Smoke on start but not under acceleration

I have had a blue puff of smoke, (not every time, only 50% of the time), when I started the car of recent (well actually over a year now!). I don't get any under boost, but if it idles for a long time and i then parp it it puffs again.

It sits around for 2-3 weeks at a time between runs, but this shouldn't happen. Searching this site it could be valve stems or turbo seal. Which is it? And am I doing any harm running it like this?

Chrz,

Gary

valve stem seals? not a big issue mine smokes more than me (at start up) been running 4 years like it never got worse does it some days not others

Rich

mine lets out white smoke:)

truth or another lie?

Rich

Mine puffs after a blast but never on start up. Apparently its the tubbie seals.

If you get a puff from cold start i think thats probably valve stem seals.

 

truth or another lie?

 

Rich

lol truth its because its not been driven for ages and theres alot of condensation:)

mines got a minor oil leak about 3 drops after 140 miles but bit oily underneath generally

Ive worked out a fix -- A RAG LOL

Rich

Yeah, never bothered me, but today it didn't start after the usual quick flick of the key for the first time ever. I needed to turn it again so there must have been quite a bit of oil in the cylinders to stop it from igniting?!

Ah now thats different I never had it affect starting?

check your oil and be careful then

Rich

Normally I am very pedantic over this sort of thing and would get it fixed instantly - but with buying my first house, and throwing a lot of money at these headlight conversions I can't really afford to get it fixed (~£1K ish).

I am not confident enough to change them myself, although I should be able to really. Have the luxury of a garage all to myself now (oh, and a tumble dryer for the missus! )

I think thats VSOS's as well. A couple of people i know had this problem. Cold start up (usually when left over night) would puff for about 2 seconds. I think all you have to do is check your oil level regularly because obviously you are using a little bit up each time, but then if its only a small puff then the amount will be tiny. Incidently both the people who had them changed reported that the smoke disappeared on startup. I think if it was turbo seals then it puffs under boost.

yes stem seals, not a hard job if you're confident, hardest part is getting the camcovers off :/

Will I need to do all gaskets etc? Guess so. Any idea how much for parts to do this? And whilst I'm in there anything worth doing/moddifying?

i got all the parts for around 120

you need:

12x inlet stem seals

12x exhaust stem seals

2x cam cover gasket

2x camshaft oil seals

the 2 breather hoses in the middle of the covers is usually a good buy

U need a decent valve stem removal tool and a special tool to knock out the retainers and collets, if you're careful you can do it with a socket

Don't forget to get some extra valve collets as well - they're easy to lose and bloody difficult to find if they shoot across the garage!

Smoke is a bloody hard problem to pin down isn't it. Did you get this sorted?

I had my turbos removed and replaced by Turbofit as I thought they had blown (massives of cloudy white/blue smoke on startup and on throttle), but it turned out this was not the cause of the entire problem - possibly part of it though.

Now it looks like the VSOS. BUT, I don't get a puff of blue on startup and it only seems to appear after driving about 15 minutes in, and not all the time either. Just puffs of blue smoke.

The Turbo oil seals have been checked and are OK.

Most people speculate that corroded VSOS are visible on startup through initial smoke and clear after running the car - mine is the opposite of this.

No idea!

Just to point out that, iirc, smoke on startup with the VSOS will depend on exactly which ones have gone - where the valves stop when you turn the engine off will dictate which ones can leak more. Hence why some people only get it some of the time - it may only be one or two oil seals that have gone.

Ah really Bob - thanks. So, just because it's sat overnight and 'some' of the oil seals may be weeping, it doesn't necessary mean it'll smoke on startup if the poor seals are the ones that open when you turn off the engine?

Greg mentioned something like this yesterday. i.e/ it can happen, and does so as he's seen previously before, only when driving the car after a period of time. Mine is most like this and seems to be VERY intermittant though. Smoke one minute and then the next, completely clear without any change in throttle/idle.

As I said before, I knew I should of bought a bloody Skoda!

Even so Greg, to cause the amount of smoke that was coming out of your car when revving to 2.5k revs you'd have to have something a lot worse than vsos going wrong, hence my thinking it was the turbos. The fact that I could still see the sky when your engine was running at TF ( ) points to them definitely being the major cause. But I agree with TF in that you'd be better off taking the head off completely to give it a full check over; just a shame they didn't decide to do it earlier, as it may have saved you a few quid

Yep, I'm sure the turbos were dead too - number 1 anyway mate with the amount of white smoke bellowing out! At least it's not 'that' bad now hey!

Greg said yesterday he should of just done the VSOS as he knew they were a problem. But like I said, it was also the turbos (I'm sure anyway) and so a combination of the two and sadly, not just one solution! Oh well mate.

*Sits back and waits for news that the piston rings are fubar'd too*

*Sits back and waits for news that the piston rings are fubar'd too*

 

 

I knew that you'd say that you cheeky git! Don't be crossing your fingers too either alright! I deserve a break!