Hi All, Just did my first track day in a 300ZX on the 27th of August (last saturday). Only managed to do 10 laps due to white smoke pouring out of my left exhaust. I was thinking head gasket is gone and the coolant poured into the cylinder or something to that effect. When I turn off my car for a while and start it up again, a huge burst of white smoke would come out of the left exhaust. Revving it a little would provide a bit more smoke. At first I thought it would go away and did another 5 laps after the first five laps since everything seems to be fine and no fluid has been dropped and oil looks fine, but the smoke still stays after another 5 laps, so I decided to pull out for the day. Pity, since I could have gotten extra 30 laps for the day with about 5 hours lap and I paid $200 for it. Anyway, when I got home and let the car cool down for about 3 hours, I checked up the radiator and it's full to the brim and the oil looks fine and full too. I started up my car and there's no bubble in the radiator. And from then on there's no more white smoke, which would've been even more apparent in the closed garage. And today, everything still goes fine and all the vital signs say it's fine and I don't lose power at all too nor any fluid. So I'm thinking that this is because of the newly installed non straight through resonator burning its internal out due to unburnt fuel and very high temperature melting it? The exhaust is made of Mild steel. I read a lot about white smoke from this forum and Chewy made a point of mild steel exhaust which I have. So what do you think?
Could also have been.........>> oil smoke if the track had a lot of tight right hand corners. This forces oil into the PCV system which can induce quite bad smoking, although that is usually slightly grey, and not just white.
The track basically only has right hand corner But seeing how much smoke comes out pipe, and the oil is still full to the F mark, it can't be that. Something's burning in there and I don't know what just yet. Pray that it's just the resonator. Exhaust gasket is a possibility?
lower rad hose was standard I'm planning to change it, but would a bad radiator hose actually contribute to the smoking problem?
Classic case of PCV's. Before I had mine relocated my zed did this all the time at the track. A little bit of oil makes alot of smoke when burnt. Just keep an eye on the oil level. It normally disappears after the first time you come on boost and its all blown out of the intake.
Attention FranZ: Re: PCV Recocation Can you give details of what is involved in PCV relocation? If this is a Zed problem then maybe there should be a tech article.:thumbsup:
I didn't the relocation - but to the best of my knowledge... ...the pcv location on the lower left hand side of the motor is a flaw in the vg30. Zed's were never really supposed to be thrown around thus when they were, the oil splashing around would splash into the intake, through the motor and out the exhaust. What Hyperdrive Motorsport (www.hyperdrivems.com.au)did for me was disconnect the current PCV's and put an SR20 PCV's at the top of the motor - thus oil wouldn't splash into them and therefore out the exhaust. Im not that technical so thats about as much detail as I can give you. I can take pics of where they are mounted if requested. If any of the above is incorrect, can someone that knows whats going on please correct me!
The oil was full to the F mark after it cools down I used Redline 10W30 which must be pretty thin for track use. But seems to be no problem. What's a PCV by the way? And it's only NA.
10w30 is pretty thin I used to use it but have since moved to 5w50. PCV = Positive Crankcase Ventilation valve. System where contaminated air from the crankcase is returned to the intake manifold after which they are consumed in the combustion process. Remember - a little bit of oil makes a very big mess, whether it be smoke or when its in liquid form! NA-TT - I don't think it makes a difference, a TT I imagine would clear the intake quicker however. It seemed to always disappear the first time I came on boost - ie WOT.
PCV seems to be the prob here Did a search on Twinturbo.net and lots of people who did track day have the same problem, the common theme was deep right corners and smoke from left exhaust and had to be waived off the track because of it, also, the smoke started after car has been shut down and started again after the first run. So I'll get this PCV thing attended to. Should I relocate the valves, install catch tank or disconnect it?
