Anyone who knows me and my turbo story know that during my turbo install, my tranny blew on the dyno. So, the guys who built the turbo were not able to tune the car untill my tranny was back in shape. So, they ran the car REALLY rich. I had big plumes of black smoke out of the tailpipe of the car. I got the car back 2 days before the dc bbq and the monday after, I took the car to get the tranny bullet proofed.

Two weeks later I pick up the car, which was this past Friday. I drive the car back up to Jersey to get it tuned, Saturday morning. During Tuning, the guys did 10 130 mph runs to get the thing tuned. We could not turn up the boost however because it was too humid and hot in the place. It was 100 degrees and high humidity inside the place. So they tuned the car to 6 psi and that was as far as they could go. The dyno numbers on the car sucked but I was told that that was because at this point the car had been pushed really hard and it was too hot. They were dynoing the car with bags of ice on the engine. The numbers the car put down were only 234hp and 252tq. The guy at the turbo place said reallistically he thought the car should actually be producing about 20 pounds more in tq and hp. So I drive the car home, 3 hours. Sunday morning a friend of mine asked me to take her to Virginia to pick something up so i said ok especially since I get to play with my car So I drive 2.5 hours down the road but couldnt really boost because we were in stop and go traffic. The first time I lay into the car I boosted to about 6.5psi let off the gas and plumes of white smoke came pouring out of the tail pipe. I drove about 10 minutes down the road and got off of my exit and checked the car. When I popped the hood I had oil all over the inside under the hood. The car had a slight knock but not much. Originally I thought it was the fact that I had this crappy oil cap on the car that I had gotten. Which when I looked under the cap, the thing had no gasket under the cap. I drove about 5 blocks to an auto store and put in a new cap. I thought that maybe the oil had sprayed and gotten into the coil packs and there for the car was burning oil. nope , that wasnt it. Oil level was still fine as well. I checked the the plugs and 2 of my front bank plugs, had oil in them. So I cleaned them out and thought maybe the car needed to just burn off the extra oil that had spilled into the plugs.so i let the car run for a whle and it seems that the smoke is not as bad . I figure I will try and make it home.


I get back on the highway and start back down the road and was on the road for about 15 minutes when I said this is too much smoke let me pull over and sheck this car. When I pulled over to check the car, the tap got louder so I quickly shut the car off. This time when i checked the car the oil was very low. If you went behind the car you could see that the car basically spit all of the oil out of the exhaust. So I was stranded.

Good thing I remembered that we have an org member that lives not to far from where I was stranded, Tony Littel. I had only met him once at the bbq for like 5 minutes but i figured thats what the org is all about , helping each other right? I didnt have his number, so i called Cartis for it, he couldnt find the number so he called MystiWink for it and she called around and found the number for me, which Cartis called me back with. I called Tony, and he let me tow the car to his dealership in Richmond to sit, and he would take me back to Maryland 3 hours away. This was like 12:00 at night. This guy is Great!!! So I towed the car to his dealership and he started to take me up the road, I felt bad and didnt want him to go all the way to MD so I called FASHIZLE who met us half way and took me the rest of the way home. Thanks again guys and girl for the help!!!!

I went back to Richmond yesterday to check the car. I poured more oil in the car changed the valve cove gaskets and spark plug seals and got the car started. There was that tapping again. So I go to test drive the car to see if it will run. I went to drive the car around the block. As sooon as I pull off , the white smoke starts again. Go around the corner and come back and the car looses all compression. The only thing that got me around the corner was the turbo trying to spool and putting extra boost into the egnine at that time. So My engine is gone does anybody have any ideas? I never thought it could be a head gasket because my coolant levels are fine and the car is not running hot.

 

 

Wow, awful, awful story man Hope it works out.

I'd be having some words with the tuning place. If I took my car in to get tuned and then drove it back out spewing smoke all over the place and then dying on me, sounds like something got "oops"-ed.

 

I hope it all works out I'm really at a lost for words.

 

Redmax....sorry to hear your story. the tapping sound at idle can be your piston ring. I know 2 boosted maximas have this problem. There shouldnt be any oil on the spark plug and did you check the gap too?


btw, how's your air-fuel ratio? and I think the black smoke coming off your engine is the engine oil burning.

 

A word of advice to anyone else.
If you hear any kind of tapping noises from your engine you need to SHUT IF OFF right away. Don't try to make it 2 blocks to get more oil, don't try to make it home, don't try to get to the gas station 10 feet away.

That sucks but from this you will learn for next time.

Ant

 

Burning oil is usually has a bluish hue to the white smoke. Black smoke coming off the engine? Well thats definetely not normal. But like I told Corey earlier, I would do a compression test really quick and find out which cylinders and or banks you just destroyed.

