RC993TT

Careener,

I'm sure there are some of which I'm not aware. I am a member of the PCA, Lone Star Region. They are fairly active. They host DE events, autocross and club racing. It is probably a pretty good place to begin. If you join and dicide to do some of the DE events, contact me. Maybe we can go together. Website is www.lsrpca.com

ACEparts_com

I had the oil leaking from the L/H turbo and thought the worse, but a call to turbo technics soon put me straight. It turned out the clip holding the boost pipe between the turbo and intercooler was loose. Tightened it up and have never had a problem since. When I recently removed the IC, i was pleased to find only the smallest amount of oil residue in the pipes and IC.
Worth checking!
Alan

Careener

Strangely, my car wasn't smoking this morning (It must have read the Surgeon General's warning). I had only driven it a few miles since the problem started. Weird -- I'll keep watching.

Houston is flat, so parking on a hill couldn't have been my problem like ViperBob's.

Thanks to all for saving me $5,500. I was halfway thinking about having the work done. That number didn't shock me after owning a Ferrari.

Ruf-Dan-Ruf

Is / was the smoke white grey or blue ?? And did it come from the tail pipes or from the engine bay?

viperbob sounds on the money with turbo exhuast seals. If the smoke was white from the tail pipes that would confirm the theories.

Tour18

Dammmit! When I started the 993 this afternoon, for about two or three seconds light density white smoke wafting from the driver's side exhaust.

Never saw that before.

Ruf-Dan-Ruf

4 blown engines ..... 3 blown turbos .... 8 years racing ....... a number of championships .......

blue smoke from exhuast = oil leaching into cylinder, mixes with fuel and burns blue - rings.
grey smoke from engine bay = oil leak, mixes with dust dirt etc and smolders grey/black - leak.
white smoke from exhaust = oil leeching into turbo exhuast housing, pure burning oil and burns white - turbo seals.

Once a seal starts to go the smoke will get worse and worse over time. The turbo oil pressure drops as it worsens until not enough then bang .... lots of white smoke ... just like James Bond smoke screen.

viperbob sounds like your man, pronto, 007

Tour18

Ruf-Dan-Ruf that's a great synopsis.

Tour18

Ruf-Dan-Ruf, that's a great synopsis.

Careener

After letting my car sit for two days, it started up this morning without a trace of smoke. The earlier symptom had been white smoke streaming (but not billowing) out the driver's side tail pipe.Whatever caused that seems to have cleared.

I guess a lesson from this is that it might be a good idea to observe a smoking turbo for a short while before taking it to the shop unless you know for sure what's causing it.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't reappear. Thanks again to you all for your help.

Careener

How's this for strange...as this thread describes, my car suddenly started smoking out the driver's side tailpipe for a couple of minutes after start-up. It lasted for a few days and then cleared up on its own. All was well for three weeks, even after I let the car sit once for a week without driving it. However, this morning, it's smoking again -- worse than before. The car had been sitting for several days. I had not done any hard driving before last shutting it off.

I need to just get it into a good shop (not the dealer again) and have it diagnosed. However, I'm offering you wizards another round of speculation with this new data point. I'll let you know what the shop says.