rasonline

hi guys

hoping you all can provide some useful comments, and hoping that it's not the inevitable.

I have an STi 6, with aftermarket rotated turbo and FMIC. Have white smoke blowing out of the crankcase breather this morning. This is how it happened:

Battery was flat so i jump start the car with a battery pack. Let it idle for a good 3 - 5 minutes while i was packing my laptop and few other bits in. Drove 100m to the petrol station, had the car idling while they were filling in fuel (i know, this is not too safe ) Total time was about 15 mins from startup, car was idling for all except the 100m to filling station.

Then drove away from the fuel station and got into boost in 1st gear, think it hit 1.1 bar, changed gear at 5,000rpm. Came to a standstill (another 100m on) and noticed smoke (like steam) blowing out of the bonnet scoop. When sitting in the car, the smoke looked like it was coming out from the left side of the car. Popped open the bonnet and could not see any oil, nor where the smoke was coming from.

Closed up and then carried on driving slowly on a 24km highway drive to work. Car seemed to be driving fine and no indicaiton of power loss, or erratic behaviour. Timing was fine, no misfires. Exterior temps around 22Celsius, with moderate humidity. Car temps looked fine.

Then noticed that under boost there was more of the same smoke i noticed earlier. When i got to my destination i opened the bonnet and this time the car was struggling to idle, wanting to switch off. I noticed the smoke coming from the driver's side of teh car, from a breather pipe that is close to #3 cylinder.

No smoke coming out the exhaust.
Now there was some oil around the block area just aruond the breather pipe.

Nursed the car home driving off boost, heater on full blast. When the car came to a complete stop, more white smoke coming out the breather and struggling to idle on its own.

While cruising the car home, it showed no real sign of major deterioration though, as the engine note was still the same and no misfires.

THIS IS NOT A PICTURE OF MY CAR, I'VE JUST USED SOMEBODY ELSE'S PIC AS AN EXAMPLE


The breather i am talking about - in the pic above if you look at the brass nut on the left of the pic at the back of the block, there is a breather pipe that is just a little bit further to the left towards the turbo, and where the head would meet the block (just out of sight in the pic).

So i've had a read through these threads already
https://www.scoobynet.com/archive/in.../t-196159.html
https://www.scoobynet.com/archive/in...p/t-76716.html
https://www.scoobynet.com/archive/in.../t-110976.html
https://www.scoobynet.com/archive/in...p/t-82924.html

not all the same as my problem, but all indications are that i've got combustion getting past the rings and into the crankcase?

What are my options now? Open the engine and replace pistons and rings? Most likely any other damage? I've never encountered this problem with Subarus before, so any constructive comments are welcome.

(I've previously run the bearings on cyl #3 and come acorss that problem a lot when searching for info)

hoping for the best

Martin0711

Just wondering if u are loosing any water ???

as i had a similar problem on my mothers car a few months back and thought the head gasket was leaking. couldnt see any signs of a water leak under the bonnet untill i pressure tested the coolant system
Bingo.... a small hair line crack in the header tank

rasonline

No signs of water loss at this stage. I'm going to run some compression tests tonight after work and try to see. Will check the water levels again then.

jr758774c

iTrader: (21)

It sounds similar to what I had a few years ago - I had whiteish smoke from the breather and under boost, the car would struggle. It turned out that I had blown piston rings on 2 cylinders.
Sounds potentially expensive I'm afraid