I blew my motor, or did I?

[Mike Kopstain]

Here's a fun one. My car has been smelling mildly of oil for the past week. No smoke or anything, just a very weak oil smell.

Well, while driving down the expressway yesterday, I was doing about 75mph, took a glance in my rearview mirror, and saw blue smoke, lots of it. This wasn't "I'm dripping a little oil on the cat's" smoke; it was "I just blew my engine" smoke.

So I got scared, shut the car off, and coasted to the side of the highway. By this time I'm just angry. I check the oil level, it's fine. Figuring that the damage is already done, I start the engine back up. Oil pressure pops right up to 16lbs and there is no smoke. I slowly limp the car to where I was going and check it out some more. The undercarrage of the car is dry. After 1 hour of sitting, I come back to the car and underneath it is still dry. I drive it for about an hour, and it's fine.

Now, It's fine. Any suggestions here? This one has me pulling my hair out.

<small>[ July 30, 2003, 12:47 PM: Message edited by: Mikeys_Taurus ]</small>

 

[SHODOGG]

Um, your car is telling you that you need a SHO beer

 

[sdpatt]

If there are no external oil leaks (cats are dry) and the exhaust is no longer smoking, your engine may have ingested a volume of oil that had made it into the intake manifold through the PCV system. Had you just traveled around a curve?

 

[Red One]

You need to take it to someone in your area that know what they are doing with cars and have them look it over or risk losing it. beer

 

[Mike Kopstain]

sdpatt:
If there are no external oil leaks (cats are dry) and the exhaust is no longer smoking, your engine may have ingested a volume of oil that had made it into the intake manifold through the PCV system. Had you just traveled around a curve?

Oddly enough, this happened on the expressway, in a straight line.

You need to take it to someone in your area that know what they are doing with cars and have them look it over or risk losing it.

I took it to these people, but they seemed pretty clueless.

 

[LaTechSHO]

did you accidently hit the smokescreen button??


in all seriousness do a compression check on the engine just to make sure that all of your cylinders hold good compression

Louis

<small>[ July 30, 2003, 02:33 PM: Message edited by: LaTechSHO ]</small>

 

[SHO_Driver]

Used to have that problem on my old Prelude SI. I later found all the pistons to be cracked around the ring landings. It produced so much blow-by gas to the extent that oil would get sucked into the intake at speeds over 70 mph. I too would get a huge cloud off blue smoke causing all traffic behind and beside me to dissappear. If I drove under 70 it would be OK. New pistons and rings cured that one.

 

[Mike Kopstain]

SHO_Driver:
Used to have that problem on my old Prelude SI. I later found all the pistons to be cracked around the ring landings. It produced so much blow-by gas to the extent that oil would get sucked into the intake at speeds over 70 mph. I too would get a huge cloud off blue smoke causing all traffic behind and beside me to dissappear. If I drove under 70 it would be OK. New pistons and rings cured that one.

Well see that's the thing. It's fine at all speeds now. The engine is tight. 155,000 miles and it still has all 5 quarts when I go to change the oil. It blows no smoke either, well, until last night.

 

[Blue-By-U]

Red One:
You need to take it to someone in your area that know what they are doing with cars and have them look it over or risk losing it. beer

I'm really sorry for chiming in here with no helpful information. However, I couldn't help notice the invisible team of monkeys this kid had help fabricate the above statement.

 

[luigisho]

It was good for a chuckle!
Mike, I think the compression test is a good idea for peace of mind.

 

[SHOZ123]

My John Deere mower does this once in a while. Just coughs out a cloud of smoke on the 1 in a hundred starts. I think it was too many Pall Malls in it's formative years.

 

[sdpatt]

You may want to check inside the intake manifold to see if there are collections of oil in it. The easiest way to get a good view of both plenums would be to remove the balance tube (four hose clamps, two 12mm bolts and two DIS connectors).

 

[slickn56]

Could also be the power steering leaking onto the cats and burning off. My brother's sho had this problem and it turned out to be a hose in the power steering line. Easy way to tell if its your power steering leaking is to check the level.

 

[Mike Kopstain]

slickn56:
Could also be the power steering leaking onto the cats and burning off. My brother's sho had this problem and it turned out to be a hose in the power steering line. Easy way to tell if its your power steering leaking is to check the level.

Bam! And the winner is: YOU!

I have been blowing PS fluid out of the cap onto the front plug wires for about a month now. I bet it blew onto the front exhaust manifold. Now I need to see where it's coming from.

 

[Mike Kopstain]

Well I found the problem.

It turns out my front main seal is seeping ever so little amounts of oil. After pushing the car hard, I presume a drop or so of oil drips onto the Cat and burns up.

I'll fix it this winter, but for now it's really fun when I'm on the highway and all of the sudden the car blows a smoke screen at 80mph! It only happens for a second, but boy oh boy do people give you funny looks!