I'll try to keep this story short. Stored my 2006 C2S in my garage over the winter in Toronto. About 3 weeks ago, I started her up to get ready for spring driving. Immediately got the Check Engine light, and noticed white smoke coming from passenger side exhaust only. The white smoke smelled sweet and I also noticed significant water dripping from the exhaust tips. Had her towed to my mechanic who checked the codes and turned out to be misfires in cylinders 1 and 3. Due to the white smoke, he did a coolant pressure test and said the pressure is ok; no indication of coolant leaking. He thought it might be spark plugs so we changed them. This cleared the code for cylinder 3, but not for cylinder 1. Still lots of white smoke from passenger side exhaust. He said the water dripping from the exhaust is reddish, which means it's coolant. He did a leak down test and all other cylinders are leaking < 10%. Cylinder 1 is leaking 76%!! Tomorrow he is planning to drop the motor to inspect the head to narrow the problem down. I assume at this point, best case scenario is a bad head gasket. Worst case scenario would be either a cracked head or bottom end, which I assume I might as well look for a replacement motor altogether. Anybody have similar experiences and can maybe share some lessons learned or have ideas on what my mechanic can be doing? Thanks!

 

Cracked block/head? Freeze up over the winter? Had you replaced antifreeze during regular service?

 

No I didn't replace the antifreeze, but when I started her up, the temp wasn't that cold. Anyway, my garage is never cold enough to the point of freezing temps.

 

I've heard that white smoke from one side is a scorched bore, whatever that is.

It could be nothing though so don't stress just get it checked.

 

Fwiw this is second thread on here from Toronto. OP2 has #6 cylinder going south. Sounds like a tough winter up north. Ugh

 

Do you have a link to the other post? I tried searching the forum, but don't seem to be able to find it.

 

Oil will usually burn white. Fuel burns black.
When in cold weather, engine should be left idling for a few minutes and then driven at less than 2500 RPM until oil temperature has reached 200 degrees F.

I am always amazed after a day long in the cold, to see these Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla pass me with so much ease.... I let them do it. Their engines do not require pre-heating.

Yves

 

On Rennlist, Fat Cat "2006 turns over won't start"

 

I wouldn't jump to bore scoring conclusions just yet. If bore scoring happens it is most common in cylinder #6 on the passenger side, followed by cylinders 4&5. This is the entire bank on the passenger side. The reasoning has to do with engine rotation direction and the way it interacts with the oiling system in those cylinders. Not saying it can't happen in the first bank (cylinders #1 through #3), but it's just nowhere near as frequent.

Now the exhaust crosses over under the car. This means the passenger bank with the more common bore scoring problems exhausts out the left/driver's side. Since the OP is reporting white smoke on the passenger side, it's coming from bank 1 - not the common bore scoring bank. He already says there is a problem with compression in cylinder #1 on the left side, which is consistent with smoking out the passenger tail pipe. It sounds like your mechanic is on the right path. Please keep us updated with whatever is found.

Good luck!

 

No direct experience but the word I get from the Porsche water cooled engine experts is head gasket problems are rare while cracked heads not so much. So put me down for a WAG: Cracked head.

If it is the head, the head can be removed and possibly repaired -- welded -- or even replaced. It is not the end of the world but of course an out warranty repair of this magnitude will not be cheap.

If the engine is toast, which I do not think will prove to be the case, but if the engine is toast you could explore a replacement engine from a salvaged car. Your tech should be able to advise you regarding what this entails should it come to that.

 

According to a Pelican parts DIY, a large amount of white smoke concurrent with a CEL may be indicative of a bad AOS.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti..._Separator.htm

 

Just for the record how about this generalization: oil burns heavy bluish white, fuel black, coolant white with a more light/vapory nature?

 

Update: there is a crack on the cylinder #1 wall. Pics attached. Mechanic says that this means the entire block is toast and needs to be replaced. He gave me a few options at this point if I want to keep the car:

1) Buy a brand new short block from Porsche to replace the cracked block. $19K CAD for the block and about $4K in labour (labour includes all the work so far and all the work to put everything back together again). The labour costs is a fairly rough estimate.

2) Get an aftermarket block from LN Engineering. Not sure what the cost of this is and I can't seem to make heads or tails on the LN Engineering website. "3.8 to 4.0 911 Nickies inc. 101mm FSR JE Piston set, inc. rings, pins, & clips" for $4770 USD. Is that pretty much all I need? Mechanic is looking into it, but hasn't gotten back to me yet. It would be tempting to go up to a 4.0 though...

First thing I asked my mechanic to do is to get both heads bench flow tested to ensure they are in proper working order because if either head is damaged, then I'd have to reconsider attempting to rebuild this motor. Any advice, at this point, is greatly appreciated.

 

"3.8 to 4.0 911 Nickies inc. 101mm FSR JE Piston set, inc. rings, pins, & clips" for $4770 USD.

i think that is the cost to have the block resleeved to nikisil cylinders (so that the problem does not happen again) as well as the stronger pistons + additional stronger engine internals .... but not the cost of the block itself.

 

Ouch !! sorry that this happened to you. Good Luck.