Blue smoke - lots then none !?

Hippo has been quite well behaved for the last week of use - just refusing to start once until I wriggled the starter motor solenoid lead BUT yesterday heading down the dual carriageway dumped out two lanes full of blue smoke .

Dropped the clutch and coasted towards the next exit , not happy , let out clutch and started to consider my options , smoke started to clear then was gone ! Drove onwards as if nothing had happened checked on arrival at my destination - no oil/water loss etc .

Its a 1.8 petrol but do they "purge" the breather or something - never had anything similar happen before - well not one that recovers !

Engine not in first flush of youth at 120k but no oil burning normally that is obvious .

Any ideas - best to ignore it ? - always my favourite "action" !

blue smoke means it is burning oil it would not take a lot to produce clouds, what is it like in the morning on first start up is there any blue smoke then ,if so it could be valve oil seals

No that's the weird thing , no smoke normally on start up or on over run or hard acceleration - the usual situations that provoke smoke . It just suddenly started to smoke then just as suddenly stopped - never had anything similar happen before .

Been out in it today and its been no problem , wife was following me and reported no smoke or smell from the exhaust ............

Will do an oil change and see how it goes - wonder if a ring got stuck or HG let some oil through , V odd .

Have a full gasket set timing belt/tensioner, water pump etc in stock from owning a MG (cracked liner & dropped a valve ) but hope not to have to use it !

it would not be a ring if one got stuck then it would more than likely to break it does not take much, it could be a seal lifted then sat down again this one is difficult

teddywood1 said:

it would not be a ring if one got stuck then it would more than likely to break it does not take much, it could be a seal lifted then sat down again this one is difficult

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Hadn't thought of that but could be , I wondered if it was something in the emmisions gear purging as it started and stopped so suddenly . And it was loads of smoke as if it had holed a piston etc - more than valve seals type haze it was clouds !

Will just have to see how it goes , appreciate the support !

Had a similar moment recently, but it turned out to be coolant hitting a hot exhaust. There is a percentage of lube in coolant which turned to smoke, not just steam.

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Yep I'm beginning to wonder if it was just something on the exhaust - didnt get to look at the tailpipe at the time , was swearing/worrying too much ! Coolant level hadnt changed though

Behaving atm so will have to see what develops .

Thanks for the thoughts , mystified me .

that all you can do ,check you oil on level ground ,and keep checking it

Oil level not changed since I've been driving it , will do an oil/filter change this w/e and just monitor it .

Rather than the tailpipe, I'd be checking exhaust headers and engine pipe where it's hottest for such a sudden smoke screen.
Was it the first motorway run for a while? could be the cat getting it's first burnout if it was.

as I said it only takes a drop to make a big cloud

Don't think it was the cat getting heated up as it was such a quick transition between no smoke , lots of smoke , no smoke .

A decent eggcup full of oil would make a lot of smoke true enough just don't know where it came from !

Could have been onto manifold more than "in manifold" oil .

Will keep an eye on it .