re. Blue smoke on startup...

[Ben Swann]

Steve,

If it is using less than a quart every 1000 miles, you probably want to
leave well enough alone.

What is your viscosity?  A higher viscosity oil or range like 20W50 may
lesson the oil use.

This could be your Turbo bearing/seal starting to let some oil by - not
necessarily a death blow, but more of an annoyance.  Usually the puffosmoke
on startup is indicative of this and can be consider somewhat normal for an
aging turbo.

Even if the problem is getting worse, you probably want to defer the seals
and headwork until you have to do some more major work, or combine jobs.
 That is what I did - rolled head work including seals, lifters, higher
perf. cam, mild portage, exhaust manifold replacement, timing belt and
water pump, plus a bunch of other stuff all into one job.  One BIG job!

Ben

'87 5000 tqa - Engine rebuilt and running...Elgin 270i260e cam, lifters
techtonics springs, new rings and bearings, seals.  T03/K26 hybrid turbo,
2-Piece Exhaust manifold, highflow cat and 2.5" Stebro exhaust.  Bypass
valve  and supplimentary fuel injector installed in intercooler. 200
Flywheel, Clutch and Pressure plate.  Using existing QLCC chip & Shrapnel
Knob for control.  034EFI hookup in near future.


[When starting from stone cold, my 5ktq is giving the dreaded quick puff o'
blue, leading me to believe the valve stem seals are shot.  Noted the
slight
use of oil where the car has never consumed any in the past, the car has
had
Mobil 1 since 92K, now has 158K so I suspect it's time.  No other problems
other than slightly noisy lifters on cylinder number one.

At this mileage, should I:

1.  Just do the seals and let sleeping dogs lie or

2.  Yank the head and inspect/rework/rebuild the head to be on the safe
side
or

3.  Replace it with a rebuilt head with the nod toward my goal of getting
300K out of the car.

If the consensus is number 3, which rebuilder does the best job w/quality
parts?  I know Phil says the Audi rebuilts look to be new ones from the
dealer, but my local dealer is Jim Ellis Audi who is required to sue me if
I
say anything at all about them so I won't be using them (Jim, we keep
waiting for that 'lost the francise sale', let us know, willya?).

Many thanks, and happy Easter to everyone.

-Steve Jensen
87 5kcstq]