Hello everyone,

I have a 96 Eclipse RS with the Star stage one turbo kit. It ran great for almost a year then the wastegate started to flip on me. It's a turbonetics Deltamark 2. I heard that these wastegate would seize up after a while. Well anyways, I was getting more then the 5 psi boost that I was suppose to get you know overboosting not what I attended to get with this set-up. I was just driving normally not even thinking of pushing the car because of detonation and it ran okay as long as I didin't mash on the peddles atleast until I can upgrade the wastegate to a better one but never got that far. One day my brother was driving my car and told me that there was alot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. He also said that when he stop to open the hood oil was all over the engine bay and it was coming from the oil breather. Well that was when I came back from being out of town for a funeral. Boy did it suck I'm thinking it could be a blown head gasket but haven't looked yet because it is cold and snowy here in Wisconsin. I would like to know if anyone of you can tell me what's wrong and what will I need or how much will it cost to fix it?
Your help will be greatly appreciated thank you.

C.V.

Sound like you broke your piston lands. It's allowing blow-by at the rings, which is why you're burning oil. It's a common problem when you boost more than your stock internals can handle.....happened to me too.

I would bet my left nut you broke a piston land. Get a set of forged internals now. And don't let your brother drive your car anymore. Sounds like he does not know what detonation sounds like. O yea get a new wastegate :) Sorry to hear about it man. It happens to us all.

The symptoms you are discribing are the exact same ones that I had.. I thought that if i was burning oil that it would be BLACK smoke, but that wasn't the case... I had white smoke... Didn't even see a blue tint.
This is what i found to be the problem


Just to give you a heads up on what you might see...
Also when i pulled that piston.. it looked normal, no blown ring.. There was a couple really fine hairline cracks I couldin't see till i cleaned the piston up a bit... I took the handle of the wire brush i had and put it in a ring grove, and the piece of the piston fell out with no pressure really.

woah..sorry to hear this happened to you bro. im going thru the same situation as you are going thru. and i have lots of guys here giving me tips on how to resolve it. if you got time, you should read my forum.

wow what happened to you sounds almost similar to what happened to me. Cept for all that smoke and oil blasting from the breather. I noticed weeks b4 my engine blew that my wastegate was acting up on me, it woud overboost when I first drove the car because of maybe it needed to be excercised. One night I remember pegging 20 PSI woohoo did that feel good haha. Then I take my car home after I get a wheel alignment then it starts idling wierd, then I rev the engine and whoa smoke coming from my catchcan not good. Did a compression check bam #2 cylinder 50 PSI!.

Now my eclipse is sitting in my driveway awaiting it's rebiuld. Damn Z gotta get that running first though O_o

sorry to say but that's what it is(cracked piston/rings)...same thing happened to me when i boosted too high and too rich, i looked at my engine and when i tried revving my engine on idle it started stuttering and died while some white smoke was coming out of the valve cover breather. so i guess do a compression check and start saving for a howell kit.

My engine seems to idle normally and doesn't choke or die? I guess I just have to save up for some JE pistons. What do you guys think?

>My engine seems to idle normally and doesn't choke or die? I
>guess I just have to save up for some JE pistons. What do
>you guys think?


My engine is still driveable, and idles alright...but the #3 cylinder only has 90psi compression, hehe

do a compression check, but sounds like a cracked ringland/rings. mine just went recently too...i have a built shortblock ready to go in tho :)

do a compression test before you do anything, as that will tell you whats up

I don't think if you have 90psi of compression in a cyl it is safe to drive. The engine may propel your car forward... But for how long? Also if you do break a piston, or did, you don't want pieces of cast iron jumping around in your cyl to cause damage. You may be putting yourself out for a few days by having to use alternate transportation to and from work/school, but don't drive a car that sounds like it is anything different than normal! You will be saving yourself some money and some headaches if you fix the problem when it is first occuring.

White smoke out the exhaust is almost always a blown headgasket and/or cracked head. A sure sign is the sweet smell from the exhaust. The oil shooting out would not be from that though, that a serious blow-by issue like already stated, a defintite piston ring problem. Oil smoke is a blueish tinted color...