p.vanderlinden

Another thought is to get the car in the up on a lift or jackstands, start the engine, and listen to each valve using a long screw driver or 1/2" or so diameter rod or tube, touching one end to each valve area and the other end to your ear. The offending lifter will transmit a very loud clacking noise through the valve cover that is totally different from the other valves.

Best of luck,
Paul

CEL ghost

Has anyone used Lucas synthetic oil additive? I'm being recommended that by a friend/mech but from another post I read, someone said its no good. It's like liquid tar.

Macster

"Liquid tar" is about right...

My research indicates it has a cSt at 100C of greater than 45.0.

By way of comparison, Castrol Syntec 5w-40 oil has a cSt at 100C of 14.3.

Avoid it would be my advice.

Sincerely,

Macster.

CEL ghost

Thanks macster, by the way it was suggested to me over a month ago to add techron and take it for a 100 mile drive at over 3000 rpm. I did that but did not change the oil (it was not suggested by the Indy) and have changed to chevron gas. I was previously using 76 for years. My last oil change was in Feb.

CEL ghost

Btw, I plan to deal with this this weekend. I've had the car sitting in our garage unused for almost 2 weeks.

Macster

Techron can help remove fuel system deposits, clean the combustion chambers, etc, but just a 100 mile ain't likely to help much.

Techron works in several ways, one at cold start as a liquid and then when the engine and its parts that Techron in vapor form comes into contact with are while hot are cool enough that the Techron vapor converts back into a liquid.

So a mix of driving is preferred.

As an aside since we already know gasoline can get into the oil, any additive and especially one that is (chemically) designed to remain a liquid at temperatures that would vaporize gasoline, and designed to revert to a liquid from vapor form at a temperature above that of say gasoline or even water, it stands to reason the use of Techron can add to the engine oil's contamination. This is why an oil/filter service *after* the gasoline treated with Techron has been burned up, or nearly burned up, is advised.

Anyhow, a mix of driving is ideal. I used to use Techron once in awhile, before a smog check/test, but stopped when the engine came through with pretty good numbers. It has been at least a couple of years now since I have used this stuff.

But I ran then and continue to run primarily Shell V-Power (91 octane) and it has some kind of additive that is supposed to keep the fuel system/et al clean.

Does it work? Maybe. Maybe not.

But the engine, engines (I run Shell gasoline in my Turbo and Boxster) have not shown any signs of any problems running primarily Shell gas so I assume Shell gasoline agrees with both engines.

76 gasoline is a good gasoline and were the situation different in my area, were there a price competitive 76 station nearby I'd buy 76 gasoline without a second thought. Trouble is while the Shell station is very easy to get into and get out of, the 76 station and a few other nearby stations (2 being Chevron stations -- one on either side of the freeway) are just the opposite. That and as a group they charge more for gasoline makes the decision to shop at the Shell station just that much easier.

You can run a bottle or two of Techron through the engine but the best ongoing treatment you can give the engine is to drive the car more.

While I commute 60 miles per day, at mostly highway speeds, I'm still amazed at when I take either one of my cars on an extended drive and roughly over 50 miles at highway speeds into the drive the engines perk up a noticeable amount. These engines really like to be run. (They aren't the only engines. On a drive to Huntington Beach in my 06 GTO, this some years ago, down a ways on I-5 on which I got a chance to let's say blow the cobwebs out of the engine, the GTO's engine perked up big time.) No need to thrash the engine to its limits, but once the engine is up to temp use that throttle more.

BTW, I was able to see a Boxster engine with its head off -- a valve spring broke and the head came off to effect a repair -- and I was instantly taken by the cleanliness of the combustion chambers. I said something to the tech about the condition of the chambers and he told me the chambers were as he found them. He had not cleaned them. The engine had roughly 60K miles on it and was owned/driven by a woman who gave the car/engine reasonable service, drove the car every day, and drove it a distance on the highway to/from her job. I vaguely recall the tech telling me she lived somewhere in the Walnut Creek area and worked somewhere in the Pleasanton/Dublin/Livermore area, so she was covering (my WAG) 12 to 15 miles each way per day.

