Is this a WBX thing?

[Mr Bean]

After a rarely needed oil top up on a French motorway last year I was horified to see a sudden cloud of traffic obscuring white oil smoke appear in my rearview mirror. After a hasty pull into one of their what goes for a hard sholder I found I had overfilled the sump slightly. Not wishing to drain some out at that time I proceeded with caution until after a couple of more similar but less intense incidents I found the oil level more or less correct and had no more trouble. I wouldn't have thought that an overfill of probably less than a pint would have caused a problem but decided that the compact flat four layout might be the reason. Any views?
Cheers
Wolfie

[Aidan]

where was it escaping from to get onto the exhaust ?

[Mr Bean]

where was it escaping from to get onto the exhaust ?

Posible routes:
Cylinder liner/piston interface - unlikely on an engine which doesn't burn oil.
Valve stem/guide inteface - unlikely on engine with no smoke on overun.
More likely to be emission control system or crankcase ventilation system due to maybe oil contacting rotaing crank or ends.
But that was what I was hoping one of our more T25 aware members would know maybe having experienced same!
Cheers
Wolfie

[jaylo264]

not sure of the immediate cause , but i had exactly the same thing in provence , hot day , after a fillup of oil when i mistook the litre mark for the pint.......went pouf like yours , never did it agin , nor did i.
assumed it was spilling past the rings , hot like .
jaylo

[syncrosimon]

Yep, had it too, at 70mph on the motorway, just happenend to be looking in the mirrors to see a great belch of smoke, scarred the begesus out of me, but no harm done. Concencus is to run the dip stick at 3/4 full.

[jaylo264]

when some thieving barcelona barsteward bent our oil filler pipe and cracked it , we had to drive all the way to hull ( then relayed home) with a fill up of 1 litre every 45 mins , driving or not , as the oil dripped out of filler pipe till it was exactly at the lowest notch on the stick . Great fun in princess di`s parisian tunnel system on a very hot afternoon ,rush hours . I think a sump would be a good idea .As would an easier filling method , but a coke bottle was excellent.
jaylo

[Red Westie]

I have no specific experience of this Phenomenon but I would hazard at the cause being engine breather, as in excess oil blowing up the breather into the air fiter/inlet manifold and being drawn into the engine that way. May be worth having a look for evidence of oil in that area, a pool of oil in the air filter for instance.
Martin

[toomanytoys]

when on the autoroutes there is a lot of heat being pumped into the oil.. it expands and poss a little foaming (depending what quality oil).
1/2 to 3/4 full is about right... my syncro uses the oil above 1/2 full when sitting on the autoroutes... so as long as its above min I tend not to worry.. only ever fill to max when doing offroading...

Never overfill.. it doesnt help.. causes more case pressure and oil thrashing about in there...

[Mr Bean]

when on the autoroutes there is a lot of heat being pumped into the oil.. it expands and poss a little foaming (depending what quality oil).
1/2 to 3/4 full is about right... my syncro uses the oil above 1/2 full when sitting on the autoroutes... so as long as its above min I tend not to worry.. only ever fill to max when doing offroading...

Never overfill.. it doesnt help.. causes more case pressure and oil thrashing about in there...

Thanks for that folks I don't feel so bad now. I do have a 14' Classic aluminium skiboat into which I fitted a 1600 ford Kent Xflow with dry sump for just that reason. The thing spend more time in the air than on the water on anything more than a dead flat lake so you can imagine where the oil is most of the time!
cheers
Wolfie
(Exhaust is straight through four into one 3" outlet and when it leaves the water and the exhaust water injection dries momentarily it sounds like a F1 job! (You animal wolfie!)