Smoke while cornering?!

[DOHCVTEC]

Hey anyone ever have the problem of blowing smoke while cornering hard?While my car is in high G during a corner, then at the point i full throttle it at corner exit, it smokes heaps (only occurs during turns)The smoke is long lasting, it looks like fog from those behind (greyish in colour)Anyone know what could be happening and what could cause this?Thanks

[Slow96GSR]

Well I tried to find a nice little site to do the dirty work for me but I guess I have to actually type something. I'll kill two birds with one stone, a.k.a. thread! It depends if you are braking or throttling what causes it. Under braking you can guess, it's the brakes. Under throttle it can be the tires losing grip and "burning" out. This isn't good. How ever on a Honda, front wheel drive, it should come from the fronts. If it's from the rears them I would check for fluid leaks as it could be hitting the brakes or tires and steaming. Remember if you brake hard going in to the corner the brakes will still be hot coming out. Let me know if you want a better description and if it's the fronts or rears smoking.

[Benson]

check oil levels.... as u corner hard, oil moves to one side and if u dont have enough oil then smoke will come out of the exhaust. This is called oil starvation. Make sure u have enough oil, or u can pay a heavy price for a rebuild. (spinning a bearing)

[Stoosh]

check oil levels.... as u corner hard, oil moves to one side and if u dont have enough oil then smoke will come out of the exhaust. This is called oil starvation. Make sure u have enough oil, or u can pay a heavy price for a rebuild. (spinning a bearing)

yea thats what i would've thought it was

don't baffled sumps eliminate this problem?

[bennjamin]

Hey anyone ever have the problem of blowing smoke while cornering hard?While my car is in high G during a corner, then at the point i full throttle it at corner exit, it smokes heaps (only occurs during turns)The smoke is long lasting, it looks like fog from those behind (greyish in colour)Anyone know what could be happening and what could cause this?Thanks

are you running high grip tyres ? As others have said sounds like oil being burnt off. Sounds like too much oil inside the sump tho IMO. Had a full service recently? Ive topped up my car once with alittle bit extra "for saftey" and it too blew out abit of smoke mid hard corner due to excess oil inside the sump and it was being blown thru the PVC system, and into the combustion
If you are running too less oil with high g's cornering you wont burn the oil rather the engine loses oil pressure and bye bye bearings

[aaronng]

If it happened only when you were turning right and accelerating, then I've seen this on another b18c as well. Probably the oil being sloshed to the side where the PCV is, forcing the valve open and pushing oil into the intake manifold and combustion chamber.

[mooshie]

wouldn't that also cause problems with the running of the engine? oil in the combustion process causes a much lower octane and therefore higher chance of detonation right? this could be serious for the engine so what can be done to fix it? i would guess that a simple catch can setup would suffice.

[aaronng]

Yes, oil in the combustion chamber promotes detonation. First think I'd do is to replace the PCV valve. Old valves have weaker springs and open at too low a pressure. After replacing the PCV valve, then look at a catch can.

[riceball]

check oil levels.... as u corner hard, oil moves to one side and if u dont have enough oil then smoke will come out of the exhaust. This is called oil starvation. Make sure u have enough oil, or u can pay a heavy price for a rebuild. (spinning a bearing)

i think you got it there Benson, and as stoosh has said, baffled sumps eliminate the oil starvation, prevents the oil from splashing around in the sump too much.

[DOHCVTEC]

realli realli appreciate everyone's help here :)

as for the fluid leaks, i thought about that on the day as well, as on the same day, someone saw sparks coming out of my brakes/rims area
but the car drove fine afterwards, only got a bit of brake fad but it was consistent.

benson with the oil splashing, i know its something to do with that, luckily (it feels like) its not oil starvation, since oil pressure didnt seem to drop, and im thinking of getting a baffled oil pan to be on the safe side when i start using semis oneday.

benn, aaronng i was running street tyres (dunlop dz101)
also benn, my oil was actually overfilled, and some of the oil did actually burn off (altho my car does seem to burn oil altho a bit less even if its not overfilled).
so it would burn from the PCV valves?
it seems to burn oil on both left and right turns altho more so on left turns (maybe because i corner left turns a little bit harder)


1. how often does PCV valves need changing? (for optimum condition operation)
and
2. a baffled oil pan would help to keep from starvation but it help to reduce the chances of smoking oil during cornering?
3. if detonation occured, then would my knock sensors pick it up?

thanks for everyone's great help!

[whtdc2]

I had the same problem on my Dc2, it only happened when it was hard cornering, It was just like i blowed my engine, people can saw it on the other side of the track, and my rear vision mirrow just couldn't see any thing but just full of smoke (white). I had semi slick and baffled oil pan

[Benson]

install an oil catch can.... that would really help your casue. My oil catch can at the last track day fill 3/4 which was roughly abt 400ml of oil. Its probably due to overfilling my oil, in a high reving engine the extra oil is bypass to the catch can instead of the PCV where it could lower octance level which is not cool for the engine (pinging). Give that a go if u occasionally track ur car.

[BlitZ]

install an oil catch can.... that would really help your casue. My oil catch can at the last track day fill 3/4 which was roughly abt 400ml of oil. Its probably due to overfilling my oil, in a high reving engine the extra oil is bypass to the catch can instead of the PCV where it could lower octance level which is not cool for the engine (pinging). Give that a go if u occasionally track ur car.

btw benson..
what grade oil were u running that day..

Wonder if anyone has a compression test too for me to borrow as i catch abit of oil on that track day too.. not on street though

[whtdc2]

I had oil catch can too, not a single drop of oil there since the 1st day

[aaronng]

I had oil catch can too, not a single drop of oil there since the 1st day

You installed it correctly?

[bennjamin]

You installed it correctly?

That is , inbetween the PCV and inlet manifold :thumbsup: ?

[Benson]

btw benson..
what grade oil were u running that day..

Wonder if anyone has a compression test too for me to borrow as i catch abit of oil on that track day too.. not on street though

i was running 10-50W. I fink its normal cuz i over filled my oil. The excess oil is put out to the catch can during hard driving.

[bennjamin]

i was running 10-50W. I fink its normal cuz i over filled my oil. The excess oil is put out to the catch can during hard driving.

Or if there isnt a catch can , it is blown into the combustion cycle , and thus becomes "smoke" while cornering. It does happen with excess oil.
Anyone else had the same thing happen ?

[DOHCVTEC]

Thanks guys, i might think about the oil catch can and look into the pcv, as it seems like a direct fix for the problem

[saxman]

had a friend with this exact problem. Would only show up when cornering at the track. Ended up being his valve stem seals IIRC

[DOHCVTEC]

hey saxman so did ur friend fix the problem after changing the valve stem seals?
cos for a long time, ive been thinking that it was the valve stem seals causing me some problems (just a little bit).

so if it IS the valve stem seals, is it the oil in the camshaft area being sucked down? and what negative effects would this have?

thanks

[4agte]

if it is valve stem seals it will only blow on lift off not under load if its happening under load it is either running really rich (black smoke) or its a ring/piston problem and its blowing grey/blue smoke.

it dosent have a huge negative effect but over time will build up carbon deposits on the pistons valvles etc and cause hot spots which can cause detonation in extreme cases and will foul the plugs eventually.

Ive never lifted the heads of a honda but from the cars ive worked on (altho they are older ohc racecars so may not apply to a honda) have bronze guides with a rubber/plastic seal ontop. Lifting the cam covers its usually pretty easy to see if the seals are still there. I have found on the racecars that "buzzing" or over reving the motor by selecting the wrong gear could cause the bronze guide to get smashed so thats another area possibly affected.