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Help! 951 '86 Smoke from engine bay. Causes and remedy.
Hello Rennlist community.
Need your expertise and help on my situation.
Just collected a ’86 944Turbo (951) to upgrade on my daily driver 944 NA AT. Big milestone!
The car was sitting non-driven for good 5+ years before I picked it up so it will reguire some love to bring it to former glory.
INTRO:
Started on a first turn (!) with a new battery and a few littles of gasoline just like my daily 944 NA; shocking actually.
Run somewhat rough but got progressively better. No smoke from exhaust, no milkshake, clean oil.
No sings of oil leaks, dry engine and oil pan, except for steering LH side.
Because i don’t know the status of timing belt and oil since the car was sitting for ages, the car was towed to my place to avoid potential belt failure.
The car arrived and moved to the parking spot and left untouched for a week.
No serious abnormalities were noticed while taking the car from towing truck to parking, running somewhat rough and brakes are almost non-existent.
Not a single drop on a floor from the engine and transaxle, except a few drops from steering rack left side during entire week of parking.
Today I briefly inspected the car, put some missing clamps, check oil/coolant level. All Ok.
Found some surprises left from previous owner (maf unit plastic cover glued to the body with silicone and about to depart the home) and few minor hacks.
HOW THE PROBLEM (!)
Started like a champ. No smoke from exhaust for a minute or so, then some light whitish smoke (I hope old fuel related at this point).
I kept an eye for that smoke whether it will develop more or subsize.
AND THEN, I noticed a strong burning smell coming from engine bay. Run and shut down the car immediately.
Smoke was coming from right side manifold area and firewall, smell reminding burning wiring.
It took some time for smoke and smell to settle. No joke, I almost sh***t my pants and was about to run for fire extinguisher.
Fuel lines dry, no sign of any wiring fire, floor is bone dry no leak marks. WTF?
Crawled underneath the car to my best abilities and took a few screenshots of potentially flawed areas:
Identified 1 large wet mark on the merger of exhaust and turbo pipes (is there also a crack on exhaust? is it fixable?) and another leak on cylinder block.
Biggest worry is a wet spot on exhaust pipe top nipple (what is it for anyways, missing lamda). Turbo kaput?!
If there will be that much oil inside exhaust then there is should be a lot of burning smoke from the muffler, but that's not the case. I am puzzled.
What should be the cause and how to address it. Where to start and what to look for.
Or, maybe, nipple of exhaust pipe has nothing to do with oil leak at all and instead being sprayed from the engine ; there are a visible drop which is pretty much in line with that nipple area on exhaust pipe (see pic 2, oil drop area is circled above the nipple)...i will degrease the area and will check what's going on. but where that oil on engine might come from? cork seal seemed to be dry...
Any input is welcome. Thank you.
Last edited by Slava; 03-12-2023 at 08:24 AM.
Reason: update
The cracked exhaust manifold is not salvageable and is also not from a 951. The cast iron manifolds (what you appear to have) were used on the NA cars while turbos have tubular assemblies that incorporate expansion bellows and heat shielding.
The cracked exhaust manifold is not salvageable and is also not from a 951. The cast iron manifolds (what you appear to have) were used on the NA cars while turbos have tubular assemblies that incorporate expansion bellows and heat shielding.
Thanks for reply, Gage! Maybe you are right, but NA manifold doesn't have t–splitter because there is no turbo split. This 951 appears to be cast iron core shielded from both sides (see larger image). You made me curious and I will check my NA tomorrow.
Crack is probably on the manifold heat shield, not the manifold.
Of no real consequence, but it might rattle.
No guarantees about the manifold pipes underneath. They also crack...
It's been a long time since I looked at a 944 engine, but something is leaking onto that pipe.
Maybe from an oil return passage between the head and block?
Clean it down, run it, watch to see.
Maybe it's also getting on the oil pan gasket.
I wouldn't be in too much hurry to change that!
Ah, I was tricked by the first photo. The surface appeared to be cast iron and looked like the web of the 1 - 4 header. The pipe shown with the crack is commonly referred to as the crossover. It can be welded but best chance of success will be to remove it from the car first.
If you go to fix that pan gasket then you'll get into a whole lotta 'while I'm in there'...
My first 951 would smoke from the engine bay at times while sitting at stop lights. Very embarrassing. Kept up until I got in there and fixed all of the oil leaks.
03-12-2023, 07:55 AM
Help! 951 '86 Smoke from engine bay. Causes and remedy.
The pipe shown with the crack is commonly referred to as the crossover. It can be welded but best chance of success will be to remove it from the car first.
