Smoke......Need some help.. chime in...

[obijohn22]

Hey guys, i need some help from you all. doing some pulls with my freinds on the way to motorstadt V on saturday and during the second pull at about 100-110, i look behind me and see a smoke screen coming from my car!!!!! I was in a panic! I thought, oh shit, that turbo lady has finally found me. I could smell a burning oil smell in my car also. I let off immediately, and it stopped. no CEL, made full boost, no noises or anything. So i am panicing in my car and trying to figure out WTF. I have 2 way radios i use for racing and fortunately for me i was kicking everyone elses ass so they could see what happened just fine lol. there was no smoke coming from the exhaust, just from under the car. so i gunned it briefly to see what is up and turbos spool up just fine, full boost at 15 psi and holds, no smoke. I'm like WTF? i did this like 2-3 times and all was fine. get to the show and pull up to register, i see some smoke rolling out from under the hood on the passenger side. I pull over and pop the hood and there is smoke coming up from behind the engine from the area where the passenger turbo is under the accordian hose. the smoke and the heat kept me from seeing anything clearly. so i parked for the show to let it cool down. when it did, i could look a little better and could not see anything that looked problematic. Oil level was good. the heatsheild on the passnger side turbo is clean from what i can see. Anyhow, I have a slight smell of burning oil on the way home when i stop at a light, but no smoke, not even after a 1 hour drive at 85-90 degrees outside. I am going to put the car on jackstands this wekend and pull the accordian hose etc to get a look at things. I do my own work so i am looking for a few suggestions as to where to start. I have STFA and will be looking at cam seals and valvecover seals etc. the spider hose for sure. but i am wondering if it was not an oil feed line to the turbo or something. Whatever it was it sprayed oil all over something very hot and burned up right away and then seemed to go away. Sorry for the long post but any help would be greatly appreciated!

thanks
OBI

BTW i won first place in the Audi B5 class! I'll post some pics of my S and the show soon.

[AudiSportB5S4]

headgasket ? there was just a thread like this, not telling you to STFA, LOL. i hate that reply. but go check your dipstick to see if it looks like yoohoo choco milk!

[obijohn22]

update: Got under the car today and overflow bottle was empty so i filled up with coolant. looked around under the car and it seems it is a coolant issue. It did not smell like coolant but that is what is hapenning. I cannot find any oil problems whatsoever. and there is no coolant in the oil. Now, the coolant is dripping from around the bottom of the flywheel housing but i cannot tell where it is coming from. there is a hose attached to the bottom of the coolant tank that just goes behind the intake and stops. It is not attached to anything. Is this correct? I do need to get a new coolant tank but it is not leaking right now. so, based on a visual inpection, i cannot find anything wet around the turbos or anything other than something is leaking coolant behind the engine. If the afterrun pump is leaking where would that show up? Also, some info on that coolant line that is unhooked would also be nice. I assume that it is some sort of vent but it was wet on the end like it had been dripping coolant. Any help would be great!!!

thanks
john

[RedRocketS4]

The afterrun pump is underneath your intake manifold... peak in there with a flashlight. if you see what looks to be pink and white dried blood, then your pump is leaking... but i've never heard of it leaking like that. was the smell sweet? coolant smells like maple syrup to me (for whatever reason). look for white spots all around your engine and where the smoke was coming from. i have found that dried coolant is white in color and a little crusty. clean up the areas and try to trace the leak. typically, the afterrun pump doesnt leak during driving, i dont think (correct me if i'm wrong, please).

[AudiSportB5S4]

there is a hose attached to the bottom of the coolant tank that just goes behind the intake and stops. It is not attached to anything. Is this correct?

yes that is correct. that is the overflow hose if there is too much in the tank.

[obijohn22]

so what else is back there that could be leaking antifreze? Is there any plumbing for the after run pump that goes in to the rear of the engine bay? Oil is free of antifeze and anitfreze is free of oil. So I would assume that a headgasket is not included in the list of suspects, Someone correct me if i am wrong. coolant lines to turbo? could the coolant overflow bottle leak after a longer run and higher temps build up? Or perhaps under a high load? (racing)....... in retrospect what i saw today oafter the fill up could have been overflow from over filling the bottle a little. but i did not find that hose until after i lowered the car back down. I am very familiar with the smell of antifreeze, and what happened on saturday did not smell like antifreeze, it smelled like oil. I don't know, i coud not find anything out of the ordinary with respect ot an oil leak. Keep the ideas coming...... thanks for the input so far.

[The_Jerbel]

yes that is correct. that is the overflow hose if there is too much in the tank.

It should be on the other side of the wheel well wall, not behind the intake mani.

[AudiSportB5S4]

ahhhh. my girls uncle who is an ex mechanic was like what a dumb spot for the overflow! right over the driver side turbo great idea! so how do i route it jordan ?

[exorcet]

ahhhh. my girls uncle who is an ex mechanic was like what a dumb spot for the overflow! right over the driver side turbo great idea! so how do i route it jordan ?

there's a vertical 'heat panel' underneath the tank put it on the wheel side of that, not engine side

[The_Jerbel]

^^Yup, just grab the hose and put it on the wheel side of the aluminum shield

[AudiSportB5S4]

thanks! sorry OP !

[KryptoniK01]

This may have nothing to do with your problem but are you 100% sure it's coolant or oil? You may want to double check the lines running from the transmission to the transmission cooler in front of the rad. I had a crack in the fitting off the side of the cooler and it pissed what at first appeared to be oil, but was actually ATF. Thankfully, by some huge fluke it went just as I was pulling into my driveway so it left a small drip trail up my street and then gushed all over my garage seconds after I put it in park. Just a thought.

Good luck tracking down your issue

[obijohn22]

After continuous searching, i think it is the afterrun pump. I knew it had been slightly leaking, for a while. I think it let go while i was running hard and shot a bunch of coolant down the back of the engine onto the hot exhaust /turbo parts. I see some pooling under the intake. I am going to change that pump out and hopefully that will fix this. It seems like a common issue to have the coolant run down the back of the engine when the afterrun pump goes. but it does not seem to leak as bad under normal driving conditions. but at high RPM starts to leak badly. What do you all think of my theory? BTW thanks jordan and others for the correct location of the overflow hose.

[obijohn22]

This may have nothing to do with your problem but are you 100% sure it's coolant or oil? You may want to double check the lines running from the transmission to the transmission cooler in front of the rad. I had a crack in the fitting off the side of the cooler and it pissed what at first appeared to be oil, but was actually ATF. Thankfully, by some huge fluke it went just as I was pulling into my driveway so it left a small drip trail up my street and then gushed all over my garage seconds after I put it in park. Just a thought.

Good luck tracking down your issue

thanks, i will make sure i am not leaking trans fluid. I appreciate your input!!