had so much fun on my morning trip that i took her out again in the evening.... got stuck behind some grandmother from belgium in a honda going about 2 miles an hour on a 2 lane for a couple miles. so i was loafing in a high gear doing about 1000 rpm. then the road widened and i took off. all of a sudden white smoke starts pouring out the back, and the left hand 'stop engine' light came on. so i pulled over and shut it down. got out, and raised the hood. the smoke was only emanating from the exhausts, and stopped after a few minutes. the car was not exceptionally hot - water temp at 90 or less and oil temp about 1/3rd up the dial. since i was away from home, and could not see anything else, i got in and started and went on intending to just go home and park it. but it ran fine - no issues, no smoke, no high temps, no funny noises, nothing. so i drove it around for another 30 minutes and it was fine. any ideas on the cause of the smoke? i am thinking that my left bank momentarily shut down during the low revs episode but fuel was still going in. so that when i revved to pass, the left bank came back on, and all the unburnt fuel lit at once and caused the smoke - and thats why it went away so quickly as well. anybody else?
could be Bas, hard to say by just that description though? typically, if the turbo oil seal is shot, it's either just after starting the car (being parked for a long time) or else it will keep on smoking non-stop
white smoke is typically oil getting into the turbo from the surrounding seals. They are actually tiny piston ring like not conventional seals, possibly one stuck and oil bypassed it for a time, normally though this happens under boost, and will get worse over time
I assume you downshifted before taking off. You didn;t say at what RPM you observed the onset of white smoke.
The stop engine light indicates exhaust temp is too high. Sounds like you were running rich on that bank when idling and then overheated the catalytic when taking off from the excess fuel in those cylinders. Not sure why this would occur. Could be a bad plug, ignition wire or even something with the injectors or fuel pressure regulator.
From my experience "white smoke" is a water issue and not an oil issue as oil smoke is black not white. Ross I would check ALL of your water lines/couplings as you could just have just worn out a seal or a loose fitting. I always used Teflon tape on these connections even after I upgraded to A/N fittings. Also you could have a cylinder head stud that has come loose which will allow water/coolant to be released. As Bas mentioned you could have a blown seal, these things happen within seconds and are no fault of your own. Please keep us informed ok? All the best, Gregg
A water issue is steam so typically translucent not white smoke. Turbo oil is always white smoke due to high temp involved. Black smoke is a combustion related oil issue so rings/valve bypass etc Excess fuel is likewise black or brown smoke not white. It may well have been a combination of things under a chain of events rather than one isolated cause
The Weber Marelli system used on these cars, although old tech is still complicated to a degree, the wiring looms are very old now and start to have dry joints and loose connections. That would be my first port of call and relatively cheap to go through. An intermittent problem is usually wiring related
Sounds a bit similar to what happened in my car. See my post " slow down lights come on in Cat F40". In the end, disconnecting the cat overheat sensors seemed to have fixed the smoke.
Had same issue. You need to swap the head gaskets. Good luck finding some. Took me near 2 years to find a pair. I did hear of a shop out in west USA that makes them custom. I'll see if I can find the shop again. The head gaskets are quite complicated and since there were only 2500 F40s built nobody makes them in such small quantities. So we are Hosed
Re headgaskets, Tim is having his engine rebuilt (see LM resto thread) I am sure Cometic sell an uprated head gasket for the car.
took it out this morning for a spin. no smoke, or anything else. however, it still seems to have very short moments of hesitation and missing. if i am at idle at a stoplight, there is a stutter every so often. this clears up when i press the accelerator to move. later on, if i am at constant rpm i can feel it do that slight stutter again. also, a couple times when i went from a cruising speed and rpm, to a lower gear and accelerated (ie to spool up the turbos), i got a moment of nothing. the rpm's did not rise very fast and the whole thing seemed to be back on just the one bank, then i really pressed down on the accelerator and it all came to life and exploded forward. so, is this just the normal stuttering around of a high compression engine forced to moments of loafing in town, or is there still something wrong with the injectors, plugs, a short etc ??
Sorry to hear of your troubles, Ross. Wouldn't an electrical issue be present at all points of the rev range? Maybe it's a fuel delivery issue, start inspecting and testing the simple things first. Pull the spark plugs and see if there is any color differences at the tip among all the plugs.
The weber marelli ecu will do a self diagnosis based on flash codes, these will indicate any sensor faults. The problem is they dont get stored so once you switch the engine off they will get deleted. It does sound like a dry of loose connector causes intermittent issues, hence the bank with that ecu playing up. Only real way is to leave it with a weber specialist so they can take the car out and download the code as it happens, otherwise you end up chasing your tail and replacing endless sensors.
have been thinking the same thing....it is not going back to bob before next june....and i was planning a trip down to monaco for the tennis in april....with the wife....so it has to be sorted before then...
