My 914 daily driver has been having a bad smoking problem lately, it started out just smoking at idle after coming off of the freeway, and I would see a small amount of smoke while shifting between first and second gear. Though today while I was on the freeway in 5th gear doing probably 60mph, there was a steady stream of smoke coming out of the tail pipe. My car has a 2.oL engine with duel Dellarto carburetors, it runs very rich with a bad exhaust smell, but it has since I bought it a couple years ago. Last week I changed the oil, I was using a 10-30 valvoline, but I switched to a 20-50 brad penn oil. I haven’t done much to the engine in the time I have had the car other than change the oil and adjust the valves. Oh, the smoke is a mostly white grey color, so my question is, is this an obvious problem of warn rings that would warrant a rebuild? Or is there other solutions to try, (there is no reduction in power that I have noticed)
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated; it has gotten to the point that it is unpleasant to drive the car.
Theo

When was the last time you did compression testing?

Adjust your valves, warm the engine, pull the spark plugs, open the throttle, have a helper crank while you measure compression with a tester from FLAPS.

Probably the rich tune has led to early ring wear due to the fuel washing oil off the rings. This is causing oil to burn up, which causes lots of smoke.

Zach

Think about what change(s) you made. YOU CHANGED OIL., from 10-w-30 Valvoline .....to...20-w 50.(brad penn). easy to eliminate the 1st basic potential problem. Drain out the 20-w-50, reinstall the valvoline 10-w 30.....what may have happened is this: the tired old engine just has worn out piston rings, and the OIL CONTROL rings just cannot scrape off the thicker 20-w-50 oil from the cylinder walls. This excess oil winds up in the combustion chambers, and creates (as its burning) the smoke you see out the tail pipe....I do not know the formulation of "BRAD PENN OIL".I hear its good. I suspect (due to the white smoke) that it is "synthetic oil". YOU ARE going to have a smoking condition until all of the excess oil is (finally ) scraped off of the cylinder walls, and residuals burned out of the combustion chamber , AND exhaust system...This could take some time and miles.,and there is a possibility , that your tired old rings just may NEVER reseal. the sooner you get back to your original oil the better your chances are of this working.

For tired smokey engines, like mine too, the Casrtrol High mileage actually works pretty well. I put diesel 15/40 in mine and it smokes on downshift a bit. Put the Castrol in it and smoke was gone.

Have you tried the patch?