Joe_Van_Duno
12-16-2012, 01:46 PM
Well hopefully I don't jinx myself by telling everyone my issue and what I think was my fix.
Just some quick background info, I bought an 89 Shadow 2.5 turbo auto for a fun driver and it had a blown turbo only making 7 psi and smoking oil like crazy. So I picked up a used garret turbo, intercooler and radiator from a shelby Z and I've been working on swapping them out for the last couple of weekends.
Yesterday I finally got the shadow running and driving (plates and insurance) but it was still POURING out blue smoke. I was hoping it was residue in the exhaust from the blown mitsu turbo. I kept checking the plugs and didn't see any signs of burning oil which was supporting my theory on residue oil. So I took it for a drive up to my dads house, about 40 miles, hoping to "blow out" all the old oil. Well sure enough the car was still smoking badly and after checking the oil I found that I burned through a 1/4 of a quart. So just to expand that a little the car was burning 1 quart every 160 miles....not good.
So I topped off the oil and drove back home. I pulled the plugs last night and found cylinder 4 had signs of burnt oil on it. After talking with JT (thanks again for all the tech support) we determined that a compression check was necessary and if compression is good, then I needed to inspect the valve seals.
I checked compression this morning and found to be 125 across the board. So I pulled the valve cover and low and behold one valve seal was sitting about 1/4 inch off the "base" of the valve. I used a screwdriver and a pick to push the seal back in place, re-assembled the car and sure enough it's no longer a fog machine!!!!
Best I can figure I caused this problem when replacing the turbo. I had the cylinder head sitting on my work bench tilted on about a 45 degree angle with the combustion chamber facing up. I'm thinking the seal slipped down while sitting upside down for 2 weeks.
Thought I'd share my experience just in case someone else runs into the same issue, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be a one time issue.
Just some quick background info, I bought an 89 Shadow 2.5 turbo auto for a fun driver and it had a blown turbo only making 7 psi and smoking oil like crazy. So I picked up a used garret turbo, intercooler and radiator from a shelby Z and I've been working on swapping them out for the last couple of weekends.
Yesterday I finally got the shadow running and driving (plates and insurance) but it was still POURING out blue smoke. I was hoping it was residue in the exhaust from the blown mitsu turbo. I kept checking the plugs and didn't see any signs of burning oil which was supporting my theory on residue oil. So I took it for a drive up to my dads house, about 40 miles, hoping to "blow out" all the old oil. Well sure enough the car was still smoking badly and after checking the oil I found that I burned through a 1/4 of a quart. So just to expand that a little the car was burning 1 quart every 160 miles....not good.
So I topped off the oil and drove back home. I pulled the plugs last night and found cylinder 4 had signs of burnt oil on it. After talking with JT (thanks again for all the tech support) we determined that a compression check was necessary and if compression is good, then I needed to inspect the valve seals.
I checked compression this morning and found to be 125 across the board. So I pulled the valve cover and low and behold one valve seal was sitting about 1/4 inch off the "base" of the valve. I used a screwdriver and a pick to push the seal back in place, re-assembled the car and sure enough it's no longer a fog machine!!!!
Best I can figure I caused this problem when replacing the turbo. I had the cylinder head sitting on my work bench tilted on about a 45 degree angle with the combustion chamber facing up. I'm thinking the seal slipped down while sitting upside down for 2 weeks.
Thought I'd share my experience just in case someone else runs into the same issue, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be a one time issue.