[DG330]

Hi,

As the title, seriously fed up with hunting down my blue smoke issue:

Symptoms - start up puff, followed by a stream until warmed up (80-90c) continues with revs increasing to 2/3k, clears with a few throttle blasts. Normally 2 WOT which is 1 light blue, followed by a grey then it's light black. After a good run, it creeps back quickly. Doesn't appear while driving, but will puff out a blue cloud on WOT after being at lights.

The car - Dpf and remapped, egr in place. 155k. Remapped and dpf solution by previous onwer and owned since 132k. No issues until last year.

What I've replaced:

Recon turbo (little play, no in or out)
Febi rocket cover
Glow plugs x6
Glow relay
Both thermostats
Febi CCV breather
Ultrasonic cleaned injector nozzles tips
Ultrasonic EGR
Checked vacuums
New egr pressure solenoid
Checked compression on all 6 with tester 380/390psi and 150/170 on first crank.

I'm sure there is more that I've replaced, but can't remember.

All I'm left with is either head gasket leaking one way into cylinder, or valve seals.

One thing I have noticed is, after an oil change, the car smokes a lot worse until it thickens up with blow by etc.

I've tried with mad unplugged and it helps the black smoke on WOT but idle smoke is still there.

Advice please?

[Bmwuk]

Originally Posted by Txs330D

Hi,

As the title, seriously fed up with hunting down my blue smoke issue:

Symptoms - start up puff, followed by a stream until warmed up (80-90c) continues with revs increasing to 2/3k, clears with a few throttle blasts. Normally 2 WOT which is 1 light blue, followed by a grey then it's light black. After a good run, it creeps back quickly. Doesn't appear while driving, but will puff out a blue cloud on WOT after being at lights.

The car - Dpf and remapped, egr in place. 155k. Remapped and dpf solution by previous onwer and owned since 132k. No issues until last year.

What I've replaced:

Recon turbo (little play, no in or out)
Febi rocket cover
Glow plugs x6
Glow relay
Both thermostats
Febi CCV breather
Ultrasonic cleaned injector nozzles tips
Ultrasonic EGR
Checked vacuums
New egr pressure solenoid
Checked compression on all 6 with tester 380/390psi and 150/170 on first crank.

I'm sure there is more that I've replaced, but can't remember.

All I'm left with is either head gasket leaking one way into cylinder, or valve seals.

One thing I have noticed is, after an oil change, the car smokes a lot worse until it thickens up with blow by etc.

I've tried with mad unplugged and it helps the black smoke on WOT but idle smoke is still there.

Advice please?

Things i would check...

1. With the mileage on the car, have you checked and cleaned out the intercooler / pipework? If a turbo has failed, then there will be oil build up sitting in intercooler. This will create some pass through but not sure its enough for all the smoking issues, depends how much in there though if not been addressed when you changed turbo.

2. Injectors. Just because the parameters read ok in inpa, doesnt mean they are atomizing correctly so can weep on tick over. When under load this gets burnt off and can omit both white / blue smoke. Normally you will get a bit more injector noise if starting to fail but sometimes hard to tell.

3. Check the egr isnt playing up / contributing... these are another weak link and better to delete including cooler IMO. The coolers have been known to crack and cause smoking issues.

4. Check the valve cover gasket. Febi / aftermarket can be hit and miss. My suggestion would be genuine BMW with full bolt kit and torqued (as i am sure you did) down correctly. These can cause oil to leak and further symptoms you mention, especially if they have been tightened up too much in areas or nipped.

5. Remap. Its unlikely this is causing issues if its progressively getting worse but there are some bad maps out there, which might be causing extra smoke / over fuelling under load.

6. Turbo. Check pipework to see if there is any internal oil. Not sure where the turbo is from but again, if it a cheap rebuild it could be an issue. There will be some blow by but you will know if there is excessive oil.

7. Stem seals. Its rare but they can be an issue as they do wear out, eventually.

8. Piston ring cracked. Again, even rarer but not out the question.

My initial thinking is injectors but best thing to do is start with cheapest fix and work your way up on the money scale. Hopefully it doesnt turn into a head or full engine swap and your more lucky than mine.... although i had past 200k on the motor.

Best of luck

[DG330]

1. The turbo has been replaced, but didn't fail. Will check this again though, last time there was just a light misting on it. The breather pipe always has some oil in it, wet enough to coat your finger etc.

