Smoke/Steam out of exhaust? Normal?

[nat225]

i also see some smoke from the exhaust during WOT... somehow prefer it to spit fire, popping and crackling instead.

anyone know how to get the GTI to spit fire?

[pologti18t]

A lot of the smoke under hard acceleration on turbo car is the fact that the ECU runs the engine rich at WOT.

[Corey_R]

anyone know how to get the GTI to spit fire?

Remove your cat, and start going through the upgrade stages.

Fab_R has said that people following him has said his car has shot flames outta his exhaust pipe - he has the full APR Golf R TBE with its motorsports cat...

[nat225]

Remove your cat, and start going through the upgrade stages.

Fab_R has said that people following him has said his car has shot flames outta his exhaust pipe - he has the full APR Golf R TBE with its motorsports cat...

I'm running on APR downpipe (100cell cat) and Akra cat back + Bluefin State 2... i may need to get a friend to follow behind me to check then..:p

or stick a marsmallow at the back and see it it gets burnt..

[darkfriend]

A lot of the smoke under hard acceleration on turbo car is the fact that the ECU runs the engine rich at WOT.

What is WOT? (Not trying to be funny... I just don't know).

[nat225]

wide open throttle... basically flooring your accelerator.

[Corey_R]

hehe, yeah, the more PC version of WFO

[darkfriend]

hehe, yeah, the more PC version of WFO

I think I can work that one out!

[Corey_R]

Legendary New Jersey thrash-metalists Overkill have an album titled W.F.O. and it features a song called Fast Junkie. Whilst the MTV video lyrics don't feature the WFO term of the album version for obvious reasons, it's all about racing

[AdamD]

A lot of the smoke under hard acceleration on turbo car is the fact that the ECU runs the engine rich at WOT.

Precisely. I think this is what the OP is seeing.

Guys, most engines are tuned conservatively from the factory. Under heavy loads at high revs, the ECU can mix additional fuel into the mixture to reduce the combustion temperatures inside the cylinders (more fuel in the mix = a cooler burn). This mixture may make the engine perform less well than a leaner mixture (a lower fuel/air ratio), but at least it can prevent detonation and piston/cylinder damage that may occur should the motor run too lean at high RPM or under high loads.

So, the upshot is - give the car a good hard rev and it's not unusual to see a bit of black smoke/soot, or sometimes the appearance of vapour/steam from the exhaust (depending on the air and exhaust temps). If the car is blowing smoke or heavy vapour under normal operating conditions, however, you may have a problem.