Its seems pretty clear that a piston ring is gone and the oil is burning from there.

Dixit

 

Corey,

Sorry to hear that Bro...hope all goes well in getting the situation taken care of.

O

 

that sucks man!! that knock you herd can't be too good!

 

I think I know exactly what's happened. It happend to me. My car ended up very LOW on oil but I don't know for how long. A mild valve sounding tap started. I put more oil in and drove it for maybe another week. Then the oil got LOW again and the valve tap came back. This time when I put more oil in, the tap didn't go away. I tried to drive it but then the tap got LOUD and the power went WAY,WAY down. I could barely get it the 2 miles back before "pop" and smoke out of the tailpipe.

I ended up throwing a rod end cap and shot shrapnel though the bottom of the oil pan. I think you already have toasted at least one of your crank journal/rod end cap bearings. Especially when you are already throwing smoke though the exhaust.

If the shavings from the burnt bearing get though the oil pan's pickup, it will toast your head's cam journal bearings also. AMHIK!

Silver lining: 3.0 VQs are a dime a dozen and cheap.

 

sorry to hear

but from destruction comes MONSTERS

 

ah man, thats never fun

Oil generally burns blue
Coolant generally burns white/light greyish
Fuel burns black when too rich (I know this from the Mustang)

also figuring out how ofter the tapping noise occurs could tell you if its the top end of the engine or the bottom end causing problems, but thats asuming it doesnt need the combustion to occur to make the noise.


good luck with everything and keep us posted.
MrGone

 

sorry to hear about your car.

 

or you cracked the heads at first. White smoke is usually water, but since you kept driving it....
Water doesn't compress so you started to ruin your piston rings or rods. Anyway, I would just throw in a junkyard engine. They are pretty cheap these days.

 

time to have a motor built for that turbo.

 

cory,

i talk to you while you were drivin one day thru laurel. I have about 6 or 7 engines here so let me know. There are a few peeps on here that know me including Tony C.

Mehran

 

Corey, if there is any thing I can do let me know. U know Im there for ya, just let me know what I can do.
Im so sorry that it happend. I was a step away from telling chris that I was gonna get you.
but then he told me he found Tonys digits. so I was relived. I know that if I was ever in that situation I know the org boys would be there to help me out.
Its just a sad day when we loose a memeber so get that car back on the RD!
I dont like hearing that a person is giving up on the max.

Talk to u soon
be at the champions tomorrow
Mysti

 

Sorry to hear bro..

 

How much does an engine with labor usually cost?

 

Sorry to hear that, hope all goes well!!

 

they can be had as cheap as ~250 from junkyards (there is no demand for maxima motors versus how many are wrecked...) and labor can be a real wildcard, but to say ~500 ?

redmax sorry to hear the news, and at such low boost and running rich? almost doesn't make sense

 

i hope you get your car back in shape!

other than that... i think it was really cool for our fellow ORG members to help you out like that. they deserve mad props!

 

Corey,

Sooooooo sorry to hear that man. I'd see what the tuning place can do. If not, like everyone says, used engines aren't too much. You know I'm right around the corner. Whatever you need, let me know.

As far as the org pulling through...yeah, that's a good feeling knowing that you always have someone looking out for you in the tri-state area.

 

Yeah, I' really like to know, too. I'm thinking that the engine overheated during the ten 130 mph runs and either a head cracked (although I haven't heard that that is a common problem with VQ's) or the head gasket blew.

 

See dont believe the engine overheated during the 130mph runs. He still had the stock puller fans in there and that wouldnt cause that. Me on the other hand did just about the same amount of runs while tuning and my temp was climbing to H and we had the heat blasting inside the car to help. Still nothing happened to my car.

Dixit

 

Get a engine with low miles strengthen it up prior to put it in the car with what ever is available to VQ engines and throw it in there thats about the only thing you can do. Sorry to hear this. The part that gets me is the 3 hour drive ouchh thats a long drive.




Tony your back nice to see you again.

Jaime

 

I can certainly relate. Sorry to hear it. Check out my thread on the local board, a member offered his shop and services and said that he has plenty of 3.0s. I can't post the link at the moment but it's easy to find.
Good luck.

 

how many miles are on your car and had you experienced any previous engine issues?

sorry to hear.. makes me nervous.

 

60,000 miles and nope no prior engine issues! Thanks everyone, the car will be back better than before, it will just take alittle while since im broke from bullet proofing the tranny and paying for this turbo. Once I get the car back to my side of town my mechanic will tell me whether its worth rebuilding this one or buy a new one. either way the new engine will be "built" for the turbo

 

 

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