2012 Proclimb Down For The Count

[s2h]

So some quick background on the story, a list of my mods and then the big question what do you think is happening?

Saturday we were out riding in Saskatchewan. 2000 foot elevaton flat feilds and meadows -22 celcius. 15 miles in to our ride I was cruising about 1/4 throttle when the sled started smoking like crazy from under the hood. Stopped immediately and shut off the sled as I assumed the machine was on fire. By the time I got off the entire sled was engulfed in smoke. Pulled the side panels off and got ready to start to fill the engine compartment full of snow. However the smoke slowy started to diminish and it went away. There were no open flames or any indications of fire. After a quick inspection that didn't show any leaking oil or antifreeze I fired the sled back up again and within 5 seconds it started to smoke like crazy again. It even appears to be coming out the exhaust as well as from inside the engine compartment. Towed the sled and loaded it back on the trailer.

From my visual inspection I have a lot of underhood heat. The EVO intercooler fan is fairly melted as well as some other heat damage to the hood and hoses to my cold air intake.

List of Mods are:
EVO header and turbo blankets
Cold Air intake (through hood)
EVO 215 flash
EVO BRV
Roll over ECM
EVO intercooler Fan
EVO factory turbo intake elbow
Clutching from WKM
2.5 camo extreme track
8" hindle exhaust
every hood and side panle vent known to man.

so my question is what could cause so much smoke both under the hood and in the exhaust at the same time? Do I have an exhaust leak that is creating unusually high temperatures under the hood which is causing things to melt? Did the supposed exhaust leak burn through some hose that is under pressure and leaks fluid on to or in to the hot exhaust when the sled is running?

Smoke is whiteish which would indicate antifreeze but it smells more like oil to me.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Does anyone have an idea what it could be?

I leave for Revlestoke on Feb 2 for a week so I at least have nearly 2 weeks to get it back up and running. Any insight in to this issue would be much appreciated.

Thanks, S2H

 

[Bacon]

Sounds like your turbo went to hell and is pumping oil into the exhaust.

 

[JustBoostIt]

Turbo's rarely go bad on 4s. Pull the crankcase vent off the coolant tank and fire up. If the crankcase has pressure it will push oil thru the rings. I have seen 1 ROV line clog up with oil because of a routing issue. He was smoking.

Seals on turbos are pretty tough. Depending on the sled, 99% of the time it is oil drain/return restriction, venting, or a return pump issue. Or in extremely rare cases a stock oil pressure relief valve fails and and puts 90 psi into the turbo instead of 30. Ask me how I know

 

[Evolution Powersports]

So some quick background on the story, a list of my mods and then the big question what do you think is happening?

Saturday we were out riding in Saskatchewan. 2000 foot elevaton flat feilds and meadows -22 celcius. 15 miles in to our ride I was cruising about 1/4 throttle when the sled started smoking like crazy from under the hood. Stopped immediately and shut off the sled as I assumed the machine was on fire. By the time I got off the entire sled was engulfed in smoke. Pulled the side panels off and got ready to start to fill the engine compartment full of snow. However the smoke slowy started to diminish and it went away. There were no open flames or any indications of fire. After a quick inspection that didn't show any leaking oil or antifreeze I fired the sled back up again and within 5 seconds it started to smoke like crazy again. It even appears to be coming out the exhaust as well as from inside the engine compartment. Towed the sled and loaded it back on the trailer.

From my visual inspection I have a lot of underhood heat. The EVO intercooler fan is fairly melted as well as some other heat damage to the hood and hoses to my cold air intake.

List of Mods are:
EVO header and turbo blankets
Cold Air intake (through hood)
EVO 215 flash
EVO BRV
Roll over ECM
EVO intercooler Fan
EVO factory turbo intake elbow
Clutching from WKM
2.5 camo extreme track
8" hindle exhaust
every hood and side panle vent known to man.

so my question is what could cause so much smoke both under the hood and in the exhaust at the same time? Do I have an exhaust leak that is creating unusually high temperatures under the hood which is causing things to melt? Did the supposed exhaust leak burn through some hose that is under pressure and leaks fluid on to or in to the hot exhaust when the sled is running?

Smoke is whiteish which would indicate antifreeze but it smells more like oil to me.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Does anyone have an idea what it could be?

I leave for Revlestoke on Feb 2 for a week so I at least have nearly 2 weeks to get it back up and running. Any insight in to this issue would be much appreciated.

Thanks, S2H

Definitely check your crankcase vent. If we can help, please call.

