Too much blue smoke on startup.

[matt]

When I first start the car after it has sat for a few days, there is a very faint emission of blue smoke that lasts for about 30 seconds. After the car has warmed up and is shut down then restarted, there's a much more pronounced puff of blue smoke that comes out all at once. It's an appreciable amount of smoke. I'm able to let a puff go by, but it's gotten worse and to the point where I feel I need to do something about it.

I can not tell if it smokes under boost and I also get some oil in the driver side breather.


Here is what I've checked or replaced in hopes to alleviate the smoking problem:

Valve seals.
ACDelco PCV.
Cold compression test. One cylinder at 147 and the rest at 155/160.
Intake tract for oil residue. None there.
Turbo shaft. It's tight.

If the seals were bad in the turbo, would the shaft still be tight? I think this is true, but I'm not exactly sure. The turbo is the last thing I can think of to open up.


:confused:

[HairDrier]

Pull the up pipe off and run the car. Start and shut it off a few times over the course of a day. If you still have smoke its internal, if not its the turbo.

Also check the doghouse on the intake for oil residue. If the turbo is badit will be there and in the up pipe and throttle body

[matt]

Pull the up pipe off and run the car. Start and shut it off a few times over the course of a day. If you still have smoke its internal, if not its the turbo.

Also check the doghouse on the intake for oil residue. If the turbo is badit will be there and in the up pipe and throttle body
I have checked for oil residue. There was none which doesn't lead me to believe that there is anything wrong with the turbo.

Why do you suggest running without the turbo connected? What would that accomplish? All I can think of that that would do is possibly eliminate the turbo as the source.

[HairDrier]

To eliminate the turbo as a source.

The only other possibility I can think of is valve seals. Did you put new seals on all the valves or just the intakes?

[matt]

To eliminate the turbo as a source.

The only other possibility I can think of is valve seals. Did you put new seals on all the valves or just the intakes?
Intake only. My exhaust guides are not machined to accept seals.

[Trevor Johnson]

I have seen exhaust valve guides start to wear cosiderably on engines over 100K. This is a common cause of smoke on start-up and unfortunatly difficult to solve on a turbo Buick head. I believe there is an "umbrella" seal that will fit over the guide boss, but this is only a partial fix if at all. If you have a proper funcionong PCV valve, I have had good luck with the ATR piece, excessive oil around a crank case breather usually indicates a leak in your piston ring package."Compression tests" are generally used to locate a major problem: blown gasket, hole in piston, broken ring ect. The only truley accurate way to test piston ring condition is to do a leak down test on a warm engine. A leak down guage applies air pressure to the cylinder with the piston held at TDC and will give you an ammount of leak reading in percentages. These are not too expensive and are a must for anyone maintaining a performance engine. Also, a good repair shop will be able to perform this test for you, if it tests ok sending the turbo out would be the next logical and least finacially painfull step. Anything beats tearing the engine down for no reason.
Good luck and remember this stuff is supposed to be fun.

[aminga]

I've seen a set of leaking injectors cause blue smoke on startup. It was on my car shortly after it was purchased < 10K miles. They replaced the injectors and the blue smoke went away.