OK, here goes: During the last week I've developed a severe smoking (we're talking HUGE clouds - like a Hollywood smoke machine) problem at idle. The smoke is only there at idle. It's is mostly white, slightly gray and smells like sulfur or gunpowder. It's not leaking coolant (also pressure checked the cooling system - it holds 16 psi) and the black in the tailpipe tips is carbon (rinses off your fingers with water). Since installing the new engine, I've had an oil leak that is making the top of the transmission wet. Investigation this leak, I've found that there is oil dripping out of the vent hole at the bottom of the airbox - directly above the trans. The small filter for the tube that goes up to the valve cover/pcv valve joint is totally soaked with oil. There's no oil in the intercooler hoses. There was 1 drop of dirty oil at the lip of the turbo, but you could tell it had run down the duct from the airbox rather than leaking from the turbo. Essentially no play in the turbo shaft.
So, with that info, here is what I'm going to test tomorrow. I'm thinking that the baffle inside the valve cover is clogged/blocked somehow and is not keeping the oil in the valve cover. I thought I'd try running with that tube pulled off of the airbox and just see if I get more of a puddle on the trans, and no smoke. Also, I got my boost gauge and A/F monitor hooked up. Now I know why the car takes off like it does. The 20 PSI gauge pegs when you hit the throttle - this is supposed to be a 15 PSI computer. So no more boost till I get that sorted out. As for the A/F monitor, it reads a steady value about 1% of the time. The rest of the time - even just cruising at a steady state - the bars are going up and down from 3 to 8 (scale of 1 to 10) At idle, only the bottom 2 bars are lit. If you rev it up a little and let off the gas, all the bars go out, then it starts reading again after a couple of seconds. I've never driven with an active monitor like this, so I'm wondering if this is normal or not. Thanks for any input/suggestions anyone has, Marc Medina www.pnw-sdac.org <http://www.pnw-sdac.org/> 89 Spirit ES 2.5 Turbo Intercooled Super60 http://www.geocities.com/mcm95403/ <--- updated 11/12/04 -----------------------REMOVE-FOOTER-WHEN-REPLYING---------------------------- Questions? Visit http://www.sdml.org/ To be removed, visit http://www.sdml.org/pages/leave.html
