Blue smoke - Turbo oil seal, Valve stem seals or piston rings?

[wolfie]

OK here's my story.

Bought a car a few weeks back, it's an RB20DET powered S13. All good, one (major) problem is that it's blowing a fair bit of blue smoke *sometimes*. Note that this is not all the time, in fact, it's really quite occaisionally.

I've posted on NS.com / silvansw.com - Just posting here as I know the R32 GTS-T's share the same engine (that's what my engine came from apparently, may have been a cef though)

I took the car to Proconcept's in West Ryde, just off Victoria Rd (NSW...), the guy there wasn't very helpful, he had a quick look at it and didn't want anything to do with it. He could be valve stem seals (most likely) and piston rings.

I have noticed that the car tends to blow smoke when it's on a slope, i.e. at lights, or in a driveway w/ turbo timer.. or when stopped. My friends have also told me it blows a little when boosting when they are behind me.

I have tryed using a slightly thicker oil, and it seems to be blowing a little less. Still evident though.

The strangest thing is that sometimes it won't blow *any* at all, whereas other times it's pretty embarrassing sitting at lights, with smoke trailing past my windows :whatsthat

Any suggestions? I'm hoping it's the turbo seal, I suppose it's wishful thinking though

EDIT: One quick question while I'm here, my car is making 167rwkw @ 14psi - Looking at the dyno graph the boost seems to taper off? I have the scan but I have no where to host it

[The Mafia]

Dude, if I were you, I would get straight down to a proper mechanic, and get a Leakdown test, and a Compression test done. This will tell you the state of the rings. If the tests come back good, you'll know that your valve stem seals are stuffed.

If your turbo was leaking, it would be blowing white smoke (I think)

anyway, step 1 - go and get compression and leak down tests done before you potentially destroy your bores!

And drive it steady until then....

[JDMS15]

sounds like turbo dude.......

if u were in melbourne i'd surgest payin me a visit

but it's hard to tell in writing..

[Bl4cK32]

If it blows smoke first thing in the morning for a little bit then stops its the valve stem seals. Oil leaks down (usually during the night) and burns off when you start your car first thing.

Id do a compression test yourself, and you should know quickly if its rings.

As stated above i believe a blown turbo seal is usually white smoke.

Probably unrelated but has the car been tuned properly on a dyno? (what ecu is the car running?)

[wolfie]

Running a Microtech LTX8, and yeah it's been tuned properly

How will a (dry) compression test tell me if the rings are letting oil through?? I can't really do a wet test myself