Intermittent Blue Smoke on move Off from cold

[Viffer]

Afternoon all,

Bit of advice needed please....deep breath and here goes...

I have noticed during the past 2 weeks that when I start and move off from the works car park there is a nice, well not so nice, cloud and trail of blue smoke in the rear view mirror. In the morning from home doing the same I dont see any of this which confuses me somewhat. After the smokey dragon impression there is no more smoke.

I have also noticed that I seem to have a small oil leak below and behind the engine though I cannot get to look for the spot unless the car is on a ramp all I can see is a goodly coating of oil of the rear underside and bulkhead of drivers cabin from my rampless view.

I run 10w/40 castrol and when I checked the oil at the weekend the dipstick was sludged all the way up, no loss of coolent and no mayo under the filler cap. I have read about the condensation possibilty causeing this but it was a concern as I could not decipher where the oil level was due to the sludge. I put some more in and due to the amount what when in I suspect the leak has got a bit worse as unfortunaly I reckon it was running on minimum eeek.

So right I reckon head gasket ok, turbo ok but what else might I check? or am I worrying for nothing, enjoy the smoke, keep an eye on the oil closer and keep filling her up?

Thanks all,
Viffer.

[t5tart]

sounds like oil return from the turbo leaking for the oil on the block
I have the same blue smoke plume on first pull off
just changed my turbo but doesnt seem to have helped
did a compression test and all the pots are down about 10 psi
so im thinking the rings when cold

[fraz13]

A get the smoke thing when cold as well but a rekon just let it idle a bit or drive real calm till it heats up a bit and you'll be fine, mine dont smoke at all even on full chat when warm ;)

[t5tart]

tried letting mine idle and warm right up b4 hand ...but still get a puff

[Viffer]

Thanks...where abouts can I get to the oil return pipe? is it easy? humm mental note might be an idea to buy something from Mr Haynes.....

As for the rings..what are the compression settings for a T5? I just remembered I used to have a compression tester somewhere...I must brave the shed...oh dear...and try to find it.

As for the warm up, I always let the car idle for a min or 2 before move off and I tend to do that gently. However if I give it a few beans or none for the first 200 yards there is the smoke trail till first junction then on next pull off maybe a little, another 500 yards to next junction then no smoke at all even under considerable beans given...btw engine has only done 80k for a P reg.

Viffer.

[t5tart]

turbo return comes off the bottom of the turbo
to the block at the back above the sump to block join almost directly above the sump plug

[t5tart]

according to mr haynes 11-13 bar

[nobananas]

Blue smoke form cold start-up is a classic sign of oil weeping past valve stem oil seals. It pools on top of the valves over-night and hey presto blue smoke for a short while !

[t5tart]

that will be the problem with mine then lol

[fraz13]

And mine, aw well if it aint causing damage it can stay like that lol BTW was is the cause of this happening?

[nobananas]

The valve stem seals harden over time and loose their effectiveness. They are only tiny little things that push on over the top of the valve guides and then the valve stem moves up and down through the sealing ring. Not expensive to buy but it does usually mean removing the head. I have heard of people replacing them by feeding nylon rope into the cylinder through a spark plug hole and then bringing the piston up to tdc to prevent the valve from dropping when the spring and collets are removed, works in theory but i'll be b*ggered if i'm going to try it !

[carnuts]

you can buy an aditive to put in your oil that will carm this a bit i had it and put this stuff in worked a treat until i got time to change them!

[bish789]

Check your rear camshaft oil seal as well. Cost £7.00 from Volvo. Stopped loads of oil drips which come down onto the drive shafts and get splattered everywhere which makes it look like gallons of oil are being lost. Just done mine, makes a big difference. VT did my turbo pipe seals when I was there.
New plugs apparently help. Changing soon so I will find out.

[t5tart]

must admit my blue smoke on cold start seems to have clamed down since i cleaned the plugs up a bit

[Viffer]

Thanks again for all that chaps...the leak is from turbo pipes. spot on!!
The smoke is well intermittent and seems to be not as bad now the weather has warned up so I think its a leave it and see.

The peeps in the trade say the leak is also probably the seals so replace them which is about to be done but also to fit an oil rebreather as well. One Volvo independant apparently does this a lot to T5's as the pressure gets too high and the seals go so I am going to see how much that would cost.

Cheers.
Viffer.