Holson

To make a long story short, I replaced a few broken vacuum pieces and the car was good during the day. Strong acceleration, good idle, etc.

At night, i decided to take it for a highway run. While sitting in traffic before getting on the highway at one point, I noticed that the exhaust was smoky.

Thought maybe because the car was running too cold? (It was running lower than 80*)

got on the highway and I noticed that as soon as I let off the accelerator, it started smoking.. so I figured I'd make the exit and loop around - I just kept on accelerating slowly.. minimizing smoke.

Got off the highway, the car was smoking so bad people thought my car blew up or something

Stopped it, pulled over and checked the oil level.. it was fine.

The coolant in the expansion tank had no oil in it and nothing looked extremely bad under the hood.

I managed to start it again and blowing a lot of smoke, drove somewhere I could see people and called a tow truck. While waiting for the tow truck, I noticed the clutch pedal got really heavy, dont know if that's got anything to do with it - probably just the 30*F weather.

It's now back at my mechanic, the person whom I bought the car from.

Just wanna share my misfortune with my now 3 days old Porsche 951

i'm just speculating now.. it had to be oil. Blew the piston rings? the Turbo?

Jason_86_951

What color was the smoke? White, blue, black???

jimbo1111

Welcome to 951 ownership. I remember One time I blew out a cv joint and I towed it home only to find my competitive natured neighbor laughing at me. So I started to laugh back. It caught him by surprize and he died of a hart attack on the spot. (I wish)
Sound's like a blowen head gasket coupled in with a bad clutch. Just kidding.
It's probably a blowen intercooler pipe fitting. My guess.

cruise98

If it was a white colored smoke screen, it is most likely a blown head gasket. Black smoke would be a running rich condition, which is very possible since you were working on the vacuum lines. Blue smoke is oil, so the turbo or piston rings are the prime suspects.

clubracer6

These stories of blow ups never end! I hope it's nothing serious with your car. Best of luck!

Holson

Thanks for the support guys,

the smoke was blue as confirmed by my eyes and a State Trooper

i'm still waiting for a word from my mechanic. I'm wondering what I should do if it was a piston ring. A 968 3.0L 16V motor maybe? A complete rebuilt with a new turbo and everything?

I think the rest of the car is in good shape. No rust, the interior is 9/10, the suspension still feels good...

I thought it was running rich too - but the smoke did not smell like gasoline and there was oil overspray above the exhaust and the exhaust tip was wet with oil...

back to the reliable good ole Merc....

cas951

Does it smoke when the engine is cold? Does it smoke as the Eng temp reaches normal temps? This happened to me a couple years ago. After checking my compression which was fine. It was the Turbo that went bad. The syptoms I had was.
1. Eng cold and idle, no smoke. Eng runs fine.
2. Eng warms up smoke starts to appear.
3. As Eng reaches oper temp. Smoke really starts to come out of the exhaust.
4. As I drove the car and hit boost slightly, smoke all over the exhaust like the Eng blew.

seb928s

Starting to look like a turbo gone south.

Holson

Heard the word, yes it was the turbo. My mechanic is putting a rebuilt one or something. Out of good will maybe? I hope

can't wait to get it back!!!

rhesus

if it's getting rebuilt that's the perfect time to get your k26/6 upgraded to a k27/6!!!

Luis de Prat

What are the miles on this car?

Holson

it's got almost 116,000 mi. on it

faithless

Thats not much. I'd be blown away if you had to replace the whole engine at that mileage. As long as the car wasnt neglected, you should never have to do that. What caused the turbo to fail, any idea?

Luis de Prat

Turbos are sensitive to bad engine oil. It's possible that the car sat for periods of time with dino oil in the engine and it degraded/was dirty, compromising the turbo itself eventually.

Preserving the turbo is another reason why synthetic oil is recommended. It doesn't degrade like dino. OTOH it's much more prone to creating leaks.

Holson

I think it could be due to old engine oil - when he took the air filter and stuff out, he found the turbo's *propeller?* just hanging loose...

the car has some Pirelli Cinturato P7s that are starting to crack - those tires have been out of production for a while I think..

anyway, the car is still at my mechanic's. He bought the parts to rebuild the turbo and I should have it.. *any day*.. - i can't wait really...