chsu74

No way! My car complains and I don't get a clean shift if my RPM is lower than 4K.

jumper5836

You can do a oil test at Blackstone Labs to check for coolant in the oil.
Every car is different but my 996 coolant expansion tank is always under the min mark. If I add water or coolant it goes back down to the same level after a day and stays there. So I am just saying if you had a coolant leak it would be going down quick and blowing white smoke while driving and idling not just at startup.
I believe your problem is the AOS. Mine has been acting up for over a year and half and it started to gradually get worse, just recently the breather tube is showing oil and oil consumption is really high. AOS can go fast or it can take forever to go.

To azrob226
My car is 8 years old 108k km on it and I hit redline a few times every day and at every shift while at the track in which I have 6 years on tracking it with about 16-20 track days a year. These cars were built and tested to drive at redline without doing damage to the engine. You can baby your if you like but your missing out on what these cars were built to do.

nick49

Guys, the redline on these cars is set conservative and the car also has a rev limiter to prevent you from reving it into an unsafe area. You should not rev it beyond 4K until fully warmed up, once there you could probably rev it to the point of hitting the rev limiter nearly every shift without doing damage to the motor. These motors were designed to sing and again 7k is not an RPM that should be high enough to damage them.

Usually the RPM ceiling is set by the reciprotating mass of the piston. Pistons only like to travel so fast, stop, change direction, stop, etc. How far a piston travels is determined by the stroke of the crankshaft. Light weight pistons with a short stroke = high rpm, as strokes increase, PRMs decrease, same with piston weight increases.

Finally, type ll revs, are I believe what Porsche refers to as, the type from down shifting into too low of a gear, where the revs will exceed the ceiling set by the electronic rev limiter. This forces the motor into reving beyond its designed parameters. This can be dangerous and damaging and should be avoided at all costs.

RaceCarDriver

I never go above 3k until the car is fully warmed up and it has never had a Type II over rev.

RaceCarDriver

Mine is always just below the minimum. Just like you, i've added water and it eventually goes back to just below.

Drove the car to work today, one second of smoke upon start up and it drove perfectly fine, no smoke while driving.

I just dropped my car off at my local Indy so we'll see.

ivangene

glad I stopped in here -

hitting the redline or close to it is the best way to keep these motors alive! putting around like a Buick grandpamobile will surely cost you much more in headaches later...
My 996 has 120k miles on the clock and when I drove it (properly warmed) it saw near redline everyday. I often drove to work in 3rd or 4th and kept the rpm above 4k all the way...the new owner is driving it everyday the same way. That said we have a small issue with a cam solenoid right now... but that motor is smiling happy.

I recently helped do a complete rebuild on a Tip car that suffered a catistophic failure and the insides of that car made it obvioous the car lugged around and was never properly driven (carbon all over the place) The owner claiming, I never drive it hard, dont know why it died...well thats the reason.

for what its worth your engine saw redline at the factory and again when it was installed and on its maiden voyage around the test track... there is not "take it easy on the motor till it breaks in"... they drove the **** out of it right out of the gate.
There is a major differance between driving it spiritedly and beating the car (by the way its tough to beat these cars, and mainly comes down to warm up, cool down and propper maintenance)

so all you out there afraid to push the gas... imagine puushing it so hard that it would not go any further....now repeat again and again after you propperly warm the car... and drive it a while to cool it down... if it smells when you park it.... that was a good day for your car. There is a very special smell it should have...go to the track and you will discover it, then make sure yours smells like that damn near everyday - FWIW I hit redline or near everyday on my 86' and it has 170k miles on the clock.....

ivangene

+1 for AOS by the way (back on topic)

if the car is driven on short trips and the oil hasnt been recently changed your car will absorb water in the motor and what you saw was that water being burned out of the oil after being caught by the AOS... my advise is to drive it again and again in the same way and see it it repeats (providing you dont put it away hot as you did before.... do a little cool down lap)

its normal to have the coolant be a little low if you have not checked it in a while as over time air bubble escape... fill it to just below propper level and watch it. and for the oil, yes.... a little low is way better than a tiny over.

its my opinion you should drive it.....watch for a repeat - THEN change (check) for an AOS problem

nick49

My car never smoked, but if driven hard, I'd loose coolant repeatedly. The lastest generation of coolant cap fixed the problem.

ArneeA

I've had my car smoke after start-up after hard runs in the canyon and at the track -- but this is due to the oil crossing the intake manifold.

I wonder if anyone has put an oil catch tank on these motors? I had a similar problem with my S2000 and the oil catch tank alleviated the "non-issue"

P7

I had my 02 C2 for a month now and the same thing happened 2 weeks ago after a long spirited drive - I called the dealer next morning as this car is under CPO warranty and he told me it is gas build up on the intake manifold and he has seen that a lot - he suggested to let the car idle for a minute after a spirited drive - this issue lasted 3-4 starts and about 1 day and never happened again

hope that helps

skiracer

Same thing happened to me while driving hard up a steep canyon road - it's frightening, but no big deal.

ivangene

if you drove the canyon raod again, it most likely would not do it

RaceCarDriver

Oil was changed 2 months ago and I have only put about 500 miles on the car since. It has been used for very short trips the last two months and I did not let the car cool down after the spirited drive.

Oil could have been a tad high, I topped it off (add a 1/2 qrt) before doing an autocross back in May. I check it this morning and it read 2 bars low. Coolant was slightly below minimum and that's normal. When I top it off it typically goes back to slightly below minimum in a few days.

I drove it this morning to my local indy (short trip) and there was just white smoke for a second upon start up.

I will probably have the AOS replaced as a precautionary measure.

I love this car and want to keep it forever so I hope its a simple problem. This is the second longest I've kept a car. I've had about 20 cars in the last 20 years so I must really like it.

P.S. my car is a 6 speed, don't think I said that above.

Macster

Not normal for a car to lose coolant, for the level to drop. I suspect the car's coolant cap leaking. Do yourself a favor and if cap does not have part number that ends in 03 or 04 buy a new cap and fit it.

Both my 02 Boxster's original coolant cap developed a leak -- and I replaced it -- and I spotted the symptoms with my 03 Turbo and had it checked and sure enough the cap would not hold pressure and cap was replaced (car under CPO warranty).

Sincerely,

Macster.

RaceCarDriver

I will check the cap. Could a leaking coolant cap be the cause of the smoke?