*And not smoking in a good way folks*

In the process of reviving an abused moose and have come across a few worries.

One in particular is the exhaust smoking from just south of the header pipe mount when the car is started up. This smoking happens more so when in drive and going at a snails pace down the road than when in park.

It also appears that there is oil dripping from close to the same spot (How the hell would oil get to the header pipe in the first place?).

Any suggestions? Is this something that can be fixed or should I look to buy myself an early Christmas present and order IPD's Sport Exhaust and all needed goodies?

 

mooses shouldn't smoke.

oil leaking onto the exhaust isn't good. find out where its coming from. maybe its transmission oil from the tranny cooler lines?

my 740 turbo was dribbling a little oil out of the turbo oil return line where it went into the block. had to replace the seal. this oil got blown back all over teh transmission and pipes and made a big mess.

 

p.s. what precisely is a 1987 Moose ?

 

1987 Volvo 240 DL.

 

Your car is non turbo so there is little at that location to leak and cause the problem. It could come from the farther up front and be blown back onto the exhaust. Could be the Valve Cover Gasket leaking. Whatever it is should not be too hard to fix.

 

Update:

Got underneath the car and it is in fact transmission oil from (what I'm assuming is) the two cooler lines that run above the header pipe.

Where do I go from here to diagnose why that tranny oil is leaking? And what could be causing the exhaust itself to smoke in that same area?

 

oil on hot pipe == smoke.

are the transmission cooler pipes leaking from the front end where they attach to the radiator, from the middle somewhere, or from the back where they join the tranny? if its from one of the ends, you likely need new gaskets there. if its from the middle somewhere, the hoses are failing and should be replaced.

 

Leak seems to be coming from the back closer to where they join the tranny box.

 

**

Where would I find this gasket/what would I search for on IPD or Autozone? Tried to find something in the Haynes manual but nothing is found except for a mere mention of disconnecting cooler lines before pulling the radiator. **

 

well, there's two elbow fittings, they have an o-ring where they screw into the tranny case, and what looks like a compression fitting or something where the pipes go onto the elbows. the o-rings are part 1233071 (and are used on all sorts of volvos)

I think I'd clean the whole area first, drive it, and see where its oozing out, which fitting, which side of the elbow.

you'll probably want to drain your transmission fluid before you remove anything, or it will all come spilling out. even after draining it, odds are whatever is in the tranny cooler (inside the radiator) will come out the pipe ends, too, so have a oil pan handy. disconnect the pipes from the elbows before trying to remove the elbow fitting.

when you're done, I'd do a full transmission flush for good luck, replacing itl with some good quality synthetic ATF (Valvoline Synthetic Import ATF is good stuff). it takes 8-12 quarts to thoroughly flush a Volvo AW70 ATF

 

Cleaned cooler lines, tranny box, threw wheels back on and drove it around my neighborhood.

Smoking is already less constant than it initially was. Could it be that there is just a couple years of crud on it from being left sitting by PO and it's burning off excess grime/fluids?

Also couldn't find that leak from either cooler line or box. Going to let engine cool and recheck underneath as well as double check trans/other fluids to make sure they're at their right levels.

Thanks to Lev and Pierce (Mostly Pierce, lol) for the help in troubleshooting this issue.

 

automatic transmission fluid needs to be checked when the car is fully warmed up (and the tranny takes longer to warm up than the engine does), and the engine is idling in park or neutral. wipe off any grime around the top of the dipstick BEFORE you remove it... ATF is added via a long skinny funnel through that same dipstick tube, make sure that funnel is very clean before using (I got one that has a cap on the end that goes into the dipstick, and a cover for the funnel end, so it stays clean).

if the old ATF is brown, its due for replacing. if its black and/or smells burned, its overdue. it should be clear red. pulling the drain plug on the bottom of teh tranny only drains about half of it, replace the plug and add that much fresh back in, then disconnect the upper cooler hose from the radiator, connect a clear hose into a clear jug that has quart markings, start engine, old tranny fluid should come out, for each quart that comes out, add another quart via the dipstick, repeat until clean oil comes out

 

flushing out the system tonight (hopefully).

On to covering my bases, and I'm not sure if this helps, but I've attached a picture of the general area where the exhaust system is smoking from. It seems to be smoking from where the pipes further back in attached picture join the lighter, more matte looking pipes. What could be other causes of this smoke? Is there any harm/foul in taking the front part of the exhaust apart and looking through it to see if there is an internal issue?

 

Update: Seems to be a minute gap between the header pipe and the matte brown pipes that is allowing smoke to escape. What's the solution to this? I can't see any way to close or tighten that space to prevent that from happening.

On the plus side, it's looking more and more like a savable exhaust given there IS a way to close that gap and keep smoke/fumes going through and to the CAT converter properly.

 

Can users see this picture properly? In one window I couldn't, only a broken image icon.

*New to the forums and to in depth work on Volvos/cars in general. Forgive the lack of know how.*

 

an exhaust leak forward of the mufflers would be REALLY loud, like a motorcycle with straight pipes.

blue smoke is almost always a sign of burning oil, and its almost certainly coming from the outside of the pipes, unless you're also getting a lot of smoke out your tailpipe.

I would NOT try and take your exhaust system apart unless you really need to, as the odds are you'll find broken header studs etc, and have a heck of a time putting it all back together.

at the bottom end of the exhaust header, there's 3 studs that are threaded into the header, a gasket, and the downpipe is on these studs with three nuts... at the back of the down pipe after the 2-into-1, there's another gasket, and 3 bolts into the flange on the catalytic converter.

if you take any of that apart, plan on having all new Volvo brand gaskets at hand, and get all new hardware (studs, nuts, bolts/screws) as everything you take off the exhaust system will be rusted beyond any possibility of reuse.

 

an exhaust leak forward of the mufflers would be REALLY loud, like a motorcycle with straight pipes.

blue smoke is almost always a sign of burning oil, and its almost certainly coming from the outside of the pipes, unless you're also getting a lot of smoke out your tailpipe.

I would NOT try and take your exhaust system apart unless you really need to, as the odds are you'll find broken header studs etc, and have a heck of a time putting it all back together.

at the bottom end of the exhaust header, there's 3 studs that are threaded into the header, a gasket, and the downpipe is on these studs with three nuts... at the back of the down pipe after the 2-into-1, there's another gasket, and 3 bolts into the flange on the catalytic converter.

if you take any of that apart, plan on having all new Volvo brand gaskets at hand, and get all new hardware (studs, nuts, bolts/screws) as everything you take off the exhaust system will be rusted beyond any possibility of reuse.

p.s. no pictures. looks like the link was to something embedded in your gmail or something, you can't link those.

 

UndercarriageMOOSE-Jun29xiii | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Smoke is a regular grey, not black or blue.

Coming from the north end due to a gap/opening between the matte brown pipe and the down pipe (before the 2-1 lines). Has anyone seen this before? Is there a way to eliminate that gap? Pretty sure that would also eliminate smoke/fumes escaping from exhaust system.

 

those are heat shields on the downpipe, and they look like they've gotten oil all over them.

there's a 4-into-2 exhaust header right off the cylinder head, a gasket, a 2-into-1 downpipe, a gasket, then the catalytic converter. if the 'gap' you're talking about is shown in that picture, that's just the gap between the heat shields and the actual pipes inside.