Smoking van!!!!

carhartt kid · Post by **carhartt kid** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 8:20 am

Hi guys,

I replaced the turbo on my Astravan the other day. It works fine, apart from having a little more whistle and whine than the last one! I guess I'm just over sensitive and listening for it too hard??? I hope so anyways! It is getting oil and works fine though!

Now everythings replaced, the exhaust has a load of oil in it! The flexible (meshlike) joint just before the frontbox is saturated in oil. When driven it is smoking really bad. SO bad I don't think its safe to drive on the road yet. It only gets really smokey when I accelerate or hit about 40-50 mph. I've tried letting it sit idling on the driveway, to cook off the oil, but its not smoking much.

I really don't know what to do. I need to get to work asap, as the boss is getting shirty about me having time off!!

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 10:10 am

Exhaust has oil IN it or ON it?

I presume you checked the oil level is not going down and the oil burning off is just residue left?

carhartt kid · Post by **carhartt kid** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:39 pm

Yep. Its in the exhaust. The oil level is not going down. Infact I changed the oil today! Also used a gunk remover and replaced the filter!

The oil is in the exhaust from when the oil fed bearings on the Turbo disintegrated. This lead to the seal being broken and oil making it into the manifold, intercooler, EGR and the exhaust up to the flexible joint before the frontbox!!!

It smokes a small amount of white smoke whilst idling. When its driven it doesn't get bad till I go over 50mph! The its like a fricken Bond car with smokescreen!!!

thescruff · Post by **thescruff** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 6:01 pm

Probably overfueled

carhartt kid · Post by **carhartt kid** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 6:02 pm

Wossat then??????

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 6:22 pm

I'll ask a mate who is a genius with this kind of stuff and see what he says and let you know.

my guess would be you need to let it burn itself out and to hell with it, or take the exhaust off and drain the oil slick, then get the gunk on it & then hose it out, but i will see if he has any clever ideas.

thescruff · Post by **thescruff** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 6:25 pm

Too much fuel

Have you got an adjuster

stevemastic · Post by **stevemastic** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:21 pm

blue smoke oil? white or black fuel?

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 10:34 pm

Carharrt Kid,

I pasted your 2 Posts directly into a PM and send to my mate and this is his response....

"This is not an unusual problem. It also happens when water gets in following a head gasket problem. The only way is to burn it off or replace the exhaust. We have some good long hills around here that are relatively quiet. He needs to find a similar one and give it full bore for as long as he can and the harder he can work the engine the better. It will eventually clear itself but bear in mind there could be quite a lot of oil in there."

So there are your options I think

carhartt kid · Post by **carhartt kid** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 10:50 pm

Thanks Hoovie. I thought as much. I'll have to burn it off as I go. Its not really really bad! Bud bad enough to worry I might be causing a danger to other motorists! I've a big long hill thats quiet near me, so I might go for some late night fogging missions. Thanks

Its blue smoke Steve. Oily smelling stuff!

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 11:02 pm

keep the gears down and the revs up and that should do it quicker (and more dramatically

)

One thing that I was wondering about was this could muck up the cat, but I am guessing you probably don't have one fitted.

carhartt kid · Post by **carhartt kid** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 11:23 pm

Yeah I do. Luckily there's a flexible joint before the cat. All the oil reached this, soaked it and drained through. I've sprayed a whole can of WD40 on it to wash as much oil off it as possible but it was still quite oily.

I've got a 90 mile drive in the morning to work off as much of it as I can. If you pass a smokey Astravan on the M4 tomorrow...Please don't beep, I'll probably have been beeped a hundred times already. Just wave!!!

fin · Post by **fin** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 11:53 pm

id replace that section if possible.

white smoke is coolant

black fuel

blue is oil

you guys should see my van on a morning. needs valve stem seals doing and hoys out a considerable amount of smoke.

Raf · Post by **Raf** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 5:06 pm

im assuming its the oil from when the turbo failed; this is common.

it is also worth checking your intake system to make sure this has no oil in it too (you will have a little from the Crankcase breather; which is normal); it will save you later bother with injectors/piston rings etc. if intercooler is okay then assume rest is fine.

intake very easy to clean; exhaust isnt im afraid. i think the first thing to go will be the Cats as they will be drenched in oil. they may be okay; hard to say but after a while the oil sits in the back box where it will burn off. does really depend how much oil was dumped in; you possibly could of gauged it when changing the turbo?

just burn it off during the night on a long Mway drive or change the exhaust (the straight pipes can be cleaned; its the bafflers that are hard); if cats collapse (turbo wont spool up as fast) then just gut them; mot time add a bit of veggie oil in to lower emmissions.

hth

stevemastic · Post by **stevemastic** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 6:15 pm

fin wrote:id replace that section if possible.

white smoke is coolant

black fuel

blue is oil

you guys should see my van on a morning. needs valve stem seals doing and hoys out a considerable amount of smoke.

only coolant if it smells/tastes sweet white can also be cronic over fueling