Redtop SR white smoke, good compression numbers, just bought looking for advice.

[ORICLE]

I finally came to the darkside I bought my first SR. I bought a 89 hatch Saturday that had a redtop sr swap done a month ago. At the time the car ran ok and didn't really smoke. I saw some white smoke and thought it might be the turbo since I also saw some smoke coming from the downpipe(exhaust leak etc...) So I made the 300 mile trip home and watched the smoke. I finally had time today to look at some other issues and do a compression check. The numbers read 152,152,150,150. So I guess I'm confused as to the white smoke. The motor feels good, the car didn't overheat at all. The boost was set to high when I picked the car up( hitting around 17-18psi which lead me to think the turbo might be gone) so I turned it down to 10 psi and drove around all day. The car is still smoking pretty bad. Any advice would be great for a new SR owner. Thanks.

[Sil80315]

does the turbo making a whining sound instead of the sound of forced air going through a small hole?

the turbo might have blown seals and burning some oil.

It doesn't take long to kill a t25 at 15+ psi. I blew one up in 3 months and i installed it when it had zero shaft play..so chances are the previous owner beat the crap out of the turbo and killed it

take the turbo intake pipe off and feel the shaft and let us know

[Kalypso]

17psi is ridiculous, I cant understand why he would have done that.

But luckily t25's are cheap.

[ORICLE]

Yeah that was my thought. When I have a chance I will definitely get out there and take a look. Honestly at 10 psi the car feels pretty good and it sounds like it spools fine its just the smoke. Heavy white smoke.

Thanks

[Ser200sx567]

Sounds like you have a leaky head gasket, White smoke is usually burning coolent. Do you have a Metal/MLS head gasket or head studs installed. Running that much psi can be hard on a stock engine. Sometimes the head gasket will burn through the fire ring, or head might have lifted a bit off the block when it was hitting that much boost.

Oil is usually blue tint of smoke. you might not catch that on a compression test. Run a leak down test then you can see if theres any problems with rings, gaskets, and valves.

Good luck

[ORICLE]

Thanks for the information I will do that.

[Kalypso]

good luck,

if this car isnt your daily and you have a garage, id take that motor out and replace all the gaskets with an OEM gasket kit.

[exhsturbine]

how is your catch-can breather set up.... if it is plugged or the pcv is clogged you will get lots of white smoke. if this is the case. 17 psi and too much crank case pressure=bad times.

[pawpaw18_00]

well from your compression numbers looks like ur head gasket is ok...you would never get that kind of # if there was a leak...i would check the oil to see if it is milky looking...which would indicate coolant in the oil...if it looks good then that reaffirms that the gasket is good...then check the intake manifold for any coolant lines runing into a thermostatic expansion valve or idle air cotrol...that uses coolant temp to adjust idle...sometimes the o ring that seals the coolant goes bad and intake vac suck coolant into combustions chamber...otherwise look at turbo for the cause...

[ORICLE]

Thanks for the heads up I appreciate the info. I hope its something simple but with my luck its probably not. haha. night.