Any engine fed a name brand/top tier gasoline combined with oil/filter services at reasonable intervals and subjected to the same or nearly the same driving conditions ought result in the same chamber condition

Sincerely,

Macster.

CEL ghost

Thanks macster, lots of great info

took it out and decided perhaps an "Italian tune-up" wouldn't hurt? But some of the additives might.
So I added no additives, just a pure drive. The car had sat for 2 weeks. Started it up, drove it a bit with rough idle no cels then heard something that sounded like ran over a soda can, Was it backfire? Not sure.
drove it another 5 mins (only rough when stopped not while driving) again rough idle at stop light. Threw a blinking cel. smelled what would be described as someone lighting a match. Dismissed it as perhaps car next door. Light turned green. Cel gone. 3 more mins, now on the freeway. Running good. Kept it around 5-6000 rpms for 2 mins (it's a short freeway) did a u-turn, other side of freeway gunned it and now smoke. No cel. Smoke is grayish blue. Got off at exit. Rough idle. Slight smoke. Cel now came on blinking. Cel went off as drove. Car now sitting at home.
Started up again 20 mins after parking. Reved it to 3000 rpms Grayish blue smoke out of both exhausts. Rough idle. Blinking, to solid, to blinking cel. Turned it off.

Macster

Did you have a professional tech check out the car? From what I recall the engine symptoms appeared either immediately after or shortly after the plugs/coils were done.

Thus I'm still suspicious of the plug/coil work that was done or that something else was upset arising from this work.

Last thing touched and all that...

Regardless, leave the engine off and arrange to get the car to a professional tech.

The issues may not be serious but you want to be sure. And even if not serious they will not fix themselves.

Couple of things:

The blinking CEL is most likely misfires and misfires that can damage the converters. Some possible causes: bad plug, or coil; leaking injector or one in which its spray pattern is severely compromised; too much fuel pressure, are a few that come quickly to mind.

A read of the error codes would be of some value but really the tech can and should be the person to do this for he is in the best position to make the best use of the data.

The smell arises from a converter that gets off on the wrong foot, chemically speaking, at engine start. This can be helped along by bad/stale gas, combustion deposits, misfiring plugs/coils, really anything that results in lousy combustion, or the gasoline just disagrees with the engine. Some after-market fuel additives may contribute to this behavior as well.

The few times I've encountered this smell with my cars the smell duration was short-lived and I didn't do anything out of the ordinary but just got in the car and drove the car like I always do.

Given the other things going on right now the smell to me is the least of your worries.

The gray smoke can arise from a number of things: grey smoke may not be smoke at all, but instead can be water vapor (a natural by product of combustion and one we've seen many times after cold starting an engine) mixed with oil or unburned gasoline or possibly added to by a coolant leak.

The water vapor -- absent any other significant quantities of say oil vapor -- emitted by an engine disperses very quickly while smoke tends to hold together.

Or the grey smoke can be oil vapor by itself or mixed with the by products of less than ideal combustion.

Grey smoke can even arise from less than ideal combustion.

An overly rich mixture can generate exhaust with obvious soot but I've seen cases where the exhaust is just cloudy though with a very very strong smell of gasoline.

With a blinking CEL which strongly points to a rich misfire which means the exhaust is loaded with unburned fuel...this suggests the grey cloud comes from this.

But the AOS can't be dismissed either.

There are just too many things going on, too many questions unanswered that can only be answered by someone at the car, to make any recommendation beyond what I've already made.

An expert's inspection and diagnosis is needed.

Sincerely,

Macster.

CEL ghost

Talked with Indy today. Looks like I'm going to have to bite bullet and fix the lifters. No way around it now. He's thinking the smoke is from the stuck lifter and the fact it's been sitting a while. Prob going to have him do AOS while he's at it. It seems they tend to go out around 50-60k on these cars from what I've read? He'll know more about the AOS once he gets a chance to get in there. Hope there isn't more to it! I'll also ask him about advice given when I bring it in. It was a different Indy who did previous work, so will have him check…