 

[s2h]

Turbo's rarely go bad on 4s. Pull the crankcase vent off the coolant tank and fire up. If the crankcase has pressure it will push oil thru the rings. I have seen 1 ROV line clog up with oil because of a routing issue. He was smoking.

Seals on turbos are pretty tough. Depending on the sled, 99% of the time it is oil drain/return restriction, venting, or a return pump issue. Or in extremely rare cases a stock oil pressure relief valve fails and and puts 90 psi into the turbo instead of 30. Ask me how I know

so what would cause the insane amount of smoke under the hood and what is causing all the excessive heat that is melting components like the intercooler fan. I seriously have every vent know to mankind as well as the fan to move the hot air?

 

[b1dodge]

Were the blankets new? First ride on them? The blankets will smoke (a lot) for the first few miles. Last week I had a customer come in with the same problem. He had just changed his oil and had overfilled the dry sump tank. He was running up a flat road and it started to smoke with oil coming out the exhaust. I removed about a half a quart ...problem solved. If its over full, even tipping the sled on its side can fill the crank breather tube full causing the same issue. Just a thought.

 

[tool_man]

I had my ccv freeze up as well on my Nytro coming back from Revy, blew the oil return line (spring type clamps) off on front of engine. Too much condensation in the line, and they can freeze easy.

 

[s2h]

8th ride with the turbo and header blankets. They did smoke and stink a little on the first ride out but nothing like a full on total sled engulfed in smoke. I will try to check the crank case vent. I did look to see if the LED on the ROVCM was flashing indicating the vent was closed but it was off. Is there any other way to check the ROV for proper operation?

What about the melted components? I know it gets hot in there but with all the blankets and header wrapped exhaust I didn't think I would be melting the cooling fan. A few more rides like the one I just had and the entire EVO fan will be a black puddle of plastic in the belly pan.

 

[Evolution Powersports]

8th ride with the turbo and header blankets. They did smoke and stink a little on the first ride out but nothing like a full on total sled engulfed in smoke. I will try to check the crank case vent. I did look to see if the LED on the ROVCM was flashing indicating the vent was closed but it was off. Is there any other way to check the ROV for proper operation?

What about the melted components? I know it gets hot in there but with all the blankets and header wrapped exhaust I didn't think I would be melting the cooling fan. A few more rides like the one I just had and the entire EVO fan will be a black puddle of plastic in the belly pan.

Like I said, call us if we can help.

Jim

 

[s2h]

I'm not blaming any of my EVO parts for the issues I am having I just was hoping someone might have some insight to protect my investment from melting a bunch of my expensive parts due to the excess heat. I have 7 rides and nearly 500 miles with my new EVO stuff with nothing but a smile on my face. Just can't figure out where the excess heat is coming from. The only thing I did different for my last ride was add a XXX modrods intercooler vent and remove the louvers. The vent was not covered with any snow or ice so it should have allowed for all the fresh air necessary to flow in.

 

[JustBoostIt]

Check to see if you are missing any bolts, or they are loose, and have an exhaust leak on the up-pipe connection to turbo. I've seen some loosen off and blow the gasket out and oil follows. Something has changed to have the fan melting. Not as much air thru the vents vs open stock?

 

[JustBoostIt]

Not that it has to do with the heat issue but are we sure you don't have a split coolant tank? They can make a pile of smoke if it is pissing out on the motor. If you had a oil leak you would almost certainly have a fire.

 

[logchain]

Sounds about like the same problam I had. Mine had blow by, blowing oil out the small hose into the air filter smoke came out from under the hood and out the exhaust. took it back to the dealer did comp. check 120 lbs and 50 lbs. They pulled the head, it had a scar at the top of both cyl. about half the size of a dime. The head, head gasket and the top of the pistons all looked fine. Looked to me like the nickaseal had pealed. Cat wanted the ecu to see if it had been reprogramed.they said the ecu was all stock but that it had a boost spike of 27 lbs for 2-3 sec. After they got the pitchers of the damage and one month latter they told the dealer to put in a new 4,000.00 long block.Also the cat rep. told the dealer the boost should never go above 10.8 lbs. I got the sled back sat. and road sunday I installed a boost gauge never pulled the trigger more than half throttle and seen boost as much as 19 lbs so I still have a problam or the rep is full of cat crap. Hope your problam is a simple fix good luck.

