Houston we have a smoking problem

[dustinhu]

I'm about to panic! I have a '99 996 C4.

Recently I had to add some less than desirable oil to my engine and put less than 100 miles on it. I parked it about a month ago and when starting the engine noticed it was now blowing white smoke and smells like crazy. Assuming it was the crap oil, I drained all the oil from the car yesterday and filled it up with Mobile 1. I started the engine back up assuming it would go away but it was just as bad. I haven't actually driven it yet, but had it idling for about 15 minutes in the driveway and it never went away. I also hear some clicking when at idle, which may have been there before, but I'm not sure.

So, what is this indicative of? I don't want to drive it if it makes something bad worse. But if it will go away after some time driving and recirculating the oil, then maybe I need to just do that. Help!

thanks,

Dustin

[mikes_box]

Might just be the aos... I had the same problem on the boxster and that's the most common diagnosis for smoke at start up... When mine went out it wouldn't stop smoking...

[dustinhu]

AOS? Sorry, I probably should know that.

[wvicary]

Air Oil Separator. Search on the forums and you'll find many post about the subject.

[dustinhu]

Thanks. I found a pretty good article on it. Certainly sounds like my problem. Better than what I was afraid of!

http://mike.focke.googlepages.com/airoilseparatorreplacement

Thanks for the help!

[navy'sporsche]

Be careful. I started my engine and had copious amounts of white smoke, water had been sucked from my brake booster into the engine. Bent a rod in fact.

White smoke is indicative of either water or coolant. If it "smells sweet", its coolant i.e. likely a cracked head or cylinder. If its water, likely from the booster or a small amount that got through the intake.

The best thing you can do is pull out one/all the plugs and see if anything drains out, then determine what it is.