5 GT Turbo White smoke on gear change

[R5man]

Hi all,

the project pushes on but there’s a bit of a mysterious white smoking issue at the moment

white smoke is blowing out on gear change or when you let off the throttle and a tiny amount on tick over

was believed to be the turbo charger but after having the oil seals inspected it’s not thought to be that

compression test has been done and it’s all good across the 4 cylinders and head gasket is fine ?

the smoke is defineatly white as well,it’s bee suggested it’s the oil stem seals or valve guides but I would have though the compression would be done if it was that ?

many thoughts would be great

cheers

 

[DaveL485]

Oil smoke is blue... white tends to be condensation (steam) condensing in a cold exhaust. Does it still do it if you run it right up to temp?

 

[R5man]

Yes - it’s also more noticeable on gear change

I know rule of thumb is water burning/steam I’m a bit perplexed it’s much more noticeable in gear change in tick over it’s pretty aggressive

head gasket checked and in good fettle

 

[andybond]

Did you check for a hairline crack in a liner when checking the HG?

 

[Adey]

is the water level dropping or pressurising. get a vid up if you can. If the cars been sat for a while it can take a fair amount of time to burn water out from the boxes in the exhaust

 

[R5man]

Fired up today and no smoke but checked the header tank and it was near empty and the condition of the water/coolant was thick rusty sludge pulled the oil cap and the tiniest bit of mayo was in there so that might well have been condensation not sure but the near dry header tank is very suspicious

 

[Adey]

white smoke, loss of water, bit of mayo

id put my money on headgasket or liner

 

[R5man]

Yh worryingly it’s looking more and more like that,compression test case back relatively clear

I’ve just gotten the vehicle so I don’t know if the tank was already quite dry - have to remember she sat for 10 years and the cooling system hasn’t been flushed yet by the looks of it think next step is cooling system drain re fill with clean water/coolant and see if any is used or if it starts sludging up

 

[andybond]

That could also be cracked oil / water cooler in the rad if there is no signs of idle issues.

My last five that cracked a liner didn’t exhibit a thing other than slight water loss , and tiny bit of white smoke on idle.

W

 

[R5man]

That’s interesting about a cracked oil/water cooler Is that a common problem on them ?

assuming the only way to rule this out is to pull out the oil cooler/rad and inspect it

 

[Adey]

I've had a copper core rad let go internally. Mine went bad and instantly with no warning. Wrote off a bottom end when the oil and water occupied the same space messy as fook too.

 

[Brigsy]

That sounds like turbo to me, common smoke on overrun and idle. Quick test is to take the exhaust off at the turbo and see If any oil on the exhaust turbine.

Its rare for a rad to fail. Usually oil mixing is due to cracked head.

Flush the cooling system out with a hosepipe. Pressure the cooling system up for leaks. Comp test and sniff test the header tank.

A bit of smoke is not unusual on these engines. What oil are you running? They can smoke like fuck on 10/40 if the engine is worn.

Also the turbos can fail prematurely if sat about. Fix the coolant issue, and then i would take it out and do 50 miles or so just incase the exhaust is full of water or oil.

 

[R5man]

Agreed with you here’s the plan I’m going to drain and flush the cooling system and monitor it for bubbles in the expansion tank and see if any coolant is being used

I’ll rip the pipe of the turbo to check for oil as well

hoping it’s just a turbo as I’ve got another damaged unit heading in to be reconditioned soon

what oil is everybody running ?

 

[Big Steve - Raider]

10/50 10/60 seems to be the go to oil now..

 

[R5man]

Cool - perfect that’ll be the go to on the oil change

people running fully synthetic ?

 

[R5man]

Found this cut off / disconnected hose

many idea what it’s supposed to be connected to ?

 

[R5man]

Also I’ve just got this sitting attached to the firewall with some wiring running to it at the base and and long back tube to the left hand side wing but there’s a outlet on the side near the top with nothing attached to it but seems like it should do ?

this photo isn’t actually the vehicle it’s just to show what I’m talking about

 

[Adey]

Found this cut off / disconnected hose

many idea what it’s supposed to be connected to ?

View attachment 150243

been a while since I've been under a 5s bonnet. pretty sure that's your fuel pressure regulator reference pipe. a pretty quick way of making it run lean.

 

[Brigsy]

The blue pipe on carb top should be connected to the oem boost gauge and fuel pressure regulator. Get some larger pics of the engine bay up.

 

[R5man]

Has anybody got some pictures of how it’s supposed to be hooked up

can’t get out to the car atm so attached is all i have to hand at the moment