Engine issues

D

Damian

Member
Ive been having some issues lately. A coue weeks ago, the engine got a bit hot when I was going up the mountains with the A/C on. I saw smoke coming out the tail pipe and the car bogged down quite a bit. Pulled over and let her cool down, then drove the rest of the way with the A/C off. Truck ran just fine after that. Replaced thermo stat, water pump, radiator cap, and flushed everything out. Been great ever since.

Last week I did an oil change with 5w30 this time and it took a couple days but it started smoking quite a bit out the tail pipe. Drained some oil out and added 1 quart of Lucas oil stop leak stuff and topped it off with 10w30. Smoking cut down to practically nothing now. Every once and awhile it will smoke when accelerating. The problem I have the most is that the idle is above 1000 rpms in park and nuetral, and 800ish in reverse and drive but engine shakes quite a bit. It will not smoke in gear while stopped, but put it into neutral and it will smoke, put it back into gear and it stops. Gas mileage sucks now too, not that I'm expecting 20 plus mpgs. Any idea what's wrong? I can't find any vacuum leaks, although I'm going to change out all vacuum lines tomorrow just to be safe. Truck also smells a bit rich too, I'll be installing my wideband tomorrow as well to verify.

I do have a brand new O2 sensor, spark plugs/wires, ignition cap/rotor, and ignition coil installed about 2-3 weeks ago.
 
Tony Dipatri

Tony Dipatri

New member
Re: Engine issues

Does it smoke while its cold? I would pull the plugs to see if theres oil on them. If they are dry its probably your seals in the turbo...My truck had the same symptoms a few months ago. I pulled the turbo and there was oil all around the compressor wheel. My truck also smoked bad at idle but not so bad driving it around..I also had oil in the tail pipe.

Thanks

Tony
 
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D

Damian

Member
Re: Engine issues

I'll try and pull the plugs tomorrow and pull the intake tube off and look there too. There has always been a small amount of oil on the rubber elbow, but I always wrote it off as the oil vapors from the crank vents. I'll look for my inspection mirror and get a better look.

If it's the turbo seals, I'll be replacing the turbo all together. I can't find any info on here about using a T4 on the stock manifolds. I really don't feel like spending a ton of money on new manifolds since I just bought the truck 2 months ago. I do have a non wastegated T4 sitting on my table right now, but not sure how I can do the external wastegate piping. I dont think I can just tap into the cross tube.
 
D

Damian

Member
Re: Engine issues

1376.

Can someone point me in the right direction for a discussion on the T4 swap on the stock manifolds, if one such discussion exists please, I can't find much at all.
 
DaveP

DaveP

Active member
Re: Engine issues

Damian said:
Can someone point me in the right direction for a discussion on the T4 swap on the stock manifolds, if one such discussion exists please, I can't find much at all.
Click to expand...

Might want to figure out what's wrong with your engine first, before putting a turbo on it. It probably has at lest one bad piston, and needs a complete refurbishment. Most newly-purchased SyTy's do.
 
dgoodhue

dgoodhue

BuSTeD 4.3
Re: Engine issues

Quick test, start the engine and open the oil fill on the driverside valve cover. Is smoke coming out? Put you hand over the fill and feel if it's pushing out air. Either of those are bad.
 
SY-1193

SY-1193

Active member
Re: Engine issues

What color was the smoke?

White = coolant. Turbo or head gasket.
Grey/Blue = oil related.
 
D

Damian

Member
Re: Engine issues

It's more white. The thing I don't understand is it didn't smoke at all until I did the oil change with 5w30. But I did just check the oil cap and see if it blows at all and it does. It is in sync with one of the cylinders, I can feel "puffs" coming out. Looks like I'm going to be tearing into this truck much much sooner than I want to.

Might just do a motor swap in fear of bad rings. Can I use the Vortec 4.3 motors at all? I'd drop in new pistons too.
 
D

Damian

Member
Re: Engine issues

I just pulled the intercooler off and checked out some things. Replaced all of my vacuum lines. I did find that both of my PCVs are worthless, so I'll be replacing those tomorrow. I'll also be changing my oil again with 10w30 and some STP oil additive, worked for me before. I'm going to try and figure out how to install a catch can on the rear PCV to the intake mani. We will see how that works out. I'll also change out my plugs again, I already have another set in my tool box and do a compression test probably this weekend.
 
Y

yar

Donating Member
Re: Engine issues

Damian said:
I just pulled the intercooler off and checked out some things. Replaced all of my vacuum lines. I did find that both of my PCVs are worthless, so I'll be replacing those tomorrow. I'll also be changing my oil again with 10w30 and some STP oil additive, worked for me before. I'm going to try and figure out how to install a catch can on the rear PCV to the intake mani. We will see how that works out. I'll also change out my plugs again, I already have another set in my tool box and do a compression test probably this weekend.
Click to expand...

Damian, make sure you get the right PCV, the Delco # CV799C, GM #8995910
Ray
 
dgoodhue

dgoodhue

BuSTeD 4.3
Re: Engine issues

Most likely you have cracked ringland or hole in the piston. You could check your radiator to see of your getting signs of blown head gasket from over heating, but 99% of the time it's a piston problems. If your going to do compression check 3&4 usually are where you will see a problem.
 
D

Damian

Member
Re: Engine issues

yar said:
Damian, make sure you get the right PCV, the Delco # CV799C, GM #8995910
Ray
Click to expand...
Thanks for the part numbers.
dgoodhue said:
Most likely you have cracked ringland or hole in the piston. You could check your radiator to see of your getting signs of blown head gasket from over heating, but 99% of the time it's a piston problems. If your going to do compression check 3&4 usually are where you will see a problem.
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I am going to pop the radiator cap off and see if I get air bubbles today, it's an easy test.

Why is it that #3 and #4 go out first? I'm guessing the fuel rails suck because of how many passes it takes around the engine to get to each cylinder, I'll be changing them out if I have to do a rebuild.

Damn, I'm not looking forward to rebuilding this engine already. I've only had the truck 2 months and I've already put over a grand into it.
 
randy merritt

randy merritt

Donating Member
Re: Engine issues

I had same issue couple of months ago, smoking and blow by out of oil filler tube. Do compression test. My findings for my old motor were not good. This is #1 piston, all the others OK. I hate to say this, but probably better get mentally prepared to spend a few thousand.
 
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