Oil Residue Around Exhaust Manifold

[fastasleep]

There appears to be oil residue on the exhaust manifold near where the manifold meets the head. By residue, I mean it looks like oil is blowing by/leaking and catching dust/particulate.

At idle I've noticed some nice plumes/clouds of smoke, especially at take off, every once in a while. The motor has been thirsty for oil between changes as well.

So, to me this all points to oil either blowing by piston rings or maybe even a head gasket?

Would a compression test confirm any of this?

How can I determine the root cause?

Thanks,

Ben

 

[turbowop]

I vote valve seals.

 

[prove_it]

I agree with WOP but that would explain the oil consumption, not the residue. Your oil is going somewhere and if it's not leaking, it's burning.

How old is the engine, what kind of mods do you have, how much oil does it consume?

As for a head gasket, if your not loosing coolant then I doubt it the HG. It's either the rings or leaking past the valves. If it is the valve seals and you have stock valve guides then they are probably loose too. It's always worth doing a compression test. Either way it's a good way to find out the "health" of your engine.

As for the residue, try spraying some aerosol spray foot powder all over the area where the leak might be. These is a trick I picked up for finding leaks. The powder will change color with fresh fluid so after a few miles just look for the wet spot. At this point I'd be more concerned with the oil loss.

 

[marvinmadman]

Valve stem seals and its seeping through the exhaust manifold leaks

 

[dsmless]

On my turbo colt I had the same problem, but I cleaned the area with a can of brake cleaner and then drove it around a couple days watching the area daily, turned out it was just the front valve cover bolts were loose enough to let some oil escape threw the seal and fall on the exhaust manifold causing "burn" marks like in your picture. A new valve seal and retorqued bolt and it was good to go. So just might wanna try that

 

[desant78]

^thats what happened to me.

 

[ktmrider]

Non-OEM PCV valve will do that too including the "smoke puffs".

Do NOT use a box store Framinator. JNZ has them for about $10/ea.

 

I know on mine the two exhaust studs on the bottom center and to the right leaked oil until I put rtv on the treads.

 

[fastasleep]

Quoting prove_it:
How old is the engine, what kind of mods do you have, how much oil does it consume?



The motor is factory from '91. It was bone stock with 64k miles on it when I got it from my grandfather in 2005.

It now has a little over 148k. It's been my daily driver since then. I don't abuse the car. I do enjoy its power from time to time. It has a 20g wheel in an Evo 3 16G housing with supporting mods. ~21 psi. All factory internals.

Quoting ktmrider:
Non-OEM PCV valve will do that too including the "smoke puffs".



So, I had an oil catch can a couple years back. It seemed to not be really good at catching oil at all, but pretty good at saturating the filter that sat on top of the catch can with oil and misting my engine bay with it. So, I took it off. Both valves on the valve cover are venting to the atmosphere (the one that goes to the intake before the turbo; as well as, the one that goes into the intake manifold, per the factory setup).

Should I really not be doing that?

 

[marvinmadman]

You really need a vacuum to pull the crank pressure from blow by.

 

[prove_it]

You never stated how much oil is been consumed. If it's around 1 qt per oil change, it's one thing. If your losing 1qt a week that's another issue.

Sounds like you got some blow-by issues. An older engine will have larger clearances in the rings and it will burn more oil. That's a given especially with a 20g pushing 20lbs. lol. A proper catch can might be your answer, and might reduce the consumption. I would have the compression checked anyway, it's a simple test that gives you an idea of how the cylinders are. If your test shows a decrease in compression, have a leak down test down. That will tell you if your leaking past the rings.

 

[fastasleep]

I might be losing around 3 quarts every 3-5k miles

 

[presterone]

You really should hook up your pcv before you condemn something. A lot of people run catch cans but I think its a good no idea to route the breather to the turbo inlet pipe or something to create a venturi, I plumbed my catch can in between the breather and turbo inlet

 

[fastasleep]

I want to do this now, but I have a custom intake pipe that doesn't have an inlet/outlet for the valve cover vent to connect to.

Would it be better for me to at least reconnect the PCV with the IM so that I have a vacuum source to draw out crank case gases at idle, and leave the VC venting to the atmosphere for the time being?

Venting the VC to the atmosphere at idle will cause un-metered air to be drawn in and therefore to run... lean?

Venting the VC to the atmosphere under boost will cause metered air to be vented (not recirculated) and therefore will cause the car to run... rich?