Help - did I damage my engine??

[SlowCreamPuff]

I was bedding my brake pads last night. Some hard braking from 70mph. At about 5mph, I would shift into 1st, accelerate hard, shift into second until I hit about 70mph and repeat.

I was too focused on getting it done asap since I was on the freeway.

2 things bothered me. After hard braking, when accelerating back up to speed, rattle type of noise was coming from the front. At first, I thought it was some kind of vibration causing parts to hit the chassis or something. But then, I noticed smoke from the exhaust (I couldn't tell the color).

Could it have been oil being burnt? Causing detonation? Without the hard braking, everything seems to be fine...

 

[Doug Supercharged Vipers]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SlowCreamPuff:
I was bedding my brake pads last night. Some hard braking from 70mph. At about 5mph, I would shift into 1st, accelerate hard, shift into second until I hit about 70mph and repeat.

I was too focused on getting it done asap since I was on the freeway.

2 things bothered me. After hard braking, when accelerating back up to speed, rattle type of noise was coming from the front. At first, I thought it was some kind of vibration causing parts to hit the chassis or something. But then, I noticed smoke from the exhaust (I couldn't tell the color).

Could it have been oil being burnt? Causing detonation? Without the hard braking, everything seems to be fine...

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>SlowCreamPuff

Pardon me -

I'm laughing with you but not at you. The smoke was from the valve covers ventilating into the airbox. The forward momentum from hard braking pushes oil out of the valve covers and into the airbox and then ingested into the engine and burned. I'm sure your baby is fine sir

!

Ask the road race guys to help you on this one, they know about it all too well!

Drive Safely,
Doug

 

[JonB]

You failed to say the YEAR of your car. Are you talking about your slow-c5 in your signature?

That 'RATTLE' noise was probably your ABS cycling ! (The Year Matters)

You were indeed just PAST the threshold for optimum bedding.
The smoke was PROBABLY the pads themselves, and the smoke was visible to you behind the car.

Doug may have hit the prob w/ Oil Puke thru PCV...to confirm this, just pop the PCV line off the airbox and see if it is oily. On you're year I suspect NOT....unless you have .5Qts or more too much oil in crankcase.

No worries.

 

[GTS Bruce]

Engine might have been knocking(detonating) due to oil entering the combustion chamber through the intake manifold. Bruce

 

[SlowCreamPuff]

It's a 2001 GTS. The smoke is definitely from the exhaust, no throttle, no smoke. The rattle wouldn't be the ABS (at least I think) because again, no throttle, no rattle.

So, it's quite likely to be oil entering into the engine... Then I must have been detonating the engine.

What's the best way to tell if I damage my engine? Dyno? Leak down test?

 

[Sean Roe]

SCP,
Doug and Bruce nailed it.
Get yourself an oil seperation canister to put in line between the valve cover breather vent and airbox on the drivers side if you're going to be braking that hard. necessary on the track, not on the street.
You probably didn't do your rod bearings any favors. The only way it would show up is in an engine oil analysis (about $20), unles you REALLY hurt it, at which point you'd hear a knock during decelleration after revving the engine. It's probably OK.

 

[LTHL VPR]

I think all of the points above are GOOD!
You might also check your oil level. We have found a number of Vipers to have 1 1/2-3 qts. over the fill mark. Yikes! This can cause the oil to foam up through the valve covers and get sucked in the airbox.

An easy fix and problem indicator may be to disconnect the breather tube from the airbox (tube on driver side going from valve cover to airbox), cap it, and put a K&N breather on the end of the brather tube from the valve cover.

Once you check your oil level, let me know what you find.
We are open today if you want to talk. 408.562.1000.
Good luck.
-Wayne