Testarossa smoky cold start on one bank only

Any chance the car is parked on a highly curved/sloped area - where the oil would congregate more to one side?

 

Did you change the original.muffler ..the reason I say that is that the gases are mixed (i believe ) in muffler ...so looking at one side vs another doesn't mean it is one bank vs another

All TR have a few seconds of oil smoke after sitting cold for a while and sitting hot for only a short period

Totally normally

Wait ..you said a couple of minute .. not normal .. sounds like water .. is coolant level dropping ..

Is it more white than blue smoke

or.is it gray black

Gray black is a mixture issue ..




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What engine family TR? F113A040 (US), F113A (early euro), F113B (late euro), something else?

 

Does it run on all 12? One bank of mine had the cold start injector on at all times (it would not pass emissions, even in Dubai!). I used a portable gas analyzer and discovered the passenger side was running very rich. I unplugged the cold start injector on that side - problem diagnosed (and sort of solved, I don’t know why one bank gets a signal and the other not). Cr runs clean now.

 

That is a bit of an odd duck, and, since it's now in another country, maybe had some other modifications. The 1987 TR SPC seems to indicate that a SA version of 1988 would be:

KE-Jet without Lambda
No Precats
With regular Cats
No O2 sensors

Can you please check that list of items and see if that matches your TR or indicate how it doesn't?

That's a possibility. One other relatively easy thing to do is make a resistance measurement at each of the unplugged injection ECU harness connectors to verify if the 2-ch temperature sensor is "telling" each injection ECU the correct coolant temperature (a high resistance here would make the injection ECU think that it's really cold so could wrongly be adding unnecessary extra fuel):
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Wouldn't hurt to unplug/inspect/replug the 2-ch temperature sensor to wipe those connections (it's the black one on top of the water Y-pipe).

Yes, with the Tubi they are independent so each tailpipe pair is related to just one bank. Whether, or not, this is a critical issue would depend on if you have cats, or not. IC engines are very tolerant of a slightly over-rich condition, but over-richness would tend to overheat a working cat. Without O2 sensors, you'd need to use an exhaust gas analyzer to check if the mixture is way off or off enough to warrant readjusting.

 

That definitely makes running a little rich more Okish. Of course, not too good for emissions and might make the spark plugs foul sooner and/or "carbon-up" the combustion chamber, but if it isn't causing any operational problem, it's not super-critical to get it checked/adjusted immediately -- just add it to the list .

 

Saudi cars do not have lambda, not even very late cars, since they use lead in fuel and lambda sensor with catalytic converter do not work with it.

 

Mikael - thanks for teaching me something new. I thought only pre 1988.5 K-Jet cars for non US or Swiss markets got away without a catalytic converter or oxygen sensors, but when I look on Eurospares, there is a digram depicting a version of a post 88.5 car with KE Jet and an exhaust without catalytic converters or oxygen sensors. I always thought the KE required input from an oxygen sensor, at least to operate initially when the car is cold. I wonder if my EU spec, converter equipped 91 could be converted to such a simple spec if I found such an exhaust. I would probably need the ECU as well.

Assuming the original post relates to such a non-cat car with a rich condition in one bank only, it could be something simple (one cold start injector stuck on) or something more complicated with the K-Jet on one bank. How long does the issue persist after the car is started? I was in Toronto last week goofing around with my BB512 (if you want to see exhaust haze follow my BB onto the on ramp of the 401 after it has been sitting in traffic!) I could have visited and looked at the car.

 

IF IT'S GRAY SMOKE:
Sounds to me like you've got a leaky valve seal. My car smokes when I fire it up cold too. But it quickly dissipates. Due to the orientation of the valves in a horizontal position, when you stop the engine oil will seep by the seal and into the guide. Then when you fire it up next time cold, it burns it out. This is normal. Excessive smoke means maybe a valve seal has slipped off or is cracked.
IF IT'S BLACK SMOKE:
Listen to Steve

 

Least early Testarossa does not have exhaust valve seals. Mine did not have.

 

My car is a similar motor config, no Lambda and when I had this issue it was a high impedance on the coil to cap wire. Sounds unrelated but what I can figure is it would not run on all 12, then the system would get loaded with unburned fuel. When it finally came back (probably cooler weather and less resistance in the wire) it would run rich as the unburned fuel ran off.

Worth checking, there are far better people to listen to on here but the majority of my issues before my overhaul were all high tension wire related.

 

You just confirmed what I've been saying. You answered that the smoke is grey. That is oil, not fuel.

 

grey smoke is mix between oil and water
oil is blue
fuel is dark grey to black

 

You don't understand the horizontal engine. Because the valves are laid over on their side, oil will pool, seep, drip, or whatever you want to call it, around the valve guide area. So after sitting for a while, there is a considerable build up. It's completely normal. When you fire it up cold, that oil burns off within a couple minutes.
Sorry, but "your Testarossa is burning oil"...and it's perfectly normal.

 

Testarossa, least early Testarossa, do not have exhaust valve seals.
I do not know what point they did start to instal them, would suspect when catalytic converters and lambdas where put on; 512TR and M (as stated on parts manual)

 

Interesting. That I did not know. So the older flying mirror cars probably smoke a bunch on cold start.