 

[Turbo11T]

Sounds about like the same problam I had. Mine had blow by, blowing oil out the small hose into the air filter smoke came out from under the hood and out the exhaust. took it back to the dealer did comp. check 120 lbs and 50 lbs. They pulled the head, it had a scar at the top of both cyl. about half the size of a dime. The head, head gasket and the top of the pistons all looked fine. Looked to me like the nickaseal had pealed. Cat wanted the ecu to see if it had been reprogramed.they said the ecu was all stock but that it had a boost spike of 27 lbs for 2-3 sec. After they got the pitchers of the damage and one month latter they told the dealer to put in a new 4,000.00 long block.Also the cat rep. told the dealer the boost should never go above 10.8 lbs. I got the sled back sat. and road sunday I installed a boost gauge never pulled the trigger more than half throttle and seen boost as much as 19 lbs so I still have a problam or the rep is full of cat crap. Hope your problam is a simple fix good luck.

I would hope your dealer would have checked it but it sounds like your wastegate is not opening. This could be from a line not being on the wastegate actuator or the wastegate is stuck. I would take it back and demand they fix it.

 

[s2h]

Thanks for all the insight. I will let you guys know once it is figured out. hopefully by the end of today I will have the diagnosis. Then its just getting the parts and getting it back together in the next 10 days. shouldn't be a problem as long as the parts aren't on back order.

Thanks again,

S2H

 

[BADACR]

I have a similar setup on my '12, and have had two similar issues that resulted in fires both times.
I have found both times, the crankcase vent lines plastic elbow that goes into the cold air stack (through the hood like yours) was plugged solid with ice.
This caused crankcase pressure, pushed oil through and it just happened that the up-pipe bolts were loose enough for the oil to push out past the gaskeet and catch fire. Exact same thing both times. Clear ice out of elbow, fire sled up and she's 100%.
I'm going to try removing that plastic 90* elbow, and put a straight fitting into the cold air intake to see if it prevents icing closed again.
If your sled has been sitting in a heated shop since the incident, it will be harder to test, but if you pull that vent hose (coming from the coolant tank, over the top of the engine and directly into your cold air intake), check for ice, and if you don't see any check that you can blow into the hose.
If you have a rollover kit, also check that it isn't stuck in the closed position.

 

[MTN_VIPER]

When checking the roll-over valve on custom installations, make sure that the 90 degree fitting is connected to the hose that is routed down to the engine.
The valve will flow both directions, but is directional and it is critical that it is installed in the correct direction. This allows the saftey "pop-off" feature to function corrrectly and when installed correctly the valve cannot stick closed.

Below is a pic of a correctly installed valve with the 90 degree fitting connected to the hose.

 

[s2h]

I have a similar setup on my '12, and have had two similar issues that resulted in fires both times.
I have found both times, the crankcase vent lines plastic elbow that goes into the cold air stack (through the hood like yours) was plugged solid with ice.
This caused crankcase pressure, pushed oil through and it just happened that the up-pipe bolts were loose enough for the oil to push out past the gaskeet and catch fire. Exact same thing both times. Clear ice out of elbow, fire sled up and she's 100%.
I'm going to try removing that plastic 90* elbow, and put a straight fitting into the cold air intake to see if it prevents icing closed again.
If your sled has been sitting in a heated shop since the incident, it will be harder to test, but if you pull that vent hose (coming from the coolant tank, over the top of the engine and directly into your cold air intake), check for ice, and if you don't see any check that you can blow into the hose.
If you have a rollover kit, also check that it isn't stuck in the closed position.

This sounds reasonable as it was left in the shop for 24 hours before I got to looking at it and now it won't smoke again even after a 15 minute ride. I will look in to this more. Did you replace the gasket on the flange between the turbo and the up-pipe to prevent more exhaust gasses escaping? Thanks for the insight.

S2H

 

[JustBoostIt]

He did, but he had to as there was a piece missing of the gasket from a bolt being completely gone and the exhaust blew it out.

 

[BADACR]

This sounds reasonable as it was left in the shop for 24 hours before I got to looking at it and now it won't smoke again even after a 15 minute ride. I will look in to this more. Did you replace the gasket on the flange between the turbo and the up-pipe to prevent more exhaust gasses escaping? Thanks for the insight.

S2H

Yes, new up-pipe gasket after the first incident. Torqued the heck out of all hardware. Took sled to Vale, and it happend again. Bolts were all loose. I have found that all exhaust hardware (stricly when using the new MBRP provided bolts in the up-pipe and straight pipe) has to be initially torqued, and then run the engine good and hot, then torque a second time while everything is red hot. No diffeent than the ole '86 camaro header bolts...