Smokey 280i Wedge

[wedgeinald]

I have a slightly strange one with my 280i (has an ex Granada 2.8l V6 in it now - but Identical engine..) It seems to have oil being discharged from the dipstick hole onto the starter/exhaust manifold (and subsequently smoking!)

Strange thing is it only (mainly?) seems to do it when turning right (oil slop?) and on a reasonable amount of throttle. On tickover and in "normal" driving it does NOT smoke at all.

Anyone seen a similar thing maybe can suggest what the most likely issue(s) would be?

Obviously avoiding putting the boot down on right handers is one way to stop it but I'm sure there is more to it that just that combo.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Norman

[nwarner]

Have had a similar problem but not with a 2.8 V6. One was because the sump baffle had become detached and the other was because the breather in the rocker cover cap had got blocked.

[wedgeinald]

Cheers for that we are investigating.

I did think of putting a RAF roundel and a stripe down the side and a tail fin and telling everyone "its a red arrow, honest guv"....LOL

Norman.

[nwarner]

You could have tried different makes of oil to see if you could get different colours of smoke

Nige

[wedgeinald]

Now there's a thought

[jeff m]

Crankcase pressure.
Two hoses one on each side of the engine. One is at the back that restricts flow, the other is mesh thingy.
One acts as an "in" the other as an "out" and feeds into the plenum.

I assume it's excess crancase pressure, I can't think of anything else that would push oil out of the dipstick

Or just fill it with Castrol R, you will still have the problem but it will smell great.

Edited by jeff m on Saturday 1st May 04:01

[wedgeinald]

Crankcase pressure was my first thought....I didn't realise there was an "in" at the back though...We think we've sorted it by taking the breather off the other wedge...I'll know over the weekend.

Thanks for all the replies....Castrol R you say....interesting

Norman

[wedgeinald]

UPDATE!!

Turns out the "kenlow" fan on the rad was wired backwards (on a manual switch) so it was sucking hot engine air through the rad instead of colder outside air!

The temp gauge was reading 280F!! (I suspect it was over reading as it still shows over 220F now) I'm wondering if the extra heat (and therefore less viscous oil) might have been contributing to my smoke problem?

I'll have to run some tests and see if its gone but I still think the breather is having some issues.

Fortunately the engine does not seem to have had any big issues with the extra heat (it is still running ok with nasty noises, or clouds of steam etc)

Tomorrow sees the run to a car show in Windsor so we'll see if behaves for that but I think it will be fine.

Watch this space...??

Norman