Blowing smoke

[Greggles]

Hi team,

When taking off 'energetically' from the lights my R36 blows a lot (I mean a lot!) of grey smoke before settling down. An ex-mechanic mate following me was somewhat surprised at how much smoke it blew particularly for a car of age 6k kms (5 months old). At the same time, I have to unplug the coolant reservoir every two days owing to vacuum pulling the coolant out and setting the low coolant warning alarm. I'm taking her in for a 6-monthly check. Should I alert the mechanic to her 'smoke-blowing' behaviour? Thoughts?

[Cro]

Smoke or unburnt fuel?

A lot of R36's blow loads of unburnt fuel under hard acceleration. I found this to be true when I use Caltex Vortex 98 fuel.
When I use BP Ultimate it doesn't happen.

[Rocket36]

It's not smoke and I'm surprised a mechanic thought it was. It's unburnt fuel. They're a fairly aggressively tuned engine and for a bit of a safety buffer from grenading, they are set to run a bit rich under hard accelaration. In my experience, it is most noticable with Caltex Vortex 98 and to a lesser extent Shell V-Power. BP Ultimate and Mobil Synergy 8000 don't seem to do it much, if at all. Which isn't surprising seeing as Mobil Synergy 8000 is basically a re-branded BP Ultimate.

Cheers!

[Greggles]

It's not smoke and I'm surprised a mechanic thought it was. Cheers!

He was a mechanic in a long-gone previous life! He is now a very successful businessman. He was following me in his M5 (hence the modest acceleration)! It is a substantial amount of fuel - I have driven worked STIs and GT4s and they don't dump anywhere near as much fuel despite their boost at 22 lb+

The last tank fills have been BP Ultimate. These have been pretty smoky compared to the Shell and Caltex previous but then that was over a month ago.

Anyway will have the Volks mechanics check it when they inspect for the Haldex upgrade

[SharifE]

Excuse my ignorance..but what is a Haldex upgrade for??

[jasspa]

I too get heaps of black smoke. I have only used caltex and shell fuels. Will see if the BP makes a difference. Is this common to the R36???

[Magooligum]

You should see the pall of smoke that is left on heavy accelleration in S mode in my TDI.

Some call it Sports mode I call it Smoke mode. It doesn't move too badly for a tractor though.

[Steve]

I use nothing but BP Ultimate, and mine can blow some epic amounts of crap out the back when I'm accelerating... or idling... or have just started it... or if it's been running a few minutes but I haven't moved it...

To be honest, it's unnerving... but research tells me that it's to be expected. Perhaps a chip/tune/whatever will help...

[Pana]

I use nothing but BP Ultimate, and mine can blow some epic amounts of crap out the back when I'm accelerating.

To be honest, it's unnerving... but research tells me that it's to be expected. Perhaps a chip/tune/whatever will help...

LOL - when we do a spirited run up Mt Dandenong here in Vic with some mates I always get the "didn't know R36's were diesels" jokes made - V-Power is worse than BP Ultimate in my experience in terms of smoke production....

[Steve]

LOL - when we do a spirited run up Mt Dandenong here in Vic with some mates I always get the "didn't know R36's were diesels" jokes made - V-Power is worse than BP Ultimate in my experience in terms of smoke production....

I guess it doesn't help that I live on a mountain, and my driveway is a fun twisty road... it certainly doesn't help my fuel economy

I've tried all the the easily available 98 octane fuels, and there have been some that have enveloped me in nasty blue smoke whilst reversing out of my driveway... yuck!

If we find a tweak to make them burn cleaner, we're less likely to have nasty exhaust tips

[Pana]

If we find a tweak to make them burn cleaner, we're less likely to have nasty exhaust tips

tell me about it - keep forgetting to buy some more Meguiars chrome polish so mine are looking quite feral at the moment.

[Rocket36]

it actually gives me peace of mind... knowing that there's more fuel going through than actually needed when under WOT... means it shouldn't be wearing too badly or be likely to grenade any time.

[R34]

Compared to my chipped A3T my R36 blows virtually no smoke

[zsolt_downunder]

I actually agree with Rocket36, much better to run the engine rich as oppose to lean.

[GHW]

I second that.
It's smart engineering and besides, now you can really say you "smoked someone at the lights".....oh that was bad, really bad...