I took my car out for a 4 mile drive last night around the back streets and I noticed just TONS of gray/white smoke coming out of my exhaust, and I highly doubt this was condensation. It does not smoke at idle, but just going down the street. I guess whenever I put any load on the engine it smokes, because when revved while idle, no smoke! I checked my compression ratio's, they were around 150 each, so I'm thinking that its a head gasket problem. I'm no genius, but my smoke smells like taco's. :/ , would one consider this a "sweet smell"? If worse comes to worse, ill just take the car to HP Freaks to see if they can help me out. But please help me out guys, thanks so much for your time.

~Alex

It could very well be the headgasket. Or it could be the piston rings. Or it could be turbo oil seals. Sounds like we need more info. First thing to do is a compression test, and go from there. Are you leaking any oil?

yeah, more info. is the smoke oil, water, fuel, taco's? i'm gonna guess it's prolly not taco's.lol. if it didn't start smoking till right when you put the turbo on the the snail is most likly the problem. what afr's are you seeing? could be pig rich under boost.

im not leaking any oil, however, the first time i put my 1st turbo on, i blew the seals on it because the return line was installed incorrectly, causing the oil to swamp and blow the seals. The turbo runs fine now except for the white smoke.


3 things:

1. if i was running rich, wouldn't my smoke be black?

2. wouldn't i constantly have white smoke coming out if my HG was cracked or damaged? because it only bellows out when driving, and is totally clean in idle.

3. i know im not leaking oil, otherwise the smoke would be blue/bluish, and its not, so yea....


i honestly can say it is NOT oil, and its not fuel either. I would be able to discern if it was fuel or not, but all i can say is that the smoke is white, it lingers for a while before it dissipates, and it has a smooth smell to it. Overall, im confused out of my mind!!

the T25 I replaced on my GST did that. Once it warmed up It would smoke. New turbo no problem. When you surged the turbo how do you know its ok. You blew seals, Did you blow the turbo seals? I think you might of. Look in your IC piping for oil.

My buddy picked up a brand spanking new turbo. It smoked for over a thousand miles, Then one day no more smoke.

put that boost display in yet?

if the compression check ran 150 on all cylinders, i believe that is too low. The recommended is between 175-225psi. How many miles on the engine?

ya check the plugs too and see what they look like. Also, put a little bit of engine oil in the spark plug hole then crank the engine again. If the pressure goes up, its the piston rings and if it stays the same, i think its the valve seals. My 3rd cylinder was 180 and it went up to 250 when i put oil in so it was the rings.

Originally posted by halfasss101
ya check the plugs too and see what they look like. Also, put a little bit of engine oil in the spark plug hole then crank the engine again. If the pressure goes up, its the piston rings and if it stays the same, i think its the valve seals. My 3rd cylinder was 180 and it went up to 250 when i put oil in so it was the rings.

you can tell if its the valve guides(seals)by letting off of the gas thats when the smoke will come out the exhaust.Is this turbo a oil and water fed or just one of the other?I would take the turbo off and see if it smokes still and try to eliminate the typical causes.

ok, this turbo is an oil fed one, spark plugs were clean, around 80k on the engine, ill re-run the compression test with the oil to see if it changes. ill take the turbo off to see if it still smokes, ill get back to u later on that, thanks fellas.

~alex

What size is the oil feed line? and what size is the oil return line...I'm willing to bet you that the return is the same size(too small)as the feed or smaller. it should be a 10 an return 4 an feed. correct me if I'm wrong. also make sure you have it clocked where the return is facing straight down. and not up. make sure its clocked correctly.

Originally posted by fresh95
It could very well be the headgasket. Or it could be the piston rings. Or it could be turbo oil seals. Sounds like we need more info. First thing to do is a compression test, and go from there. Are you leaking any oil?

He did do a compression test, he said he had 150 across the board.

When the compression test was done, what did the plugs look like?

at this point I'd drop the DP and check the turbine wheel. If the plugs look fine and compression is solid then it's quite possible that it's blowing oil past the seals into the turbine and your engine isn't seeing a bit of it. You'd still get the smoke but with no symptoms on the motor.

Ok, I took the turbo off, still smoking WHITE, NOT BLUE. The seals on the turbo are not blown, no oil is seeping past it, its bone dry. My return line is double the size as my oil feed line and DOES NOT GO UP. I checked my coolant as well, and it seems pretty low. Im almost positive I have blown a HG, but why wouldn't it smoke while idle?

Djtrickee doesn't want me to tell you to pull the head, so i wont.

Originally posted by 2GeclipseRS
Djtrickee doesn't want me to tell you to pull the head, so i wont.

HA HA HA HA HA

Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G

Originally posted by 2GeclipseRS Djtrickee doesn't want me to tell you to pull the head, so i wont.

HA HA HA HA HA

Yup. Because I'm right. And you are wrong. Simple. There are plenty of tests you can perform to determine if a headgasket is blown WITHOUT pulling the head.

And do you really think its a good idea to tell the OP to pull the head off when he doesn't even know how to install a boost gauge?

I do know how to install a boost gauge...since i did already

Originally posted by djtrickee

Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G

Originally posted by 2GeclipseRS Djtrickee doesn't want me to tell you to pull the head, so i wont.

HA HA HA HA HA

Yup. Because I'm right. And you are wrong. Simple. There are plenty of tests you can perform to determine if a headgasket is blown WITHOUT pulling the head. And do you really think its a good idea to tell the OP to pull the head off when he doesn't even know how to install a boost gauge?

Owned.