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B230FT Stinks

TR Conn

TR Conn

Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Location
Long Beach, Ca
My B230FT smells like it has a lot of blow-by when idling. Most of it enters the passenger compartment through the loose shift boot, but it shouldn't smell that bad anyway.
The oil separator and hoses are clear, compression is 165 on all cylinders, all of the hoses are intact, the spark plugs look "textbook perfect", no oil use or leaks. The turbo was rebuilt about 2500 miles ago. There is some piston slap that goes away when the engine is warm, though the smell is most noticeable after driving a while.
Could this be attributed to an exhaust leak or cracked manifold (90+)? Though it smells more "oily" than exhaust and I can't find any noticeable leaks.
Any thing else to look at?
-Thanks
 
Well if the drain back hose is clear and the rest of the motor has good seals like a good valve cover gasket. Then it may be time to just give it a good cleaning.

Since it's a small from the shifter. Put the car on ramps or a lift and take a good look around for anything else. If not then it's probably just old crud needing to be cleaned.
 
apachechef said:
put in new shifter foam and fix the shift boot instead of hunting down thnigs that might not be noticeable with a properly sealed car.
geeeesh.
Click to expand...

Not noticeable? People complain.
Smells like a completely worn out engine with the crankcase breather routed into the cabin.
I am in the process of resealing the firewall, floor and shift boot.
But would like to track down the source.
-TR
 
So, sounds source is under hood, not a tail pipe. (No blue exhaust smoke I assume.)

I tend to go back to the last thing I changed. No apparent seepage from rebuilt turbo? So hard to see under these things. Oil on hot exhaust has stunk up many of my cars.

Classic "rotten egg" converter problem?
 
TR Conn said:
Not noticeable? People complain.
Smells like a completely worn out engine with the crankcase breather routed into the cabin.
I am in the process of resealing the firewall, floor and shift boot.
But would like to track down the source.
-TR
Click to expand...
Not noticeable? People complain
Click to expand...
.
not noticeable with a properly sealed car.
Click to expand...

crankcase breather routed into the cabin.
Click to expand...
how about sealing the hole you know about already? engines are stinky, keep the stink outside? start with the basics instead of asking if your engine is stinkier than normal. Who cares if it is if you never smell it?
k
I don't get this TB mindset failure:

"I got a problem with a known, fixable way of taking care of it. Instead of tackling the most obvious and glaring issue, I want to investigate all these other issues, please advise me on how to check every secondary contributing issue instead of the huge one slapping me in the face."

good luck!
 
Cracked manifold is a real possibility, can you stick your phone behind it and take a pic to see how bad it is? I've seen them with actual holes in them, that would be pretty stinky..
You should never smell exhaust in the car, ever. If the smell is coming through the shifter boot/ firewall, etc, you have an exhaust leak. Resealing the car does nothing to fix it.
Bad cat converter stinks behind the car, not in it. Check every exhaust part under the hood, it will turn black where the leak is eventually if you cant find it
 
If you don't install the shifter boot correctly, it will stink up the car. I drove like this for months before I got to it. It didn't bother me as its part of the charm of driving an old turd. :lol:
 
Good suggestions.
I'll check the manifold tomorrow. There's not much room under there.
No CAT.
I'll double check the turbo connections.
-Thanks
 
I have a smoke machine if you want to check it for leaks. Is it the engine in your 122 that smells bad?

IMG_5249_zpso1glzdq2.jpg
 
Yes' that's the one.
I've tested it for intake leaks by plugging the intake and pressurizing (10psi) with compressed air and listening at the connections with a stethoscope. No leaks.
What I am getting doesn't seem to come from the intake side.
I'll spend some time on it today to try and pinpoint it a little better.
-Thanks
 
I pressurized the exhaust from the tailpipe, found a couple of leaks.
It'll take a few days to repair and test.
I'll be back with the results...
-TR
 
I think I found the problem.
I pulled the back half or the exhaust system today to repair the leaks (I've really got to learn how to weld properly).
I looked inside the pipe and found coked up oil, it was even thicker in the header pipe. Diagnosis: bad oil seal in turbo.
Just happened to have a rebuilt CHRA in the garage, so I'm in the process of installing it.
It makes sense since the smell was only when the engine was well warmed up.
Any ideas on how to clean out the exhaust pipes? Or will it burn off after a while if there isn't any more oil being added.
-thanks for the input.
 
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You could try using that stuff that cleans the converter. That's probably got a lot of that buildup in it. When I had the converter off the car I have used cleaners on the converter and it seemed to help. I even used dish soap in there and it looked cleaner inside afterward. use that Palmolive with Oxy in it. lol.
 
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