PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Blue Smoke From Engine
View Single Post
Old 4th May 2012, 19:30
  #2 (permalink)  
Blink182
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Near the Mountains of Sussex
Posts: 270
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
The oil seals on modern jet engines are "labarinth" type seals which rely on air pressure to counteract the oil pressure. During start up , you can get the oil pressure coming up quite quickly , way before full balancing air pressure across the seals on the bearings.......so some of the oil leaks across and usually this air is vented to the turbine area so this air/oil mixture ends up at the turbine area where it gets burnt with a momentary puff of smoke.......once the core engine is up to speed the air pressure can counteract the oil pressure and so the smoke doesn't happen.
It sometimes is more obvious if the oil level has been over -serviced.
Blink182 is offline