Yikes. Smoke.

[targajoe]

Hi all,

Hoping you can help me out with a little insight. I am a bit mechanically challenged, so use small words.

I have a 1970 T Targa. It has 66,000 miles, is 95% original and never had any engine work. I have owned the car for about two years and it has been running great for me. Unfortunately, I don’t get to drive it much and put a little less than 1,000 miles on it since I got it, so it does sit for long periods from time to time.

The last time I drove it was mid-April when I took it to my local shop for its yearly spring checkup. The car ran great and aside from some fresh oil and filter it needed nothing. I started it up today for the first time since with the intention of taking it on a pleasure drive. It started relatively easily, but as I was letting it warm up I noticed a bit more smoke than normal coming from the back of the car. Previously, I would only see a few white puffs during the first maybe minute of starting and then it would clear and that was directly out of the tailpipe. This smoke was different, it was not as white and fluffy and it appeared to be coming more from under the rear wheel arches. It was coming from both sides but more from the driver side.

While the car was running I peeked underneath and it looked like it may possibly be coming from the heat exchangers. I decided to take it for a quick drive for a mile or two to see if it would clear and if the car felt OK. To me the car felt like maybe it was down a little on power, and the smoke didn’t really let up and it had an acrid smell to it. When I got back to my garage I could clearly see the smoke was billowing from under the rear of the car at a fairly moderate clip. After I shut the car down it took a good 5 minutes for the smoke to clear. The oil pressure and level seem fine. Any thoughts/advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Joe

[popowitz]

Two years ago when I bought my car it had been sitting for weeks or months. Oil leaking from the cam towers had pooled on the heat exchangers. When I took it out on its maiden voyage the oil heated up and smoke began pouring out of the wheel wells. Once the oil burnt off the car still developed smoke but nowhere near to the same degree. My advice is crawl through the engine and find out where the oil is coming from. Depending on the origin you may be able to limit the leak or you may have a decision to make on rebuilding the engine.

Best of luck.

Dave

[MarkS]

While at driving temp on level ground engine @ idle check oil make sure not over filled. Should read half way between min and max marking.

[RSTarga]

Drive it for at least an hour so it has time to burn all the oil off. It is normal for oil to accumulate in the heat exchangers and muffler. If it still smoke after that start looking for leaks. This extended drive will also allow you to check the oil level at a proper temp.

[targajoe]

Thank you for the replies so far. Folks seems to agreee on trying to get the oil to burnoff and checking the level. That will be my first plan of action.

[Cliff]

Did your mechanic open up the valve covers?......

[targajoe]

Hi Cliff,

I don't think they opened them up for this service. I had the valves adjusted last year, but I don't think he did that level of inspection this time around. I'll have to check my service write up again and double check.

[geshaghi]

In my experience, if the car was running fine before you (or your mechanic) put a wrench to it, but now has a problem, I would first examine the areas that were "wrenched."