Holy Smoking' 914!, Help! Options

[Dck356]

Good evening gents. I've been lurking in the background while working on my 74 2.0L. Purchased the car almost a year ago from a member here who had it sitting as a project for about 12 years. So far I've done the following:

- removed gas tank and had it cleaned/sealed
- replaced all fuel lines with the SS kit from Tangerine
- replaced fuel pump and fuel filter
- pulled distributor; had a bad pertronix unit
- added points, condenser, rotor, cap, plug wires
- popped the distributor back in and set static timing

So this afternoon, after 12 years of not running, it fired right up. Exciting right? Not so much... the exhaust began producing a ridiculous amount of blue/white smoke - lucky the fire department didn't show. Seriously hoping that this is a timing problem and not a worn out engine. Tomorrow I'll check the dwell, put the timing light on it at 27 degrees... and say a little prayer to the Porsche gods.

Any thoughts or words of advice? Thanks in advance!!

[mepstein]

Leak down test?

[rgalla9146]

Stuck rings, oil in cylinders, oil on top of heat exchangers.
Let it run. I bet it'll clear up.
Two weeks ago I started a '73 T that had not run since 2001.
Plenty of blue/white smoke. Slowly clearing up.
Still a little today. But better every day.

[IronHillRestorations]

Either it will get better or it will get worse there's no way of knowing without more diagnostics.

Engines that have sat for long periods are notorious for breaking rings, or ring sealing problems

[jkb944t]

Stuck rings, oil in cylinders, oil on top of heat exchangers.
Let it run. I bet it'll clear up.
Two weeks ago I started a '73 T that had not run since 2001.
Plenty of blue/white smoke. Slowly clearing up.
Still a little today. But better every day.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

I had the same thing happen when I bought a 1977 911 that had sat for 10+ years. It scared the hell out of me when I started it. It smoked like crazy for the first 10 minutes then it slowly cleared up completely.

Jeff B

[Dave_Darling]

Smoke out the tailpipe, or off the outside of the exhaust?

--DD

[Dck356]

Thanks guys! I hope it clears out. Dave - the smoke is coming from the tail pipe.

[Spoke]

I recently bought a 2056cc engine of unknown build date. Had set for a while. I removed heads, cleaned the case and reinstalled everything. The first start-up was instant and a few seconds later the garage was full of smoke. I shut it down and inspected and all looked ok.

Started it again and it smoked like hell for about 10-20 seconds. Slowly the smoke cleared and the engine ran well.

How long did you run it with the smoke coming out? 10 sec? 2 min?

[Jon H.]

Perhaps the previous owner put oil in the cylinders during storage? But 12 years later any oil might have worked its way past the rings? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) just a thought......

Regards'
Jon h.

[Dck356]

Success!!! Thank you all for the input. I think Jon was right - must have been some mystery marvel in the cylinders. Got the dwell set now doing the timing. I took some videos that I'll post later. Probably start a project thread. Thanks again guys - great community!!

[Dck356]

Not out of the woods just yet. Got the dwell to 47, but when I set the timing to 27 degrees... the idle jumped to 3k rpms. Tried to adjust down, but the idle set screw on the throttle body is fully seated. Traced back all the vacuum lines and everything looks ok. Could the AAR be the culprit? Thanks!

[Spoke]

So you have DJET FI? If so, a vacuum leak will look like the throttle is opened. AAR won't give you 3k RPM though.

When you set timing to 27 degrees, you say the idle jumped to 3k. What was it before?

[Dck356]

So you have DJET FI? If so, a vacuum leak will look like the throttle is opened. AAR won't give you 3k RPM though.

When you set timing to 27 degrees, you say the idle jumped to 3k. What was it before?

Yes, DJET. When I was getting the dwell to 47 the rpms were right around 900. Then when setting the timing to 27 degrees I had to turn the distributor to hit the mark - as the rpms increased I couldn't adjust the idle back down. I'm using a timing light with the dial on the back set to 27 degrees and looking for TDC. Maybe i'm not timing it correctly?

[Rand]

Your timing is either WAY dangerously advanced now (be careful or you can damage things) or you have a MASSIVE vacuum leak. Or both. Since timing is what you futzed with last, you need to make sure you know it's right before chasing too many things at once.

[Dck356]

Your timing is either WAY dangerously advanced now (be careful or you can damage things) or you have a MASSIVE vacuum leak. Or both. Since timing is what you futzed with last, you need to make sure you know it's right before chasing too many things at once.

So I triple checked TDC today and the static timing is correct. But still, once I put the light on it and set to 27 degrees at 3500 rpms, the idle is at 3000 rpms! Got frustrated so pulled the distributor and noticed that the model number has been removed - so not sure that it's a 205A. I looked at prior post from the PO and at some point he said he purchased a rebuilt 205O distributor (type 311). If this is in fact the distributor that i'm using now - could that be my issue? Thanks for any help!!

[rgalla9146]

Vacuum leaks, sticky distributor, incorrect timing marks, sticky/ faulty throttle body.
Take your pick.

[Dck356]

So, thought it potentially could be the distributor, so pulled it and replaced it with another. Still doing the same - time it to the red line at 27 degrees but the idle won't come down. Not sure where to go from here...

[VaccaRabite]

What kind of timing light do you have?
If you can dial the advance on the light, use the TDC mark instead of the red line to set timing. That way you can eliminate being way too advanced.

Then start checking for the vacuum leak you have.

Zach