Hey guys, I have a weird issue I could use some help with. 2 times over the past month when I started my car I noticed a little poof of smoke come out of the engine bay. The first time it floated up and through the crack between the drivers side front fender and the hood and also out of the hood scoop (don't have the plastic piece that directs air to the intercooler). This time when I started it up it came out from under the car on the drivers side. So I'm ASSUMING the source is near the drivers side of the car. I didn't do anything out of the norm I'd just driven it to work and back, maybe 2 miles all side roads, no boost and never above like 40 mph. Had kind of bitter smell and was slightly grey-ish, the smoke lasted about 2-3 seconds and seemed more like a burn off of something. I've had the car up on jacks and looked for any leaking fluids but can't seem to find any. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

I had the same issue with mine.
I worked out why mine was smoking, not sure if it applies for you but I check my trans oil and didn't really seal the dip stick I guess and over time oil made its way onto the turbo! It would smoke often on small trips because it didn't give the turbo enough time to burn the oil off, but after a 8 hour drive to the country I have not had the problem again!

 

you say you only get it on start up though correct? That to me would imply that it is not residual oil as I would not think it would be hot enough to burn oil on the outside of the engine. So to me it seems like an exhaust leak of some sort. Do you have any odd sounds on the car that might be an exhaust leak? Sometimes they can be pretty quiet.

Also do you think it could be the starter motor puffing a bit of smoke? Maybe have someone look in the hood before and when you start it to see if they can see where it is coming from.

Let us know what you find out.
Thanks,
Rick

 

So, strangely enough, it hasn't happened again since I posted this. No idea what it is/was, I was leaning pretty heavily toward exhaust leak, but wasn't sure since it wasn't a constant occurance. I'm running a 3" catless turbo back POS from ebay though, so it seemed a likely culprit to me.

PS. I just recently stumbled on to your guys website, I have to say its absolutely awesome.

Do you have much experience with the Tomei turbos? My friend whos over in Japan right now says everyone swears by Tomei over there, but I haven't seen much from them in the Subaru community here or in the Mid Atlantic.

I'm shooting for 350hp/320tq. I'm currently sitting at 280/240 with an ej20 stroked over to 2.2, cosworth cams, 850cc injectors, walbro 255, and a perrin ram air w/ an STI intercooler running a VF28 @ 19 Lbs. Which would you recommend more an 18g or the Tomei M7960? I'm also open to other options.

Thanks!