Scottish Elises

7 or 8 years ago on the way to KH on a nice summers day I decided to pass Tut and managed to write off my 1st S1 Elise at the next bend.

On Saturday on the way to KH I decided once again to pass Tut only to all of a sudden find plumes of oil burning smoke belching from the back of the 340R.

In a nutshell, I'm never passing King Tut again.

Managed to drive the car home with no more oil loss it seems. I have started to strip the car down and have decided to take this opportunity to refresh the complete car.

Not sure yet what exactly has blown, but the car is driving fine. I have someone experienced in K series coming to look at the engine on Wednesday, but any suggestions as to what it can be would be very much appreciated.

Circumstances were 5th gear sitting at considerable tuts and all of a sudden smoke belching from the back and oil all over the undertray. I thought at first I may have lost power, but thinking back that may have just been my reaction to seeing all the smoke and lifting off.

Cheers

Cammy

Glad that you got back OK Cammy.

Must admit it is a funny one. As there was no smoke from the exhausts, it was not oil into the cylinders, it came pouring out of the engine bonnet vents. That suggests a sudden leak onto a hot engine/exhaust manifold, and a fair amount looking at the undertray. Did you check the dipstick before you set off again?

tut

ps You were about the only one that did pass me that day.

Drove the car to Kinross Services and checked oil levels. Then drove home (approx 40 miles) keeping the car at under 3000rpm, checked levels again and no change.

Cammy

tut wrote:Glad that you got back OK Cammy.

Must admit it is a funny one. As there was no smoke from the exhausts, it was not oil into the cylinders, it came pouring out of the engine bonnet vents. That suggests a sudden leak onto a hot engine/exhaust manifold, and a fair amount looking at the undertray. Did you check the dipstick before you set off again?

tut

ps You were about the only one that did pass me that day.

Camshaft end seal is a possibility.

Also you could have a break in the oil part of the head gasket - I think there is some scope for oil escape without any other HGF-like symptoms.

I assume you didn't lose much oil?

Cheers,
Robin

Cammy

Just a thought......
I take it that when you were passing Tut ......there would be a fair bit of revs involved!!!
I used to get this bother occasionally with my Audi Quattro UR
It would only happen after sustained track use......otherwise it was ok. There was a mod (similar to cosworths) for venting the oil supplies into catch tanks etc but I never bothered


Some engines can build up a fair bit of crankcase pressure and blow oil past the rings ( the rings don't have to be worn) .
I will wait for the Robin/Guru(s) to acknowledge if the crank is vented in a K series.....I would have thought the VHPD would have had a catch tank etc?b

In some cars...the Quattro .....it was vented back into the air filter....hence the plumes of smoke when you were giving it beans

sorry to hear that cammy
was wondering why you weren't at KH on sat
hope you get it sorted soon

Dean

Iain,

Pretty sure that the VHPD crankcase is just vented to the intake manifold the same as a normal K. Certainly if that were blocked you would see one of the press-fit seals pop out (all the crank shaft and cam shaft end seals are press fit). However, these do also just fail sometimes, and given that the oil was ending up on the exhaust manifold I would guess that one of the camshaft oil seals is the more likely - they're easy to fix too

Cheers,
Robin

I bow to your greater.........and current knowledge

Cammy,

We missed your rank banter at KH, and a few pax laps, would have been good to get some pics of the 340r, instead i dealt with my hangover pretty badly, moaned at my inability to string a sentence together, and got sunburnt taking pics!

Hope Robin is right, and it is an easy fix, if it does need fixed and like Iain said it is not just an occasional issue when trying to out do Tut!

Dave

Iain,

There was a few revs involved There is also a catch tank fitted with the 190 upgrade and that all seems ok.

Robin,

Oil appears to be more focused at the lower part of the engine and not the head. I've not really had a proper look yet as I've spent this afternoon concentrating on removing the top shell.
All ready to be lifted off now, just waiting until I have some extra hands tomorrow for lifting it off.
I'll pass on your comments to my cheif mechanic when he arrives.

Cheers

Cammy

No way that any unusual use of the engine would have caused the problem, I was cruising around 90 when you passed me, you would have been in 5th and probably went upto 125, 6300rpm, when it happened, so way below limits.

tut

maybe the oil level in the gearbox was a bit high and was blown out of the breather pipe (on top of the gearbox)
seen that happening a couple of times, gives a nice cloud of smoke.
always happened at high revs

just a thought

Tut

I honestly don't think its a major problem or at least hope it's not. As you say car was well within it's limits.

May I also say that we were not on a public highway

Cheers Bob, I'll check it out

Bob vanM wrote:maybe the oil level in the gearbox was a bit high and was blown out of the breather pipe (on top of the gearbox)
seen that happening a couple of times, gives a nice cloud of smoke.
always happened at high revs

just a thought

Cammy

Absolutely not, we were on the hard shoulder as all the other lanes were blocked by dickheads....................

tut