456 Excessive Smoke on startup/cold

Trying to diagnose a possible problem with the 2000 456M. Recently (last week or so), on startup, there's a considerable amount of white smoke on startup that hangs around until the oil temp is above about 120 degrees. Doesn't appear to have any oil in it (fogs a mirror but leaves no residue) and doesn't have a sweet smell, either (anti-freeze/coolant). However, the smoke does linger so it's not all steam. My thoughts are either a collant or oil leak.

Thoughts on other things to check? The amount is fairly large, but not excessive. On revving the engine, there's profuse amounts of lingering smoke when cold. After 5 minutes or so of crusing, no more smoke, things appear fine.

I'm open to suggestions. The engine had a good compression test in July, everything within 5 psi. No overheating to my knowledege, I've been cruising with the car and no hard runs what-so-ever. Temp guage has never been over about 180/ oil never above about 200.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

How often do you drive it? Could be condensation in the exhaust system being vaporized by the exhaust heat.

 

Hi there,
Well, if it is not dark smoke, it can only be steam or oil.
Steam could simply be condensation in the mufflers that is coming out as the system warms up, but if the car is being used regularly, the outside temperature is not too cold and the exhaust system has the time to warm completely up, condensation should disappear and not be a recurrent problem.
Try to keep the car in the garage while it cools down, to prevent the possibility of condensation from ocurring again.
You may also want to check the oil colour and make sure you do not have any infiltration of coolant in the oil.
Coolant in the oil will produce a milky emulsion that will tell you you have a leaky head gasket, that needs to be taken care of immediately.
Otherwise, if it is light in colour might be oil being burnt in the cylinders.
You may start by running your finger on the inside of the exhaust tips and see if there are any traces of oil there.
Then a look at the spark plugs may be the easiest way to detect if there is any oil being burnt and in which cylinder.
If you find traces of oil on the plugs, then a compression test will tell you where the oil is coming from: if there is no diffrence from previous readings and all the readings are about the same, then the rings can be ruled out.
If the compression readings are fine, then the oil is most likely dripping down from one or more valve guides.
This happens after you turn the engine off and there is still oil in the camshafts alleys above the valves.
The oil drips down the worn out valve guides and sits there until you turn the engine on again.
It then burns slowly off while the engine is running.
Anyway, the rule of thumb is always to start investigating from the easiest and most likely possibility (the condensation) and then move on from there.
If you live in a cold and humid area that is probably your case.
Good luck,
Saluti,

 

Great suggestions, thanks for the many tips.

Car is driven regularly (almost daily), garaged. Drives are long enough to get up to temperature (at least 20 minutes, usually longer).

It has consumed about 1.5 quarts of oil in the last 2 fillups. I first noticed the oil drop during a fillup 2 weeks ago (I check fluid levels each fillup). Hasn't lost any coolant in this period, so it's nearly certain it's oil.

I would also guess valve guides based on the amount/time to burn it off. I would guess rings would continue to burn and show some small smoke during operation.

I'll check the plugs and go from there.

Thanks again.

 

Oil consumption seems high, but then again, it is kind of tricky to get a true reading, since you are not checking the level directly in the crankcase.
You should check the oil level always in the same condition, to make sure the readings you get are comparable.
I.e. always in the morning before starting up or late in the day after you turn the engine off, or any other way you prefer, as long as it is the same way / condition, every day.
Saluti

 

Problem has gotten substantially worse in the last 3 days. Car is now undriveable, billowing amounts of grey smoke begin about 5 seconds after startup. Good news is I've only started the car for diagnostic purposes since this began, no high-revs or driving. I can also hear a slight extra noise in the valve-train on the left hand side. Probably threw a valve.

I've called Ferrari of Denver, they're picking the car up in 10 days. Likely looking at a top-end rebuild on the left side; hopefully no damage to the lower end. Early estimate is $7k to pull the engine and check the head/fix valve seals or replace a valve. I'll have the 30k service done at the same time, so not that much more to fix this problem (belts come "free" with the head-pull, basically).

