Blue smoke...

jenticking · Post by **jenticking** » August 25th, 2006, 2:54 am

Hey guys,

Is the first sign of that blue puff of smoke automatically mean it's an engine failure ?

Jen

solo_ryder · Post by **solo_ryder** » August 25th, 2006, 9:25 am

Hey, that is a good question, when does this blue smoke appear? If it is on startup then it is normal for our older cars to do that as the exhaust valves maybe getting abit tired.

If it is burining oil while driving and under acceloration, then you are most likely looking at the piston ring leads as they may have cracked and are letting some oil (blow by) into the combustion chamber. This to me is also a normal sign of a older v6 motor.

What I can suggest for the meantime is running a thicker oil like 15w 40 as that can slow the burning down. Depending on how bad the smoke is I am not sure if you can pass aircare in your area.

As for engine failure, no. You can drive on a car that burns oil for along time, you just need to top up the oil every so often and possibly change the spark plugs down the road.

mxmaz · Post by **mxmaz** » August 25th, 2006, 9:28 am

Blue smoke means the engine is burning oil which is likely caused by either the piston rings, valve stem seals or both. So your engine will need some type of rebuild to fix it. The engine will still run and i wouldnt worry about it breaking down anywhere as long as you keep the oil level full.

Do a compression and leakdown test.

jenticking · Post by **jenticking** » August 25th, 2006, 1:49 pm

Thanks for your replies everyone,

The blue smoke appears at start up (I drive a 94), and also once in awhile at acceleration. I just passed air-care 2 days ago, and there didn't seem to be a problem doing so. One last question: Will the engine rebuilt put me into the ground with debt ?

Jen

solo_ryder · Post by **solo_ryder** » August 25th, 2006, 2:44 pm

In your case a standard rebuild is like 2grand. I do not really recommend rebuilding a stock motor becuase you could always swap it out and put better motor in, but if you pass aircare and you really dont mind the smoke and adding abit of oil then there is not much to worry about.

93-Spec-Edn · Post by **93-Spec-Edn** » August 28th, 2006, 3:43 am

Hey there,
A bit of blue smoke on an older higher reving engine is perfectly normal. Most honda vtec engine including the s2000, even at low miles blow out a bit of blue smoke on start up or on hard acceleration and they r a lot more expensive than our cars. It shouldnt be a problem at all. Just makesure your oil level is safe and its also normal to top up our engines every 3000km with some oil.

Steeb · Post by **Steeb** » August 28th, 2006, 4:02 am

i agree, i would rather swap in a lower used engine than rebuild because many engine rebuilders in fact cannot rebuild an engine correctly. unless you highly trust your mechanic to do the job right dont do it. not many shops have the proper machinery to rebuild engines but many shops do it without machining. doing it wrong is worse than driving it how it is now.

blowing smoke at high rpms or high boost is not the same as blowing smoke on start up or because your rings are bad. during high rpm blowing smoke is caused from blow by and blowing smoke on start up is due to valve seals.