white smoke at idle..

[Sephroth57]

ever since i took my cat off and put a straight pipe ive had a white smoke from my exhaust at idle, its not a real lot but you can see it. im not really sure about when driving i only notice it when im idleing really. my coolant levels are normal, my overflow is at the line, has been. and im assuming whatever is smoking has been doing this but im just seeing it now with no cat.

is this just a normal side effect of having no cat on? maybe my exhaust is just cleaning itself out now with no cat? i looked up white smoke everyone likes to say its your head gasket, but wouldnt i noticed performance hits from that? and my oil is normal, burns/leaks a little but my valve cover gasket needs to be replaced..

 

[Twizzle]

check your turbo for shaft play and oil in the inlet, i had a similar problem. i installed a radiator, filled the coolant, and as soon as i turned the car on, it smoked. then i checked my turbo, no shaft play but had lots of oil everywhere. it just kind of randomly happened, could be the same for you, hopefully its not. check your oil for a milky mix, and your coolant for oil. i didnt have any smoke when my car ran good, with a test pipe. but it may be the test pipe coating burning off.

 

[Sephroth57]

well i did have my intake off today and when i touched the inside it did have oil in there, no flakes in it or anything though, checked for shaftplay and none. what does oil in there mean?

 

[Lunch_Box]

Usually when you have white smoke it means that you are leaking coolant into your engine which means you might have a blown head gasket.

 

[Twizzle]

not always true, could be the turbo like i said.

 

[Lunch_Box]

not always true, could be the turbo like i said.

Not saying it isn't but just saying something else it could be.

 

[Sephroth57]

would a blown head gasket make my performance suck? cause my car is running pretty damn slow for all the mods it had and i just cant figure out why

 

[Lunch_Box]

would a blown head gasket make my performance suck? cause my car is running pretty damn slow for all the mods it had and i just cant figure out why

Yes it would because you would have crappy compression, but a blown turbo would also yield a poor performing car.

 

[1993TalonTsiAWD]

one way to find out........a compression test will tell you tons. Check coolent for any bubbles if there are some it's probly a head gasket


Derek

 

[RiceKiller_TSi]

When your turbo seals go bad you'll see more smoke under boost than you will while idling. Maybe you should try doing a simple combustion chamber cleaner first and then do the compression test. I run with no cat and this worked for me. BTW there will be a little white smoke upon start up (and this is normal) due to water vapors burning off. But that should stop after the car warms up.

 

[Twizzle]

ricekiller, thats with bad seals? or without bad seals.

and another question, all you people that are so quick to always say its a blown headgasket, how does oil get in the turbo then?

 

[RiceKiller_TSi]

A small amount of white smoke is common even on new cars at start up and until the vehicle warms up. So it doesnt matter about the valve seals. Now if your car is just pouring out white smoke at idle thats another problem. If the turbo seals are bad the car will smoke like you wouldnt believe under boost and you'll have oil in your intake and intercooler.

 

[mitch83]

I'm not in anyway contradicting what your saying ricekiller but thats not 100% true. The most common sign of a blown turbo is white smoke at idle after crusing then you come to a stop a plum will come out of the tailpipe. The same goes for a blown headgasket but they will smell totally diffrent so. I think your the one that posted the pics of the blown turbo(crazy by the way). Thats just what I've known to be true.
mitch

 

[RiceKiller_TSi]

If a turbocharger has bad seals then under boost pressure oil that would normally flow thru the turbo and back into the oil pan gets pushed past the seal and makes its way into the intercooler. Once the intercooler has oil in it the oil makes its way up the UICP and into the throttle body were it is burned by the engine thus producing a thick white smoke. This smoke definitely will smell like burnt oil.

Once rpm's return to normal the leftover oil in the intake and throttle will gradually fade away from sight coming out of the tail pipe. The reason that the smoke seems to come out more when you come to a stop is because you can see the smoke better than you would if the car was moving and the wind was diffusing the smoke.

Get on it really good and you should see lots of white smoke if the turbo seals are bad.

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

If a turbocharger has bad seals then under boost pressure oil that would normally flow thru the turbo and back into the oil pan gets pushed past the seal and makes its way into the intercooler. Once the intercooler has oil in it the oil makes its way up the UICP and into the throttle body were it is burned by the engine thus producing a thick white smoke. This smoke definitely will smell like burnt oil.

Once rpm's return to normal the leftover oil in the intake and throttle will gradually fade away from sight coming out of the tail pipe. The reason that the smoke seems to come out more when you come to a stop is because you can see the smoke better than you would if the car was moving and the wind was diffusing the smoke.

Get on it really good and you should see lots of white smoke if the turbo seals are bad.

That's exactly whats happening to with my blown turbo. I swear I'm getting headaches from all the burnt oil I'm breathing in at every stop.

 

[Lunch_Box]

Just do a compression test, it is simple to do and that will let you know if it is the head gasket.

 

[Sephroth57]

hmm ok, ill start with a compression test and go from there.. gotta find someone with a tester i can use.

i really doubt its my turbo cause im friends with the kid i bought it off i know he only had it on his car for like 5k miles and it had no shaftplay and looked great when we put it on like 6 months ago. my car was slow, even for a t25 before we swapped turbos, i was thinkin the turbo was making me slow since it had a ton of shaftplay so i swapped on the big16g and it was still slow but i chalked that up to tuning... well im pretty decently tuned right now and im still slow and have a ton of mods i should almost be in the 12s... so WTF