2. Did a leak back test and results where 2.6-3ml a min at idle. 5 min cycle test did 11-14ml during test. Have not noticed more noise than normal.

3.egr was cleaned throughly last weekend with vacuum hose checked and new solenoid

4. Yeah, strange you mention this. I've just checked and I have a very slight leak in the front left corner by the vacuum pump. I put a small bead of gasket sealing there too. Also torqued down to 11/12nm I think it was. Got the settings from a thread on here. Might have to re look at this gasket again. I've tightened up the front bolts a tad to see if it helps the leak.

5 remap I'm not sure - I've not changed the remap since having the car for 4/5 years. But have been told maybe the dpf regen cycle is trying to take place and causing the smoke.

6. Turbo was from a company on eBay, but had great feedback. Turbo has some play which was the same as the last, but no in or out movement.

7. Thinking could be these, but unsure why I would get smoke when the car is revved and held at 2/3k

8 compression test was ok I believe. 380/390 psi and 150-170 psi on first crank. Sound ok? Would I still have this with a bad piston?

Thanks for the help.

So fed up with this constant smoke! Will chuck it into a garage for diagnosis soon, but previously they said it's a fix and hope game, if not next thing.

[Bmwuk]

whats your oil and coolant consumption like?

my suggestion would be change the rocker gasket if in any doubt, new bolts and possibly vac pump seals while you there. whilst the injectors are out, get them bench tested. thats the only way to truly check them.

there are lots of factors as mentioned and diagnosis can be painful, as i went through similar steps and in the end, went full rebuild.

these engines are great but unfortunately there are many that are messed with, driven hard and poorly maintained which leads to excessive and premature wear as a result.

[DG330]

Originally Posted by Bmwuk

whats your oil and coolant consumption like?

Coolant none, but oil there is a little bit. I don't cover huge miles in it really. So don't really notice it that much. It's just had fresh oil with the turbo change about 4/5 weeks ago. It's had a good 150 mile round trip since, but still no change in smoke. Oil remains at just under the max mark

Took the car for a drive with the Maf unplugged and maf to turbo pipe off. To determine if the breather was causing the smoke. There was still some smoke and once warmed up it continued, maybe not to the same extent. Will check the inter cooler next and will check the rocker cover again.

[DG330]

So I cleaned the breather pipe with tissue today and the intake pipe. I've driven less then 4 miles and the pipe is wet again.

Is this normal amounts?

I gave the car a good hard drive which clears the puffs of blue smoke quickly and about 2 odd mins later it reappears with idle smoke.

[DG330]

Originally Posted by Txs330D

So I cleaned the breather pipe with tissue today and the intake pipe. I've driven less then 4 miles and the pipe is wet again.

Is this normal amounts?

I gave the car a good hard drive which clears the puffs of blue smoke quickly and about 2 odd mins later it reappears with idle smoke.

Hopefully the pictures will attach

[DG330]

Not as bad as before when I first had the smoke issue. Pics for comparison.

[robnitro]

Thats normal oil. Your issue is the crap tune as someone else went through. Some tuners do a lot of stupid stuff, like forgetting to remove regen properly and when it shows up you get smoke and high EGT. Im sorry but its not easy for us to help you until you can sort that out.

If you are concerned about the CCV, do the oil cap test with engine hot. it shouldnt want to fall off the top if CCV /valve cover is working ok.

[DG330]

Originally Posted by robnitro

Thats normal oil. Your issue is the crap tune as someone else went through. Some tuners do a lot of stupid stuff, like forgetting to remove regen properly and when it shows up you get smoke and high EGT. Im sorry but its not easy for us to help you until you can sort that out.

If you are concerned about the CCV, do the oil cap test with engine hot. it shouldnt want to fall off the top if CCV /valve cover is working ok.

The oil cap doesn't come off when hot or cold so must be working as it should.

How does the rubber diaphragm work on these? As there is a spring I guess at idle it let's some gas through from the pressure of blow by and then as the revs increase the diaphragm should move to become more open and allow more gasses past? Or the turbo suction opens it?

Also, with the dpf regen - my ecu service intervals is still showing dpf but at 120,000 miles. Vaguely remember seeing that when I first got it, so it's not moved. Should it be on there?

[robnitro]

I heard in tdi days that the spring is there to prevent a backfire but I'm not sure how this applies to diesels. Maybe it's there to prevent backwards flow?

