308 smoking

Is the smoke in the cockpit or engine area? I assume engine.

Can you smell it? Coolant and oil make very different smells when they hit something hot. Coolant steam is sweet smelling. There are lots of places on the front (belt side) of a 308 engine for leaks to happen-

oil leaks: cam cover gaskets or cam seals and o-rings would be the likely suspect.


coolant leaks: any of the hoses (splits or loose clamps) in that area, or waterpupmp (not likely to make smoke), or the 1-1/2" alum. pipes could have a small leak.

My bet is an oil leak dripping from a cam cover on the exhaust manifold .

jwise

 

My 308 is also smoking. I suspect oil leak but I can't see it. The other day I ran into a guy at the gas station he stood next to my car talking while I let it idle for 10 minutes then when I pulled out and made a right turn I thought I saw a puff out the right side of the engine cover, drove approx 5 miles made a hard right hand turn and definitely saw quite a large puff out the right side again.

I sure hope it is not leaking on my timing belt. How can you tell?

PS.
I was running Castrol 20-50 (dino) and just swithched to Mobil One 15-50.

 

Oil smoke tends to be slightly blue/grey.
Coolant smoke tends to be white.

Pull your passenger side wheel well cover and look for signs of oil coming out of the cam belt covers. Also look for traces of oil on the timing drive cover. You can seem most of the places that coolant can be leaking as well.

It's pretty common for small coolant leaks to only occurr when the system is hot & under pressure.

A puf of smoke from a hard RH turn is most likely oil coming from the cam cover area & dripping down onto the front bank exh. header.

 

I had a 308 for 12 years that did that... would not stop no matter what I did... the oil weeps from the back cam cover... and collects on the ridges of the header cover... and when it gets hot starts to burn off... once all the fresh oil is gone the smoke used to clear up.. if I let the car sit for awhile it would smoke for the first 1/2 hour or so then go away!

I just made sure I had an extinguisher around!!!

 

What if you placed a sheet of paper under the car, something is going to drip on it. Should be a give-a-way of what is hitting the header and smoking.

 

We all look forward to hear what was leaking/smoking.

My garage gas a built in leak detector installed by the former owner....carpet!

I can't wait to remove it, but fear the glue stains may make a sealed clay or brick tile a must...

Doug Crall

 

Back to the main thread: White smoke is really steam but dried antifreeze can burn. I can think of a zillion places where coolant might leak. The likely suspects are hoses, loos hose clamps and weaping water pump seals. You're going to have to get the engine cover open, run the car and study the problem - possibly with the right rear tire and wheel well removed.

rick

 

What oil was in it before?

I agree with Rick, it sounds like you need to jack the car up, pull the right wheel and wheel well liner and take a look around- especially the front cam cover. Also, look at the exhaust header and see if there is staining to indicated the smoking.

Then, just start the car and watch. Be careful of those belts whizzing around.

jwise

 

I've had my car for a year didn't use any oil when I had Castrol 20W-50 (dino) oil. I just switched to Mobil One 15W-50 and have gone thru almost two quarts in 1500 miles.

I am going back to dino oil.

Is there any harm in re-torqing the cam cover bolts?

 

If you are using synthetic oil and your seals are at all old.. it will leak... Ferrari engines heat up and cool at differing rates and thats what cause the oil seepage... just curious when its real hot is the oil pressure at or slightly below 85lbs at idle? I over filled my car once and it found all kinds of places for it to seep out! when mostly went into the gearbox ... when they took the gear box sump bolt out a jet of oil squirted across the garage floor Ferrari of Atlanta were not happy about that!

 

Matthew,

You might check your right rear CV joint. Mine was throwing grease onto the exhaust manifold causing smoking. I could see the grease on the joint. I guess my boot has a hole. The underside of the manifold was black and crusty. Good luck.

-Rjay

 

coolant leaks will leave a white crusty stain around the leak, (unless it is a major leak)
check all the fluid levels to see which is going down.
Check the breathers on the trans, and pcv on the motor.
Synthetic oil on older engines will cause a few problems. Mobil one leaves a film of oil on everything it touches(this is why there is no wear), but this also allows oil under pressure to create "pathways" past seals etc.
This is not the fault of the oil, but just the older seals unable to "mold" to the shape of the relevent shaft.
As others have mentioned different fluid create different odors, coolant is a sickly smell, oil is musty (and blue), grease(axles) will leave black stains.
If it smokes after over-run, i.e drive the car, close throttle, then apply power, and smoke blows, then we need to check the valve guides and seals
Got any pictures of the effected area, we would be happy to advise.
Good luck.

 

Shouldn't the ratio be 50/50 ??

Just chimin' in but I thought that's what the antifreeze/water ration should be.

Tom

 

If you don't live in the Arctic, 60% water may be a little better. Water holds a lot more heat than antifreeze, but antifreeze boils at a higher temperature. So it's a bit of a trade off. OTOH, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If your car is fine at 50-50, don't change it.

Ken

 

Have at it. Sometimes helps. Especially if you sealed the gaskets with Hylomar, it cold flows a bit & a re-torque usually takes care of any problems.