Burning oil and leak on BBSC setup

Joined
6 June 2005
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2,301
Location
Farmington Hills, MI
Hey guys. The last drive I took my car on a week or so ago, I noticed a leak in my engine bay which seems to be pretty substantial. Its on the drivers side in the front bank right around the spool valve area. I went ahead and ordered new spool valve gaskets and will install them and I hope that is what it is, its a really good amount of oil that has covered a lot in there so its somewhat hard to tell if that is where it is coming from, but replacing the almost 22 year old gaskets can't hurt.
Another thing that I noticed for the first time on the same day is smoke out of my exhaust everytime I let off after hard acceleration. Seems to be oil burning.
Any possible relation to the spool valve gaskets? I have a BBSC and am running a catch can to the rear bank. Front bank is stock PCV setup. I am also wondering if my PCV is just bad. I have heard this can cause smoking. I pulled it out and shook it and did hear some faint rattling, which I understand is good.
I guess it also can't hurt to change out. Any other ideas? Maybe I'm just ignoring the fact it could be my engine? :frown: Or could it be from my Paxton itself? I've notice a little oil in the intake before from it, but that seems to be normal on them from what I've read.
I've had the BBSC on the car for two summers now and 6K miles.....haven't had any issues like this before.
Here is video of it where you can see it smoking.......
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PdRMoXKAneI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Check to see if it is coming from the breather on your catch can. If it is, do a compression and leak down.
 
I did see some smoke coming from the breather on the catch can too. :frown: Only noticed it there at idle or just off idle. Though once I'm moving and air is circulating, maybe its hard to notice.
It just seems strange that I only get smoke from the tail pipes when I let off after hard acceleration, not during.
Also noticed oil in the catch can for the first time a few weeks ago after some hard running. None in there right now though.
 
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I'm starting to suspect the PCV valve more and more. It didn't rattle right away when I pulled it, so maybe I got it unstuck. I was easily able to push it open with a small allen wrench...I'm reading a lot of stories of other cars with bad PCV's and the symptoms sound very similar. I'll pick up a new one and put it in.... cheap and can't hurt.
 
My daily driver STI did the same thing only upon letting off the gas would it smoke briefly, but not under acceleration. Turned out to be the PCV. I would do a compression/leak down to be safe.
 
Check the seals in the sc intake. I bet you blew your impeller seal. Paxton will warranty it..

I know my SC does leak a little bit, but seems they all do this reading from other primers and mustang guys. Just a little drip in the inlet of the sc whenever I pull the intake off. Never enough to make it smoke though. At least in the past, and doesn't look like any more oil that "normal" in there now.

My daily driver STI did the same thing only upon letting off the gas would it smoke briefly, but not under acceleration. Turned out to be the PCV. I would do a compression/leak down to be safe.

Yeah, I ordered a new PCV and grommet, so we'll see what that brings. I'll do that at the same time as the spool valve gaskets. Seems that if the PCV valve is blocked it will do exactly what I've got here with the smoking and force leaks past other gaskets that were previously fine (spool valve gaskets in my case). A compression test is hard to do on my car now, at least on the front bank with the SC driveshaft running right over it.
Unfortunately, I won't have time to fix these things for a couple weeks.
 
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wouldn't worry about the mist coming from the catch can, that can be normal

you sure the smoke is coming out of the exhaust and not just dripping on the header?
 
I'll finally have a chance to look into it more this weekend. Going to replace the spool valve gaskets, pcv valve and I'll try to do a compression check.

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wouldn't worry about the mist coming from the catch can, that can be normal

you sure the smoke is coming out of the exhaust and not just dripping on the header?

It def seems to be coming from the exhaust...if you watch the vid above...eye witnesses also confirm this. Only after hard acceleration though....so I feel like if it was the engine letting go somewhere, it would be doing it all the time. I could be wrong. I'll know this weekend.
 
Figured out my leak. I pulled of the SC drive shaft and looked around. It was hard to tell where the oil was coming from because there was so much everywhere. I started the car and was looking around and feeling with a rag, when all the sudden I hit a lot on the the back of the SC itself. I looked and it was really gushing out where the input shaft is.
So I pulled the SC out and will send it off to paxton for a rebuild...so a least I figured out the source of the leak. Now...I'm not sure if that is also causing my smoke out the back as well. Or like EAC mentioned, maybe it is just hitting the exhaust somewhere along the line. Could be the inner seal is gone as well and its burning oil that way, but there didn't seem to be any more oil than normal in the intake. I'll do a compression check for good measure while I have everything apart over the next few weeks while the SC is getting rebuilt.
 
Glad you found the source of your leak. The smoke upon deceleration definitely came out of the exhaust not from around it in your video.
 
Figured out my leak. I pulled of the SC drive shaft and looked around. It was hard to tell where the oil was coming from because there was so much everywhere. I started the car and was looking around and feeling with a rag, when all the sudden I hit a lot on the the back of the SC itself. I looked and it was really gushing out where the input shaft is.
So I pulled the SC out and will send it off to paxton for a rebuild...so a least I figured out the source of the leak. Now...I'm not sure if that is also causing my smoke out the back as well. Or like EAC mentioned, maybe it is just hitting the exhaust somewhere along the line. Could be the inner seal is gone as well and its burning oil that way, but there didn't seem to be any more oil than normal in the intake. I'll do a compression check for good measure while I have everything apart over the next few weeks while the SC is getting rebuilt.
Yeah +1 for me!!! lol I'm glad you found it. Mine did that three times and I was done with BBSC. All the Mustang guys said the same thing about the Paxton..
"they all Leak" but when it made my car blow smoke that's not normal.
 
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Well, finally had a chance to do the compression test yesterday. #5 was showing half the pressure of the others. :( Cody was going to pick up my car this next week anyways to build an intercooler and other stuff, looks like he'll have a bit more work to do on it now. Stay tuned.
 
Mine always leaked but it was so minute it never mattered. car only

blew smoke when i finally toasted a ringland.

PS don't overtighten that belt or you'lll be soooooorrrrryyyyyy..
 
That's kinda what I thought when I suggested the compression/leak down tests, but didn't want to get you bummed out before you did it.....sorry to hear.
 
Yeah, I knew I was probably running a bit on the high side of boost with 9.8lbs on a stock motor so I can't be too upset. Cody will inspect it all and confirm if my suspicions are correct, but it seems that's what it is.
On the plus side he'll be able to build the motor to be able to handle more boost safely. I'll post the plans/progress and results in my BBSC setup thread once it all starts happening. On a side note, the blower is at Paxton and will be rebuilt and back to me after the 1st. It definitely was leaking oil like crazy, but seems there were two different things going on at the same time here.
 
When I broke a ring land in my first motor, oil would blow out of the breather on my catch can under hard acceleration. First time it happened I thought the car was on fire there was so much smoke from the oil bath the motor got.
 
Shit, sorry to hear Man... you might want to PM NA1MT about your motor build options.
 


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