[PURE340i]

Have you removed the DPF or delete pipe and checked the exhaust side of the turbo for oil?

[DG330]

Originally Posted by PURE340i

Have you removed the DPF or delete pipe and checked the exhaust side of the turbo for oil?

Yes, dpf is removed, but just gutted, not a fancy downpipe. Be keen to know if others with dpf removed have the dpf showing as 120k miles till next service on their service interval section.

Also, the smoke really picks up once the car is at temp 95c. Air mass fuel pressure etc is bang on for actual/nominal. Air charge pressure actual is 30 higher. Started it this morning and no smoke when cold.

Injectors however, injector 6 goes from 0.8 - 2.3 with the others having to correct for it. I need to check more, but it might be linked. Light blue/grey Smoke clears once driven hard (albeit I get black smoke on wot) and it comes back slowly then comes out quite fast. But I did notice the inpa value for injector 6 increase up to an idle of 1.2-1.9

[DG330]

Originally Posted by robnitro

I heard in tdi days that the spring is there to prevent a backfire but I'm not sure how this applies to diesels. Maybe it's there to prevent backwards flow?

A guy on YouTube says it's there to stop pressure from the turbo entering the crank case backwards through the intake - when you lay off the throttle quickly etc.

[DG330]

Does that look like a turbo that was leaking oil into the exhaust? This is my old one

This is my service light, it's always been on 120k mikes

[DG330]

[QUOTE=Txs330D;25317911

This is my service light, it's always been on 120k mikes[/QUOTE]
Pics

[DG330]

Also update on the smoke - it's a nightmare to work out.

One minute it's not smoking from cold until warmed up. Next time it's smoking all the time until warm.

The smoke is pale blue/grey - so faint it's hard to get it on the camera and is only visible about 4/5 steps away from the car. Up close walking around the exhaust you can't see it.

[robnitro]

Does the smoke persist with the throttle in front of the egr is unplugged?
I still think it's the tune trying to run a regen... Check the egt at idle with torque app and am obd Bluetooth adapter. It shouldn't be higher than 190C at idle in D.. If it is, post injection for regen.

[DG330]

Originally Posted by robnitro

Does the smoke persist with the throttle in front of the egr is unplugged?
I still think it's the tune trying to run a regen... Check the egt at idle with torque app and am obd Bluetooth adapter. It shouldn't be higher than 190C at idle in D.. If it is, post injection for regen.

Is there anyway of getting this data from DIS or INPA.

I disconnected the ASV and took it for a good drive and still had smoke. I don't think it was to the same level, will check now.

The gf drove behind me earlier today says it's smokes while I accelerate slowly (pale blue) then grey on WOT. Smokes from cold and is constant.

Any thoughts on the injector values. I checked them again with the maf unplugged again and the values drop a good .030 points on 6 which has Highs I'd 2.3 with maf plugged in

[DG330]

Originally Posted by robnitro

Does the smoke persist with the throttle in front of the egr is unplugged?
I still think it's the tune trying to run a regen... Check the egt at idle with torque app and am obd Bluetooth adapter. It shouldn't be higher than 190C at idle in D.. If it is, post injection for regen.

Checked on Dis and think this looks ok. Car was smoking pretty bad at this point too.

[robnitro]

Air mass looks fine, injectors a little worn but that wouldnt do it. I dunno man i think it's the bollocks tune

[DG330]

Originally Posted by robnitro

Air mass looks fine, injectors a little worn but that wouldnt do it. I dunno man i think it's the bollocks tune

Not sure how it could be the tune. It's not had any performance mods since I had it, so was running fine for 20k miles then just started smoking. Surprisingly it started smoking after I ran forte cleaner through it and took it for a long drive.

Thin fresh new oil always makes it smoke more. So things to check:

Turbo return pipe - albeit no real oil in take system apart from what's coming from the breather.

Provent 200 CCV system.

Fit a working fuel temp heater - long shot, but then the dde will be error less.

Valve seals - would do this with head on, remove cams and use lots of nylon 5-6m rope through the injector hole and then hand crank the piston against the valves. Looking at the piston we have domed ones, but it sits flush to top of the block when fully extended and our valves are not seated too far away. So potentially might not need as much rope. Thoughts? Or any ideas of how to use compressed air through the injector port (what adaptor?)

Lazy route - either live with it and chuck some Lucas or moly oil additive in it

Anyone know how the timing is all set up on the m57 231bhp? This cam set up (pic)