Jimmykash

I did some reading in the FAQ and some browsing around the site and saw that some blue smoke on start up is common and not much to worry about.

My question deals with that but is slightly different...

after the car is shut off....i can see smoke coming from under the wheel wells from the engine, is that normal?

Also, after some hard excelleration with the car and then letting off.....the car seems to puff out some blue smoke, is that normal for these engines also?

thanks for any help

Chris Martin

If you see smoke around the wheels it sound like you have a pretty good oil leak. Valve covers and oil return tubes are common points of leaks to cause this. Once on the heat exchangers oil can smoke quite badly. If you have oil in the heater boxes this can be dangerous as smoke can/will enter the cabin via the heating ducts.

The car should not smoke from the tail pipe when running, although some at startup is normal. Do you have compression and/or leak down numbers on the car? Check the oil to make sure it's not over filled; hopefully it's somethig simple. What year car do you have?

Jimmykash

ok, sounds like an oil leak somewhere. i noticed some oil around in some places that i could start tracing and fix.

I checked the oil and with the car warmed up it is a little bit higher than in the middle between min and max which is where i should be anyhow correct?

As for leakdown/compression tests....no i haven't done those yet. I just wanted to know if it was a common problem or not

thanks

oh, the car is a 73 and it doesn't smoke at idle....just after you let off the gas after some hard acceleration which is usually a ring sealing issue but didnt know if it could've been something normal or not. I'm new to these engines and just trying to know their habits

zois

Warped valve covers or used gaskets can contribute to a leak....next valve adjustment check them on a flat surface and/or put in new gaskets. If you still have a problem, clean the bottom of your engine, drive it like ya stole it and put it up in the air.....look for leaks then.

Jimmykash

TTT

one thing i noticed is that i have some oil in the air filter box

What is this attributed too?

Bill Gregory

[quote]<strong>one thing i noticed is that i have some oil in the air filter box

What is this attributed too?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Overfilling, by the previous owner, the oil will find some of the overfill being deposited in the air box. Check with engine warm, on flat ground, idle a minute, oil level should be midway between empty and full on the dipstick.

Jimmykash

Ok, i've done that already as per some researching do to this board and it is in the middle warmed up as it should be

So i should be able to just clean it out and throw in a new filter and be better correct?

bds1

Jimmy just to let you know I have the oil leak on the exhaust issue. I just replaced with silicon beaded gaskets, these have as it says a tiny bead of silicon on the sealing line.

On my old chevy, the blue smoke was really apparent when you would go down a long hill with your foot off the acell pedal. This creates a great deal of vacuum and sucks in oil thru the valve guides / seals. I don't know if this is the same with your car (I have an 80). One thing to remember on a porsche everything is hard to do , but everything is 100% do-able, 100%. We basically have a very souped up Beetle engine!

George 86T

Smoking on deceleration has always indicated leaking valve guides in my book. Also--I have to disagree that all Porsches smoke on start-up. Mine doesn't and I'd be willing to bet that most don't.

George 86T

Jimmykash

Thanks guys....i did some logical thinking and figured it was the guides because my automotive experience has always told me that if the rings were bad, then you would either have smoking at idle or at ACCELERATION not DECELERATION....so then i began to think what could cause my problem and as the person above mentioned, when on deceleration there is obviously a large amount of vacuum that would occur so it is obviously somewhere in the heads. Could be valves, guides, seals, etc.

thanks for the help