APS TT w/ smoke
 

So I had my car trasfered from a Vortech s/c to the APS TT. Wow, what a rush..love it so far. A few problems and would like some feedback..

1. The idle, when I come to a stop it dips way down almost dies then comes back up, sometimes it does die, sometimes it doesn't do it at all. Having the A/C on helps alot. I was told by the installer that this will go away after a while of driving since the car needs to re-learn the idle since the ECU was disconnected for a few weeks. I tried the re-learn function from the service manual, good god that is complicated.

2. Smoke from exhaust. I get this when coming to a stop, it's a puff of whitish/blueish smoke, smells just like burned oil. Now when the spark plugs were being changed, the installer noticed a bunch of oil on TOP of the spark plug (above the threads). He said he had seen this a few times and purchased a new valve cover gasket and installed. He said when removing the plugs some of oil probably got into spark plug hole and it's going to take a while to burn off. The car was delivered to me at midnight, lastnight. I drove it around a bit then to work this morning, now just returned from lunch. It seems to have gotten worse. If oil did indeed get in, how long would it take to burn off? If it were to burn off, woulnd't it be smoky the entire time, not just when I come to a stop? This leads me to believe that one of the turbo oil seals is bad.

The car runs great besides those two, made 389whp, 347tq. It pulls and pulls. I have XERD testpipes (raspy as hell!) and a custom Carbon/Ti single exit exhaust.

What do you guys think? I think either 350zdcalb or going deep had a seal problem and it was doing the same thing right? The installer noted that it did this upon initial startup after everything was installed.

Thanks!

Nark, with those dyno numbers your close to 3.12 vortech power are you not. How much different are the two kits in off the line power, lie to me if you have to so i want to keep the vortech. :icon38:

With all due respect, can we please keep this on topic.. The differences between centrifugal superchargers w/ linear boost and turbos have been discussed a million times on this forum.

Your tech was talking about spark plug tube seals. All oil should be gone from this after the repair was made. A decent guess would be blow by unless you have a catch can.

Usually this would indicate problems with oil seepage past valve stem seals in the cylinder head or an oil leak under vacuum. I seem to remember a Greddy kit doing the same thing a while ago when he would glide down to a stop. When gliding down to a stop the vacuum was drawing oil into the combustion chamber...which comes out of the exhaust as white smoke. Could be stem seals or rings. Poor ring seal under vacuum would allow oil up past the rings. Did you do a compression test and leakdown AFTER taking off the vortech and putting in the APS??

I get the same thing with my APS kit as far as the idle, matter of fact the first time it cut right off and continued to do so. After driving last night it seems to fire right up though.

About the smoke, when do you notice it? Sometimes I'm seeing a little bit of smoke seeping up whenever I'm at a stop but it is only a small amount. I figured it was a little bit of smoke from the exhaust.

I've seen two other APS installs were light oil ehust smoking occured.
a) one case it was a kinked return line from the driver side turbo.
b) Crankcase oil level was too high.

Both can result in oil to be forced past the Turbo bearing seals.
Both were easily resolved with no permanent mechanical damage to anything.

It's a good amount of smoke during a stop. I asked for a compression test by the installer but he figured it wasn't necessary. Doing a compression test now would that reveal if it were the seals or not? What should I expect as far as compression numbers for a 26k mile VQ35? It had the vortech on for about 15k miles.

Wow, what a rush..love it so far.


made 389whp, 347tq. It pulls and pulls.



My apologies.

I'm completely happy with 436 crank horsepower on a stock block. This is irrelevant to the thread.

Please take your imature comments elsewhere, i'd like to keep this on topic...

I have somewhat of the same problem with the oil smell. I have made sure that the oil return lines were free flowing and the oil pan level is at the add mark per APS install instruction.

I have changed my plugs, this is not a gasket, ring issue or blow by, it is from the turbo seal on my car.

Check that the oil feed banjo bolt is tight that could be an issue.


-Z

Being that with the Vortech power curve being much higher in the rpm band you probably would not notice a ring problem....due to where the boost is at its maximum with the Vortech. With the APS boost coming in lower where the torque curve is heaviest I think more stress on the rings might reveal and damage that might have been done to the rings by the Vortech....if there was any. I would get the compression and leakdown tests done because we have seen broken ringlands from blowers before....with no real power loss....just smoke. Compression should still be in the 180-190 range if I remember correctly.

Thank you guys for the responses. I will check my oil level, and try to get a compression test done. Hell, I wouldn't mind doing it myself, but it seems pretty involved removing the coil packs and spark plugs. How much is a compression tester these days?

[QUOTE=narkotic] Doing a compression test now would that reveal if it were the seals or not? QUOTE]

Compression test would not tell you whether it was valve stem seals....only rings and valve seal at the valve seat. The stem seals are above the valve and are independent of compression. If it is stem seals the seal degrades and allows oil to drip down th valve to the combustion chamber. It pools on the edge of the valve and when the engine starts it is sucked into the combustion chamber with the first blast of fuel and air.....white/blue cloud for 5-10 seconds on start-up. Usually the seals degrade from heat. Typically the exhaust seals go before the intakes. I would be leaning toward rings with the mileage you have. But with boost in an N/A motor you never know.

Theres no smoke during startup, it's only after a nice run and coming to a complete stop.

Nitro - Not sure if you remember me, we met up at a few of the meets (autobacs then in n' out), good to hear from you. Since we're neighbors maybe we can meet up and I could see your example of the smoke, and you can see mine for comparison.

Then it has to be vacuum under deceleration letting oil into the combustion chamber. I would lay money on rings. :(

Have you queried APS directly about the "oil issue" , have they responded?

For giggles you may just want to suck about .5qt outta the crank (not enough to hurt) and see if the oil smoking changes any.
I noted in you sig the SSM IM. Are your dynos with the IM or not.

Then if you bet it is the rings, will doing a compression test put this one to rest?

For the idle problem,

Have you tried to adjust(Tighten) the BOV? I have the same issue with my last car, BOV letting out too much pressure when let out of the gas. Two ways of fixing it. Using a dump tube to reroute the BOV back to the intake pipe or tightening the spring of the BOV a little.

Or you can try this https://my350z.com/forum/engine-and-drivetrain/125757-nismo-camshaft-install-and-idle-issues-answered.html

Not completely sure if thats the issue. But the BOV fix did it for me. Its worth a try.

:)

What would be the easiest way to suck out .5 quarts? Some sort of sucking device through the oil refill port up top?