mutasemb

Dear fellow members,

You have come to my rescue twice with great success!

I have been witnessing some white smoke from the passenger side exhaust at idle after being warmed up.
Smoke, appears occasionally, but has been increasing over time.

- Vehicle has straight pipes & maxflow mufflers
- Oil changed 500 miles ago. 10W60 synthetic. Smoke appeared prior to oil change.
- Oil level has dropped slightly based on the oil level gauge.
- Car has 36,000 miles
- oil Temp is normal

Has anyone experienced this before? What could the solution be? I have been obtaining different suggestions and solutions such as, valve stem seals, gasket change, oil leak, oil overfill, T-junction above throttle body cracks, use oil with Mycrogen, etc

I would highly appreciate your feedback in order to lead the mechanic in the right direction.

This video is for your reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLw3...ature=youtu.be

Thank you folks,
Mutasem

Churchill

After you've ensured there's no overfill, put some miles on it and monitor oil consumption. Did the car sit unused for many years? Potentially you could have rings that will loosen up with more driving (especially aggressive driving).

But hate to say it, but that vid doesn't look good. You may end up needing valve guides. Unfortunately it's not uncommon on 993's to need guides at low mileage.

SwayBar

That is blue smoke, therefore you are burning oil, and quite a bit at that.

The car needs to go to a competent shop for both a compression and leak-down tests.

nine9six

White smoke is indicative of water in the engine. Since that's not applicable in this case, it must be blue smoke from oil burning. The smoke has been increasing over how much time?

I would monitor the oil consumption and at the same time run a tankful of fuel and valve cleaner like seafoam, BG44K, or Techron and continue the monitor the oil consumption.

Sometimes carbon breaks loose and gets wedged between the valve and the seat. If this occurs you do not get a good seal in the head. Sometimes these cleaners will resolve the issue but if not and you continue to see the blue smoke at idle then a leakdown and compression test might be a good idea.

I would recommend you only have this done at a well-respected independent Porsche air-cooled 911/993 specialty shop.

jscott82

It's pretty common if the car was not brought up to temp then parked for awhile.

Buddy of mine used to sell air cooled cars. And was a common problem where cars would get started in the morning to move the around the showroom then shutdown before getting up to temp.

Theory was that with cylinders on their sides (flat six) oil would accumulate in the bore. Just took a little driving to burn it off.

If you are getting smoke after a long drive, that is a different problem, and valve guides would be my first guess.

Churchill

No, no, no, no, no. No. This is wrong on more levels than it's worth addressing.

OP - I wouldn't bother with leakdown/compression test until you've driven it at least a thousand miles and monitored oil consumption. Worn valve guides won't show up on a leakdown/compression test unless they're so badly worn the valve head isn't sealing against the valve seat, and you'd know that was happening because you'd actually hear it as a valvetrain knock.

Put some miles on the car and see how much oil it drinks.

SwayBar

Do you not recollect/comprehend reading the following in the original post?

Which of the above do you not understand?

OP, according to what you've described, the car needs to go to a shop for diagnosis, preferably one which specializes in air-cooled 911's.

pp000830

+1 after verifying oil is not overfilled.

Churchill

OP hasn't owned the car for long and hasn't put many miles on it. Was merely suggesting that it's worth getting a baseline sense of oil consumption before spending a lot of money on diagnosis.

OP -- a good way of determining it's valve guides is accelerating in 2nd or 3rd gear up to 5-6K RPM's and then lifting off the throttle. If you get a puff of smoke, it's guides.

mgerber

Do not trust your dashboard gauge.

Use the dipstick when car is hot and at idle.

If overfilled that may be your issue as you state the smoke appears after the car has been warmed up.

If dipstick reads at or close to midpoint, drive the car for a few hundred miles and monitor the level with the dipstick, provided the only symptom is the blue smoke.

Determine next steps after that if you see consumption.

And drive the car hard for those few hundred miles.

95_993

+1

The oil gauge is very misleading. Anything more than 1/4 full my gauge is full according to the dip stick. I made the mistake several years back with a slight overfilled condition. Fortunately I was with some other 993 drivers on a drive and one of them noticed slight smoking on passenger side exhaust. After correcting the level and burning off residual oil in the intake....all good.

nine9six

No, no, no, no, no. No. This is wrong on more levels than it's worth.

The last thing you'd want to do is measure valve stem deflection to determine if there is excess clearance. Just drive and rev the **** out of it so if the valve guides are well worn you can continue to hammer the valves and seats even further!!

Thats just solid thinking and advice on oh so many levels!!

A can of valve cleaner and a tank of fuel is a great initial check and essentially costs you nothing more than a can of cleaner.
Drive through the tank of fuel under regular driving conditions, just not stop and go traffic. If the car still blows smoke at idle (other than initial startup); compression leak down testing would help diagnose the source.

mutasemb

Hello Guys,


Took the vehicle to a mechanic, and inspected the carthoroughly. It turns out, the oil level has dropped considerably.


We managed to remove the bottom spark plugs on the smoking sideof the car, inserted a camera through the spark plug opening to check for oil. Itturns out there is oil in one of the bores.


Mind you the smoke has only increased with time afterdriving for a while with smoke. Smoke appears only after car is warm. And notwhen warmed up.


Another point to consider, the car was based in Michigan (coldarea), and hardly driven.


Mechanics advise was to stop the car, drop the engine, andchange the cylinder head rings, seals gaskets, new oil, camshaft gasket, valvestem seals, new filter, etc.


What do you think?


Thank you


Mutasem

Quadcammer

carbon on the valve seat (my opinion a bit of a wishful thinking but rarely the case item) would affect the cylinder sealing, but why do you think this would result in oil consumption?

SwayBar

I am at a loss as to after going thru all that, why wasn't a simple compression and leak-down test performed? The tests will give a good indication of the mechanical health of the engine, and possibly give a plausible reason why there is oil in the bore.

Also, exactly where on the dipstick is the oil level on a warmed-up engine? You say it dropped considerably, but from what point did it drop from, and where is it now?

As others noted, the oil could be overfilled. However, if the simple tests mentioned above reveal a cylinder is at 75% of the others, you now definitively know something is mechanically wrong with the engine. So do not agree to anything with the mechanic until the tests are performed.

BTW, is this a reputable shop that does work on air-cooled engines?