JDee
Ancient Racer
First track day of the year today, got some really quick laps, new trans cooler seems to be keeping temps down, rebuilt trans working, well, like a new MT82 might be expected to work.
However, mid afternoon I got a black flag. Came in and they said the marshal station at turn 3 (outside of track on drivers left) had called in that my car was smoking, they weren't sure were it was coming from, they thought it was coming from underneath on the left side behind the rear wheel somewhere. They had noticed it earlier in the day but it got worse so they were concerned it was leaking oil.
Put it on the trailer and checked it over, no sign of leaks underneath from anything. That was my last session so we loaded up and headed home. Once home fired the car up to unload and a pretty decent cloud of blue smoke came out the left side exhaust. For sure it came out the exhaust pipe.
Engine sounds normal and runs fine, seemed to be making good power, I ran my 2nd fastest lap ever at Mosport. I checked my catch can, I usually get a couple of tablespoons per track day, but I dropped the thing, it's now sitting on the undertray so I am not sure how much oil was in it, going to take the tray off tomorrow and retrieve it.
My neighbour, who was there when I fired it up and saw the smoke is a long time garage owner, he speculated it might be leaky valve seals. So the question is how do you diagnose valve seals? I would think a compression test is useful to rule in/out ring/cylinder issues, but if that tests OK do I just put seals in and hope for the best? Appreciate any thoughts on what might be causing this.
However, mid afternoon I got a black flag. Came in and they said the marshal station at turn 3 (outside of track on drivers left) had called in that my car was smoking, they weren't sure were it was coming from, they thought it was coming from underneath on the left side behind the rear wheel somewhere. They had noticed it earlier in the day but it got worse so they were concerned it was leaking oil.
Put it on the trailer and checked it over, no sign of leaks underneath from anything. That was my last session so we loaded up and headed home. Once home fired the car up to unload and a pretty decent cloud of blue smoke came out the left side exhaust. For sure it came out the exhaust pipe.
Engine sounds normal and runs fine, seemed to be making good power, I ran my 2nd fastest lap ever at Mosport. I checked my catch can, I usually get a couple of tablespoons per track day, but I dropped the thing, it's now sitting on the undertray so I am not sure how much oil was in it, going to take the tray off tomorrow and retrieve it.
My neighbour, who was there when I fired it up and saw the smoke is a long time garage owner, he speculated it might be leaky valve seals. So the question is how do you diagnose valve seals? I would think a compression test is useful to rule in/out ring/cylinder issues, but if that tests OK do I just put seals in and hope for the best? Appreciate any thoughts on what might be causing this.