[brandonzero0]

check for coolant leaks, and look at the radiator for anything plugging it,. if there is no coolant or an air bubble in the cooling system it will heat up and go back down, which you can get rid of by filling the overflow tank and letting it run itself out. but not the most obvious thing check the oil level for all you know you cold have low or no oil and be burning something up.

As for the smoke, depending on the mileagel it can still be anything, check the compression of the car if its low them you'll have blow by around the valve cover due blow by gases passing through due to the rings being weak/ worn, head gakset could be blow also check the compression and give it a cylinder leak down test, also could be the turbo seals, check the intake pipe, intercooler pipiing and intercooler itself for oil in them. thats how you'll know also check for excessive shaft play in the turbo.

And ask and see if the 60k maintenence was done or what not.

 

[MountainDew]

Sorry I forgot to mention, the turbo is a new T-25. Only has like 500 miles on it. So I don't think it's a problem with that. Also forgot to mention, it's got a "half-assed" exhaust on it. It "dumps" (sorry don't know the term, i was a Mustang guy before this) after the "fake cat". The pipe is broken that goes to the muffler over the axle. So it's basically running straight pipes, which I thought could cause some of the excess smoke.

Anyways..
So basically overfill the coolant tank and let it run out the hose?

Also it's got hard piping going down to the sidemount. I think I'll just try cleaning the intercooler as well, I'm sure it's dirty, the car does have 118k on it.

Thanks for the help. How do I go about getting a leakdown test done?

 

[nates6969]

its pretty doubtful that it was the oil that you heard boiling. Oil has a very high boiling point. When you said you saw "smoke" coming out of the oil cap after it had been running, this can be normal as small amounts of oil could steam off due to the normal high temps of the oil. However it could also be antifreeze steaming off. If the head gaskets is leaking, antifreeze could mix with the oil. Antifreeze, with a much lower boiling point, would definitely boil off when exposed to atmospheric pressures. Try smelling the "smoke" to see if it smells sweet (antifreeze) or like oil. The sound you heard could be the turbo feed lines draining (normal) or just the coolant contracting as the temperature of the engine drops. You should hear this sound right at the thermostat. both are normal.

A clogged up intercooler will only lower heat transfer out of the intake therefore your intake temps will increase if under high boost. If your just cruising around under vacuum, this won't affect anything.

If I were you do a compression test. look for aropund 150ish. Also change the oil and look for any antifreeze. It would be clearly visible in the oil as they will not mix

 

[MountainDew]

Yeah I'm planning on changing the oil, I'm just trying to diagnose this now.

When I checked the coolant, the smoke seemed to smell a little bit similar.

I just want to fix everything now. The smoke gets real bad under high boost, more then likely really pissing a lot of people off behind me.

 

[MountainDew]

Well the car is smoking HORRIBLY under high boost. It's running a little cooler now it seems. I did replace the plugs and wires and it's not as hot, but still pretty warm after driving.

But yeah if I hit high boost, there is just smoke everywhere. But if I drive it up to 5k with no boost, no smoke. No smoke at idle either.

Possible leaky headgasket?

 

[Eclipse98_RS]

Maybe the turbo wasnt broken in properly? Its not white smoke you see is it? Check out your turbo and make sure that isnt the problem.

 

[MountainDew]

Maybe the turbo wasnt broken in properly? Its not white smoke you see is it? Check out your turbo and make sure that isnt the problem.

Yes it is white smoke. He said the turbo had 500 miles and should have been broken in.

What should I check for on the turbo? Do I need to drain the oil before taking the turbo off?

 

[pooker]

You do not have to drain the oil to take off the turbo just be ready to catch what is in the turbo and what might come out. Unbolt the oil drain like from the turbo and not the pan if you plan on doing that.

 

[MountainDew]

Well I added some engine stop smoke/leak..

Hit boost, no more smoke. I could still smell it and when I first hit boost I could see a little bit of smoke. But it wasn't like last night where it was everywhere.

Does this mean my rings could be shot? I'm going to try and get a leakdown test done soon.