Help with a huge project

[kjizzle]

I'm not really asking for help, just garage space. I'm an Audi tech at Royal Automotive in SF, but we can only use the space there on Thursdays after our shift is over, and I'm pretty sure I can't finish this in 2 hours. I live in Daly City.

I have no idea what's going on with my hunk of junk, but tomorrow I'll know more because I have to bring tools home from work to do this stuff. All of my tools are at work. She's running rich and has white smoke after warm up. The white smoke only comes on after it's warmed up, and really only in gear. If I sit at a stop light, white smoke pours, but it smells like gas. Tomorrow after work I can do a compression/leakdown, but not until then. She stumbles more than ever. All of this happened after switching from my Chinesium eBay special headers and stock turbo with in and out play to stock headers and a brand spankin' new TA45 from Kirban.

I've owned her since 2007, when I first got stationed in Bremerton, WA. She sat for almost two years while I did training and deployments. I just brought her back to life a month ago. Fluids, filters, the whole shebang. She ran perfectly for 3 weeks, and then all of this started happening. I changed the fuel filter on Wednesday, expecting the white smoke to be varnish built up in the filter. Nope. Last night I saw ridiculous knock numbers at cruise, bouncing around from 000 on the O2/31 degrees, to 900/7. The idle is unpredictable at best, and there is a strong ticking coming from the passenger valve cover area.

I have good rebuilt heads from a few years ago that I bought, fully intending to either have them installed or install them. The odometer says about 55k, but I'm pretty sure that it's more like 155k.

I'm afraid it's the beginning of a major head gasket issue, or rings, neither of which I can take care of at my apartment. It may be that the fuel pump is on it's way out, who knows? FP looks fine, and acts exactly as I'd expect it to. I'd have to rent a car for the length of the repair because she's my daily driver.

If anyone here knows of someone who can take of what I need done, or is willing to lend/rent me some garage space to do what I need to do, that would be fantastic.

Sorry this was so long.

 

[chopped39]

Pull vacuum line off fuel pressure regulator and see if fuel is coming out. If not let it run until hot and then check again.After its hot pull injector rail and just key up and see if any injectors are leaking.Make sure clips are holding injectors to rail otherwise it will blow injector out of rail. some quick tests

 

[kjizzle]

I've checked the FPR multiple times for that, and just to check line on and off pressures. 38/43 just like it should be, if you're wondering. Tomorrow after work I'm going to rig up a windshield pressure gauge to check that it's behaving fine.

The injector pulling will have to wait until later. I have to work tomorrow at 7, and I need to grab tools from work. I'll be able to pull spark plugs and injectors tomorrow night. My problem with things like this is that I don't have a real garage, just a tiny covered parking spot with a garage door, and it can't go down because she's my daily driver. I'll let you know tomorrow.

What do you think about the white smoke? Is it possibly a stuck injector, or are my fears correct that what I experienced was real knock and I'm on my way to oil soup?

 

[kjizzle]

OK, I got off work late and ran out of daylight, but I got a quick compression test. I'll check leakdown tomorrow when I have sunlight, and I'm not hella tired from working 6 days a week.

Cylinders1, 2, and 3 were all at around 120. Cylinder 6 was 100, 4 was 110, and, surprisingly, 5 was 150.

With all of the cylinders being evenly low (except for 5, which is kind of an anomaly), could this be timing related? like a stretched chain?

EDIT: When I pulled the plugs (which only have 300 miles on them), all were uniformly slightly brownish. #6 had some pitting (a few white dots, maybe not pitting), but no indication of oil, coolant or extra fuel. At this point, I'm hoping for it to be a turbo seal.

 

[kjizzle]

Sorry about no updates, if anyone is reading this. I know the rings are bad, but I didn't just start blowing smoke until I got the new turbo.

Leakdown showed a 20-30 PSI increase across all cylinders, except #5 (duh). Recently, she started smoking BAD. All white with a bluish tinge, and it reeks of oil. I've smelled maple syrup exhaust before, it's definitely not coolant.

Oddly, I noticed some oil leaking from the brass fitting at the oil feed line. I saw that when I first ran the turbo, and cranked it down another couple turns. That stopped it, but yesterday I noticed oil coming from there again, and from the bottom compressor housing bolt. Pulled DP and up-pipe, no indications of the amount of oil I would expect from my smoke clouds. Nothing from the oil drain, which was a huge problem with my old stock turbo. I think the drain was warped on the turbo side, I could never get a gasket to seal it. Yeah, I reused the old one. Vacuum block seemed normal, no more oil than usual in the PCV.

I'm starting to think that it's my oil drain. I may never have noticed a clog before because oil never had a problem leaking all over the damn place from the gasket that would never seal.

Tomorrow, I'll try to pull the drain and thoroughly clean it to see if this is my problem. I'm pretty sure the ticking is unrelated, as that has always been there to some extent. I've blown up my number 3 cylinder spark plug a couple times before, probably should have mentioned that.

To recap: She smokes White with a slight blue tinge, only when it's warmed up, and only at idle. As soon as I accelerate, no smoke. When I say that she smokes, I mean I might as well be labeled a war criminal under California's smog laws. It's thick, and it's abundant, but only at a stop sign after it's warmed up. New TA-49 from Kirban's. I never had a smoking problem before with my old turbo with the horrendous axial and radial play and leaky oil drain.

Oh, and oil pressure from the newly installed gauge is 60 cold, 14-20 hot, both at idle. Still no coolant consumption, but oil is down a quart every 2 weeks, it seems.

I know. It's a hot mess.

I'll try the drain either tomorrow or Thursday