Oil control rings shot?

[don3vor]

My FC is giving off an oil smoke screen under certain conditions, and I suspect the oil control rings may be the culprit. Before I even consider cracking open the keg, I wanted to get some confirmation from the forum. Here’s the pertinent info about the car, symptoms and what I’ve tested so far to draw my conclusions:

Basic facts:
• ’89 T2, running a Hayes rotary crate rebuild motor that I installed in 1999, that now has almost 60K miles on it. Runs very strong, good compression & starts every time. Not a daily driver, but weather permitting I’ll take it for a romp every weekend.

• Turbo is a BNR Stage 1 rebuild, that I installed in early 2011, it now has about 5~6K miles on it.

• Installed the RA-OMP adapter to run premix thru the stock OMP system last winter, have about 3000 miles with that setup.

Symptoms:
• While accelerating moderately hard, I’ve seen smoke out my rear view mirror start to become noticeable at around 5K RPMs and up. It’s definitely oil smoke - bluish in color with that acrid stink. If I abruptly let off the gas, while keeping the car in same gear to keep the revs up, the smoke cloud gets VERY dense. So the smoking seems to get worse while decelerating or holding a steady speed at a high RPM (off boost) that it is while accelerating/boosting.

• If the car sits for more than a few days between starts, on the next startup I’ll get a short lived cloud of oil smoke as the car idles. Smoke is gone in less than 10~30 seconds, a bit longer if the car hasn’t been run in weeks. I think this particular symptom has something to do with my RA-OMP adapter setup, as I’ve noticed the level in my premix tank drops slightly even when the car just sits in the garage unused for a few weeks – I think some premix is gravity feeds itself into the keg, and that oil gets burnt up on 1st start.

Things I’ve tested/checked out so far:
• Had a friend follow me on a few runs to confirm what I was seeing out the rearview mirror – no doubts there, symptoms above are confirmed.

• Opened up the intercooler piping to look for evidence of oil. IC piping & rubber elbows had some oily film, but no pooling of oil anywhere. Not enough here in my judgment to convince me that oil is getting sucked in via the turbo compressor side, given how long it’s been since I last cracked open the IC piping and the # of miles I put on it since then.

• No visible leaks anywhere, oil or otherwise.

• Tested the Purge Valve/PCV per the FSM procedures, and it is working properly.

• Ran the test on Ted’s FC3SPro website where you rev the car up to 3~4K RPMs in neutral and hold it at that RPM for 10~15 seconds or so to see if it smokes. I had no smoke visible up to 4K RPMs, even after holding it there for 30+ seconds. No smoke when I let off the gas either. Repeated this same test, but with incrementally higher RPMs each time, and held it there for about 15 seconds. Starting at about 5200 RPMs, the smoke came back after about 10~15 seconds of holding it at that RPM. At higher RPMs, the smoke cloud just gets thicker, and it becomes visible earlier in the “hold” period.

So what do you guys think? Anything I missed here?

[Pete_89T2]

My FC is giving off an oil smoke screen under certain conditions, and I suspect the oil control rings may be the culprit. Before I even consider cracking open the keg, I wanted to get some confirmation from the forum. Here’s the pertinent info about the car, symptoms and what I’ve tested so far to draw my conclusions:

Basic facts:
• ’89 T2, running a Hayes rotary crate rebuild motor that I installed in 1999, that now has almost 60K miles on it. Runs very strong, good compression & starts every time. Not a daily driver, but weather permitting I’ll take it for a romp every weekend.

• Turbo is a BNR Stage 1 rebuild, that I installed in early 2011, it now has about 5~6K miles on it.

• Installed the RA-OMP adapter to run premix thru the stock OMP system last winter, have about 3000 miles with that setup.

Symptoms:
• While accelerating moderately hard, I’ve seen smoke out my rear view mirror start to become noticeable at around 5K RPMs and up. It’s definitely oil smoke - bluish in color with that acrid stink. If I abruptly let off the gas, while keeping the car in same gear to keep the revs up, the smoke cloud gets VERY dense. So the smoking seems to get worse while decelerating or holding a steady speed at a high RPM (off boost) that it is while accelerating/boosting.

• If the car sits for more than a few days between starts, on the next startup I’ll get a short lived cloud of oil smoke as the car idles. Smoke is gone in less than 10~30 seconds, a bit longer if the car hasn’t been run in weeks. I think this particular symptom has something to do with my RA-OMP adapter setup, as I’ve noticed the level in my premix tank drops slightly even when the car just sits in the garage unused for a few weeks – I think some premix is gravity feeds itself into the keg, and that oil gets burnt up on 1st start.

Things I’ve tested/checked out so far:
• Had a friend follow me on a few runs to confirm what I was seeing out the rearview mirror – no doubts there, symptoms above are confirmed.

• Opened up the intercooler piping to look for evidence of oil. IC piping & rubber elbows had some oily film, but no pooling of oil anywhere. Not enough here in my judgment to convince me that oil is getting sucked in via the turbo compressor side, given how long it’s been since I last cracked open the IC piping and the # of miles I put on it since then.

• No visible leaks anywhere, oil or otherwise.

• Tested the Purge Valve/PCV per the FSM procedures, and it is working properly.

• Ran the test on Ted’s FC3SPro website where you rev the car up to 3~4K RPMs in neutral and hold it at that RPM for 10~15 seconds or so to see if it smokes. I had no smoke visible up to 4K RPMs, even after holding it there for 30+ seconds. No smoke when I let off the gas either. Repeated this same test, but with incrementally higher RPMs each time, and held it there for about 15 seconds. Starting at about 5200 RPMs, the smoke came back after about 10~15 seconds of holding it at that RPM. At higher RPMs, the smoke cloud just gets thicker, and it becomes visible earlier in the “hold” period.

So what do you guys think? Anything I missed here?