targatime

I've been noticing a bit more smoke coming from my exhaust lately and it does have an oil smell. My car has 140,000 miles but didnt start doing any smoking until this spring....which is the same time my car started to expericence problems with bad wires.

Could this be related to the problem that I've had with my spark plug wires leaking voltage? (wondering if the oil in the cylinders in not gettting completely burned because of bad spark....or something else)

Indycam

Hiya Targatime
Do you feel a miss. If not , its probably not a bad spark .
Is the smoke all the time ?
How much oil do you burn per 1000 miles ?

targatime

I dont feel a miss, but I know from looking at the wires at night that I'm getting some voltage leakage.

I am not burning more oil than usual...roughly 1 qt. every 1,500. I will check today and see how much it is down.

Indycam

Hiya Targatime
Are you thinking of changing out the wires ?
I'd keep a close eye on the oil level to see if the use is going up .

Smokin

Targatime... Theoretically I suppose it's possible that not all the voltage is getting to your sparkplugs. If you see arcing... It's time to replace them anyway.

Replace them and then let us know what's going on. With 140,000 miles... It's not unusual to see the smoke. BUT... Is the smoke only upon start-up... Only under acceleration... Or all the time? When does it smoke? Does it go away?

Let us know a little bit more if you can...

targatime

there is no evidence of smoke under power...just at idle. Not a huge amount, but certainly noticable because it drifts around the car.

jimq

you sure it isnt oil leaking on your exhaust or heat exchangers??

Greg_L

do you run a cat bypass with no o2 sensor ? That can lead to a bit of smoke at idle from time to time. But as Jim said, check for leaky oil pipes, i just had my oil return pipe changed as it was leaking onto my exhaust and causing lots of smoke at idle.

targatime

It is definately out of the pipe, but I noticed today it didnt happen until the engine was warm at idle...when it is first started and engine cold...no spoke whatsoever. I've topped the oil off now, by the end of the week I'll have 1,000 miles on..so I'll report the oil consumption.

I'm running full Syn. Mobile 1 10-30

targatime

more confusion....I took the car our for a hard drive yesterday "italian tune-up"...the smoke hasn't been evident in the two subsequent drives?????

Normally, when I drive the rpm's wont go over 4,000....would that have caused any build up that would have smoked.

jimq

Why hold it to 4K RPM! Thats where the power band starts. Maybe a ring was stuck or carbon buildup on a valve or piston. If it worked then keep doing it