Is it just running rich?
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi all, I am new to your forums but have had plenty of help from previous topics! I recently purchased a complete almost finished project Mini Turbo. I stripped the car of everything mechanical and fitted it to my own project which is a speedster mini (no roof, no convertible, DRY WEATHER ONLY!) I have just today got everything plumbed in and running. The problem that I am having is that even though the car ticks over fine (but does not need choke to start, even after standing for a week!) if i rev it a little a few times I find myself choking on white/light gray smoke. It does smell like very rich burnt fuel. The oil pressure is great and settles at 10 ft lb when the engine is warm(ish) but revving to say 3k sees the needle shoot up on the pressure gauge. It does not appear to be using any water, there is definitely no water in the oil (just a little moisture on the inside of the filler cap from not being used for months and months). The engine, as far as I am aware, is a bog standard MG turbo. Does anyone have any ideas what is causing the smoke (being in a garage doesn't help!) or have you experienced the same thing on your car and fixed it? Hope you can help. Many thanks Dave.

Speedster turbo under construction

Hi dave, welcome in turbo minis madness
adjust your mixture , (turn in the rich direction untill it's reving ok and with the max rev possible touching only the mixture screw and then turn the mixture screw in the leaning direction until it's start to slightly decrease the previous obtained max rev , it is also described in many books),
then I think your smelting exhaust come from a oil burning ( light grey /blue), this can be caused by poor rings, and or oil leaking turbo (very commun), and or valves leaks. I think you should blueprint your engine.
fab

Thanks Fab, The smoke isn't blue, it is a white/gray kinda colour the smell is not that of burning oil. I will try the mixture today.

The engine revs VERY freely so the mixture definitely isn't running lean

the engine did have a miss-fire when I received the donor car caused by fouled plugs from lots of start-stop 30 second movements of the car, could it be just crap built up in the cylinders?

thanks

Dave

Speedster turbo under construction

try taking the head off and de-coking it, you may find theres a build up of crap in the cylinders, if not try all your turbo oil seals, my mate had that problem with his one once.

it may b small but it purfectly formed
http://photobucket.com/albums/v340/1976_mi...roject%20turbo/

something wrong
light grey/white is water, black is too rich, light blue/grey is oil
coke doesn't make any color at the exhaust,
try a fuell additive to clean your induction and cylinder head,
try also a new set of plugs, your are perhaps simply worns (try champion or bosch ones, cheaps and very goods)
discussing , plugs is someone had tried the last denso iridium plugs?

I have tweeked the mixture, it seems better. I couldn't get it to put out the amount of smoke it was yesterday.

I am thinking it might have been moisture from being stood in the exhaust or something?

Speedster turbo under construction

If it is running too rich the plugs and exhaust would be sooted up.