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Gyrhead
05-26-2012, 12:10 PM
First off, thanks Pat and others for this website. Great to see you guys after a long hiatus on my part. Some of you might have read of my epic 6 year journey in the other place.

Well, I just got the Bolo 86 2R from the body shop last Friday after a complete resto including new quarters, fenders, hood and door skins along with new paint. I'm pretty happy and after 7 years of waiting, I was finally glad to have been able to scrape up the money to get this done. I re-painted all the interior parts with SEM and reflocked my fuzzy dash parts while the car was in the shop and when I got it back, I Dynomatted the entire steel unibody interior, and reinstalled the interior with new carpets and a DD 2nd gen dash (a fair piece, not great, but for a driver it'll do). By Sun it was all back together and looking great.

My mom broke her hip 3 weeks ago and has been in a local rehab hospital so I took the car to visit her. Things were great. Ran good, plenty of power and best of all, it looked new. No more laughs from co-workers about what a POS I was driving.

On my way home, I decided to take the interstate and while merging onto the ramp, the car started bucking hard under moderate (10-12 psi) boost, right out of the blue. It ran fine while lightly into the boost. I backed off and checked my gauges and all looked ok. I figured the temporary pigtail I wired on the fuel pressure vacuum switch came off.

Gradually the bucking became more pronounced until the car was barely drivable with any boost. Then when I looked out the back, I was laying a trail of blue smoke on vacuum when I backed off the gas. Shortly thereafter, I was unable to make any boost at all and the car a was way down on power and the oil cloud became more severe. Kind of like mosquito fogging. The car still ran at idle, but was way down on power with no boost at all and an occasional backfire when I let off. I still had plenty of oil pressure and the car idled smoothly at stops.

Finally in the process of driving it home, The oil cloud became worse and worse, ultimately leading to almost 100% depletion of the oil pan's contents. I basically barely made it home but still had oil pressure, yet I digress. Yes it was risky, but I made it without apparently harming the engine (more).

What say you guys? I suspect gradual turbo failure leading to exhaust side seal failure and the pouring of oil directly into the exhaust. The motor is not seized and the car will start and run and idle ok, despite being a bit smoky. I was in an Advanced Heavy Rescue class all week at the Fire Academy and had no time to look at it, but a compression test on all 4 is in order. BTW, no oil in the antifreeze or antifreeze in the crankcase, so head gasket at first blush is probably OK, but that still needs to be confirmed.

Basically a bummer!http://www.svoca.com/forum/images/smilies/angry.gif

MikeFleming
05-26-2012, 12:28 PM
Welcome back Paul - it has been a very long time.

Could well be a turbo seal failure but that shouldn't make the engine cut out under load - that symptom sounds more fuel or ignition related.

But, as we all know, SVOs only have one problem at a time but it's still a good idea to check fuel and ignition while the turbo is off being repaired.

Next time you're out spraying for skeeters, take some extra oil with you and keep the sump topped off. Just sayin'.

Patrick
05-26-2012, 01:43 PM
Good to see Paul again!

The last time my 84 started hesitating and backfiring on me, I pulled the codes and found "No Tach Signal". A rebuilt distrubutor from Rock Auto cost me less than a new TFI, PIP and distributor gear. That's what it ended up being. Do the trouble codes to start with and save yourself some time.

Gyrhead
05-26-2012, 06:29 PM
Pat, I snagged a Rotunda PIP/TFI tester on eBay a while back and drove around for a week with it hooked up with the coil cords and box inside my car. You know, the small suitcase ones that test PIP/TFI, tach signal, pulled advance etc, etc. I did this after I burned up a TFI while out on a cruise and had to get towed home as I had taken the spare TFI and wrench out of the glove box accidentally., Thank god for AAA Premier@! I'm pretty sure the ignition is tip top, but I'll test it. It was a wierd progressive type failure. Hesitation leading to gradual loss of boost (I have a comb vac/boost gauge) to loss of power to lots of smoke. I was wondering...could our cars run without a turbo or perhaps a turbo with a locked up shaft. Aren't they designed for a certain A/F and with the compressor not compressing, all bets are off?

Mike, "Just saying" is fair. I took a stupid chance and was lucky it didn't bite me in the arse. Guess I never thought it would empty the pan!

DaveS
03-19-2017, 03:51 PM
On my way home, I decided to take the interstate and while merging onto the ramp, the car started bucking hard under moderate (10-12 psi) boost, right out of the blue. It ran fine while lightly into the boost. I backed off and checked my gauges and all looked ok. I figured the temporary pigtail I wired on the fuel pressure vacuum switch came off.

Gradually the bucking became more pronounced until the car was barely driveable with any boost. Then when I looked out the back, I was laying a trail of blue smoke on vacuum when I backed off the gas.

I thought I'd bring this thread back as the same thing happened to me. It did turn out to be the TFI module. Very weird symptoms, the same as Paul described above. My bucking to mosquito fogger didn't happen as quickly; the bucking was very similar to intercooler hoses that leak.

I hope this helps somebody else, I sure didn't tie the TFI module to blue smoke!

brsvo
03-20-2017, 02:27 AM
So this is clear as mud to me? You replaced the TFI and your oil problem went away?

DaveS
03-20-2017, 03:14 AM
The oil smoking seems to have gone away; it is on my driver so I want to get a week or two in before I make that claim definitively.

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MikeFleming
03-20-2017, 05:58 AM
If whatever is put into the chamber to be burned (such as air and lots of petrol - as is typical under load) and for some reason - usually secondary ignition - that stuff in the cylinder will NOT be burned before the exhaust valve opens. Sometimes part of that stuff will flash in the exhaust manifold, sometimes it does not.

When it does not, it appears as a fine-particulate soot out the tail pipe. Oftentimes similar to mild diesel soot, although the scent is quite different.

Under Pressure
03-20-2017, 01:54 PM
Scent? She be smokin to the east smokin to the west.

MikeFleming
03-20-2017, 02:30 PM
Scent? She be smokin to the east smokin to the west. When we're speaking diesel, it's more stench than anything else.

DaveS
03-20-2017, 03:01 PM
Clarence Carter.....Forgot about that song!

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