Heavy white smoke from both exhausts

J

jrehner

Experienced Member
Joined
6 June 2003
Messages
380
Location
Phoenix, AZ
after a very short trip to library and about when I was going to turn into my driveway. Less than a mile both ways. I turned off engine and opened up front hood and engine compartment and nothing seen. Like a chew chew train coming from both exhausts. The smoke did not smell sweet. I checked the oil and it was clear. No engine light came on. I have been having off & on acceleration hesitation and intermittent bad idle which comes & goes. I have begun to drive more in the last week 40miles per day whereas before I drove very little. I have been having coolant mysteriously disappear also but Mark Basch said nothing showed on leak test and replaced the coolant tank cap (but water seems to still go bye bye much faster now that I am driving further). Also, the engine did not overheat. The fuel injectors were recently taken out and professionally cleaned in prior attempt on the hesitation issues.

After the engine cooled down, I went back out and turned on again and there was a little smoke coming from both exhausts but nothing major as before. I have not taken it down the road yet to see if the same problem results after complete warm-up again (although the engine would still have been pretty warm on the start-up again)..

I checked prior threads but did not see anything specific other than possibility of leaking injector but I was getting the white bad smelling smoke coming out of both exhausts.... Any ideas?


I just went back out to start the car again to drive it down the road to see if the heavy smoke would redevelop and I got heavy clunk sound when engine tried to turn over. I tried again and get nasty clunk and engine does not turn over--this sounds bad--never got any engine light previously and now the engine won't even turn over.
 
Head gasket failure--why is there no water in the oil then? Should the car still not start up especially as this just occurred? Why after short cooldown did car start up with only small amount of smoke--typical of any startup and then less than half hour later--no start at all? I just checke the water level in coolant bottle again and it's way down even though I filled it back up again yesterday and drove less than a mile today. I checked the oil again and instead of being a golden honey color, it is now darker but still no milky look of water???
 
Have you had a pressure test done on the cooling system? Or a rail leak down test? You're saying you were getting the "white bad smelling smoke"--what does that mean? Rich like fuel if not sweet?
 
Head gaskets can fail in several ways, 1 exhaust gasses into cooling system
2 Coolant into Oiling system
3 Coolant into combustion chambers
4 Oil leaking Externally

Sounds like you have a failed Head gasket...go get them fixed.:frown:
 
Back on June 1st I took the car to Mark Basch because of the coolant leak and hesitation problems. It has a slow coolant leak (but maybe it was slow cause I only drove the car 10 or less miles a week). At any rate, Mark said they did a pressure test and he said the water was coming out of the overflow tube and replaced the cap. At that time, the injectors were also taken out and cleaned. This past week, I finally went back to work and had to drive 40 miles each day for 4 days. I had noticed the coolant disappearing before this but thought maybe the coolant level had not been fully topped off previously at the shop. Now I had to put a whole gallon in on Sunday and did not drive the car again until today and that for less than a mile. Maybe there is oil in the coolant rather than water in the oil but I cannot tell because once again the coolant level is down close to the bottom outflow of the tank. I don't know what a rail test is. I am currently waiting on a tow company who will be towing the car back down to Mark.
 
On the smell-it did not smell sweet like coolant and I don't think the smell was fuel like--it was more acrid.. the oil changed color also to more of a burnt look and that occurred while it was sittin in the drive. Immediately after the initial smoke it was normal. The startup with only typical smoke thereafter was of a very short duration. About a half hour later when trying to start again and failing, the oil then had the burnt look instead of the honey yellow...It had the same smell as the exhaust smoke.. The water went down in the coolant tank very quickly this time and it definitely did not come out of the overflow tube which was dry and since I had placed it at a dry spot where any flow could be seen--no water was present or any evidence of water having come from the overflow...
 
I just had an NSX a couple weeks back that was at the dealer for coolant consumption and they couldn't confirm a problem..but 3 days later it was drinking coolant at a rapid rate and I found that the headgasket was failed after a long time running it and checking for combustion gasses in the coolant.
 
Back before June on a prior occasion a compression check had been done which was in the low normal range. I think maybe the whole problem did not come to light more rapidly because I simply did not drive the car that far. Now when I drove 160 plus mile in 4 days, the problem manifested... it's a 93 with over 115k.. apparently a leak or pressure test does not always determine a problem either--the water had to be going somewhere--it was thought to be out the overflow but that obviously was not case. I think the compression test was originally done to rule out a head gasket problem also...
 
Compression tests are not good for finding Headgasket issues, cyl leakdown tests will find them if you can see the air bubbling up in the coolant.

testing for combustion gasses in the cooling system is the best way to find a headgasket failure.
 
Well, it's in Mark's hands now and I will report what the issue turns out to be. Apparently, he will not be able to get to it until next week. Won't be able to check for bubbles since it no longer even turns over--hated that loud clunking sound...
 
Hey Chris --tell Mark not me. He's got it but I am not about to tell him what to do--I told Bob the symptoms and Mark never got on the tel with me. It should be down at the shop but I have not got any confirming call. I had to get tow company to take it down without me cause I had to go give up some urine for a drug test..new job on Monday and now I will have to drive my 3 on the tree van with no AC.. at least it's cool in the mornings now...
 
I call tow outfit and they confirmed delivery and guess what--it's cheaper to tow a car than my 48 FL Harley--that's funny. I had them tow my Harley just a few weeks ago which is close to where Mark's place is....
 
defffently head gasket.
extra fuel would be black smoke not white
white is oil or collant
sorry about the news.
hopefully trying to crank it hasn't cost you more money:confused:
 
Fluid on top of the cylinder could have leaked through a bad head gasket. Pull all plugs to release the hydrolock if that is the problem it will fly out the plug hole when you turn it over. Or I guess Mark will do it:smile: Anyone know the cost of head gasket replacement?
 
smoore said:
defffently head gasket.
extra fuel would be black smoke not white
white is oil or collant
sorry about the news.
hopefully trying to crank it hasn't cost you more money:confused:
Click to expand...
A little extra fuel blows black soot. A lot of extra fuel can blow white billowy smoke. I've seen it (cracked injector)--the smoke was really dense, and unmistakable in smell. Oil usually burns dark blue-black.
 
Daedalus said:
A little extra fuel blows black soot. A lot of extra fuel can blow white billowy smoke. I've seen it (cracked injector)--the smoke was really dense, and unmistakable in smell. Oil usually burns dark blue-black.
Click to expand...

Sorry,
I disagree with just about everything you said

oil/collant is white
fuel is black

end of story.
 
Well, I hope it is a blown head gasket as now I least know why the car has been running ragged since May or so. I don't think it's fuel because the smoke suddenly went away after the 2nd startup and then on 3rd startup just got the bad sounding clunk. At first I thought it could have been the injectors since they had been cleaned recently. Anyone explain why the oil suddenly turned from the golden yellow to a darker burnt looking yellow from the first time I checked it to the last after the clunk?
 
Woody--from reading other threads before I posted mine- I know one doesn't have to pull the engine to make the repairs but apparently it's easier to repair if the engine is pulled..

Hey, what other work would be good to do during the course of this repair? In the other threads someone said the timing belt had to be removed, so I guess I could replace that too. How about the 02 sensors which are difficult to get to?
 

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