Gotta' love Ferrari's. Every 12 cylinder Ferrari I've owned has ended up with engine-out service issues within 3 months of purchase, despite comprehensive PPIs. (admitedly, that's just 2 cars - an 88 TR and this 00 456, I've faired better with the 8-cyl models). What's remarkable is the 3 Lamborghini's I've had have been spot-free of trouble (85 CT, 94 VT, and 01 6.0). *sigh*

 

I should add, I did rule-out one possible cause: the oil/vapor separator circuit. I disconnected the vapor-return lines to the intake manifolds; lines were clean and oil-free and the problem replicates w/ the lines disconnected.

 

Hi,
Sorry to hear about your problem, but at least now you know where it appears to be coming from.
One detail I forgot to ask was if you had the smoke coming from both sides or just from one.
Good luck with it anyway.
As far as Ferrari being less reliable than Lamborghini, I believe it has more to do with chance than anything else, although I have never owned a Lambo.
Ferraris are engineers' cars and what I mean by that is that you need to become involved with the engine part of it and its peculiarities, in order to understand what they need and how they are supposed to be treated.
If you manage that, then I believe you can enjoy a long, trouble-free relationship; if you don't, you are bound to have problems.
The reason I say that is because I have "studied" the owner's manual as well as the parts manual and through-out you see a great display of "engineers' thinking" with not so much consideration for practicality or even reliability for every day use.
They both begin with the engine section and go to great lengths and into the most minute details about it.
The rest of the car is "condensed" in a much smaller section and receives far less attention.
If you examine other cars' manuals, you would be reading first about all kind of safety and convenience features, liability disclaimers and the likes, with the engine part short and concised, because you are not supposed to mess around with it and you do not need to know anything about it, aside from checking the oil from time to time.
With a Ferrari you acquire a family member instead......
Regards,
A.

 

Good question, I meant to comment on this. Smoke is predominately from the left side.

I noticed that both exhausts join in a common connector in the center of the car. I get some smoke from the right side, not nearly as much from the left, and is it possible that a bad valve on the left side could send some exhaust to the right muffler via this common connector?

 

Yes, I would think so.
Just trying to save some $$, it seems to me it should be possible to remove both heads without pulling the engine out of the car.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Saluti,

 

Top end and belts are engine out on a 456? Had not thought so. Still, FoD knows their stuff, so ....

Best of luck.

 

One correction: 456 engine is a dry sump engine and checking the oil level should only be when the engine oil is hot and the engine is running. If checked when cold and before startup, dipstick will show little or nothing. I have heard of oil being checked this way, the oil tank overfilled and ultimately lots of smoke from oil in the air filters etc and expensive repairs.

 

I am just completing the replacement of the valve guides in a 456 that had a similar problem. I believe the guides a the same construction as the now infamous 355 valve guides. An oil analysis showed very high copper content and sure enough the guides were worn.

 

I have suspected the exact, same thing since I read in the manual that the 456 has the infamous bronze valve guides. With 25K on the car, this would be a suspect cause. The only element that doesn't add up is how quickly the smoking problem appeared, from no smoke to profuse in about 500 miles on 2 tanks of gas.

 

So, what is the fix? Change valves before it happens? Wait until it happens?

 

No serious damage to the engine results, you just get more and more oil consumption/smoke. I think the 355 crowd waited until their guides were sufficiently worn that the consumption/smoke was no longer bearable, and then replaced the guides. If I recall, they have a hardened steel guide that was developed as a replacement.

 

I used an aluminum silicon bronze guide that has better dimensional stability than any of the Ferrari guides. If you let this go to long the seats may need extensive work and maybe replacement. Also the oil smoke/residue is not very good for your catalytic convertors and exhaust system, (O2 sensors).