skp911

I've owned my 92 964 for the past year and have loved it. Unfortunately the majority of the miles I've put on it is a 5 mile commute to and from work in the city. I just barely start to warm the car up by the time it gets to work. The car currently has 79k miles on it, with a recent valve adjustment about 10k miles ago (that found nothing amiss).

So getting to the point, I was out on a longer drive a couple weeks ago, with a good combination of longer freeway jaunts and city driving. About 20 minutes into my drive, I started accelerating a bit harder on a freeway on-ramp and a big cloud of smoke emerged from my tail pipe as I revved the engine past 4k rpm. I got to my destination about 20 mins later and parked it for a bit. When I tried to start it, it took a bit of cranking to get her starting but it seemed fine for a bit as I drove the car along gently. It did another big puff of oil and but then it seemed fine. The smoke was definitely lighter in color - whitish grey. I didn't drive the car for a week as I investigated what it could be, and took it on a short 20 minute drive where it did it again when I accelerated a bit harder.

I did an oil change about 500 miles ago and overfilled it a bit, so it smoked a fair amount once it warmed up. My drive where I first saw the smoke cloud was probably the longest I've driven the car since the oil change.

What could I possibly be looking at here? I'm hoping that it is just because the car was still a bit overfilled, and when the engine got to full warm driving around more (which it hadn't really gotten a chance to since the oil change), it essentially burned the excess oil. Doesn't explain why it happened again though when the car wasn't fully warmed up... I'm thinking it could either be:

1) engine burning off overfilled oil once it got fully warm
2) valve guides worn
3) piston rings worn

How could I go about eliminating some of these from possible issues? Hasn't had a leakdown, but compression checked out recently. Would love some ideas, words of encouragement here.. this car is starting to freak me out.

newsboy

Perhaps, since the car does not have the opportunity to get really warm, you may be still burning off oil from the overfill. Try taking the car out for a good long drive,

sml

that is different to my car because i cannot get the oil sufficiently hot to check the oil level whilst driving around in heavy city traffic on a hot day.

needs a good 15-20 mins of idling on a hot day. it must take a long long time if the weather is cold. dont ruin the process by driving the car.

Rocket Rob

Overfill? +1 - Could you have an oil overfill situation? Either now or in the past? There is a flap in the intake that opens at the higher RPMS (4500?). I'm envisioning that oil could be in the intake and its getting ingested when you are accelerating.

springer3

+1 on over-fill. Do not drive until you get the oil level at or below the top mark on the dip stick with the engine fully-hot. If the level gage reaches the top of its range, you are still overfilled, and you will get a slosh of oil into the overflow to keep your smoke screen working.

+1 on getting out for a long drive. The oil can foul the idle control valve, and it can stay perched in the nooks and crannies of the intake system for years.

skp911

all of this is making me feel much much much better - thank you all for the advice. I may go through the intake system with some carb cleaner to assess the mess