I have been cruising the "For Sale" listings for quite a while. I noticed some pics of motors that had very dark exhaust plumbing. Some had a darkness around the joints in the pipe. Most were an even bright orange rust color from the manifold to the turbo compressor inlet. Am I wrong in my conclusion that the darkness is due to oil and the ones that are dark at the joints are pushing oil out the exhaust? I was going to ask BK in a PM but then I thought the board might be better to all.
Thanks,
John
Maybe. Wouldn't read too much into the looks of the exhaust. Could just be leaks in the exhaust. They'll soot up anywhere that has a leak.
If the engine is pumping oil or fuel, leaks in pipe will be wet. If the dark places are dry, my 'educated guess' would be that it's just soot.
If the engine smokes blue smoke when running at normal operating temps, it's burning oil.
If the exhaust is clean after 1 minute or so of running, it probably isn't burning enough oil to be an issue.
JR