white smoke. funny idle
 

My brother in law is about to buy the car from me. The car ran perfect. I havent turned in on in over a month since i compression tested it. Compression test came up perfect. I start the car today and the idle is pretty high, 2500 and there is quiet a bit of white smoke coming from the exhaust. I let it run a good 10 mins and it kept pouring smoke. I reset the ecu and the idle went back down to under 1k and the smoke stopped. I let it run a good 5 mins then revved it up and the idle went back to 2500 and started the white smoke again. I know white smoke is a sign of a busted head gasket but that doesnt make too much sense since its just been sitting. I checked the oil and it looks fine. Doesnt look milky and the coolant seems to be ok. Think its just condensation from just sitting so long that causing the white smoke? As far as the idle doing what its doing i really dont have any idea.

Smell the white smoke to see if it smells like coolant. I dont think that is the case though.-Shane

Broke

It doesnt smell like coolant. When it does do the white smoke thing the exhaust drips quiet a bit of water out. I checked the spark plugs just now and dont see any sort of green tint to them to suggest a head gasket...just really black from running rich

Valve?

Wouldnt that have shown in the compression test?

you do the compression check before or after it started smoking?

^^^^+1

Is it smoke or steam? Do a leak down test too.

Remove drain plug, open oil fill cap, insert water hose, flush.

DOnt forget the bottle of NOS energy drink to help clean it.

Have you done a compression test since it started smoking? Check the TPS as well.

Don't worry about it, thats just the nordic mist

LOL

+rep

is pcm tuned for your setup?

neighbors brothers car did the same thing. Ended up being a slight crack in the head gasket. oil was leaking by also and getting the plugs a little wet and that was part of it.

After. It was prolly a good three weeks before i started the car when i did the compression test

Checked for codes?

Injector or two stuck open? Are all the electrical plugs in the engine bay secure and connections good? Fuses good? Smell the oil on the dipstick, does it have a strong smell of fuel? Vacuum lines leaking?
Is there excess discharge of water at the tail pipe?

My vote goes to a blown head gasket.

Smell the spark plug of your choice. What does it smell like after the engine has cooled down? Maybe cup your hand around the exhaust outlet and smell the condensation.

Air filter and pcv valve good? Is the filter wet?

If he doesn't want it with a blown head gasket, shoot me a PM with a price. I have someone very interested.

I dont know what motor you have. But I know with the B series motors ive had I did everything I could to blow a head gasket and couldnt.

An injector might be stuck open but i doubt it. Fuses are all good. Oil on the dipstick is perfect and smells like oil. Doesnt appear to be any vacuum leaks. When it smokes water does drip from the exhaust. Spark plugs smell normal. Air filter and pcv are both good. Filter is dry

What was the compression when you tested it? Did you test it cold or warm?

215 on 1 220 2-4. tested it warm

Zing! Rep.

Im starting to think blown head gasket. Coolant went down a bit in the overflow. The oil on the dip stick looks fine but under the oil cap its milky. It started to over heat slightly, let it run a good 30 mins. Trying to find one of these...looks to be a pretty solid way of telling. Anyone know where to find one?

http://c.shld.net/rpx/i/s/pi/mp/4143...4b4fbbaf00f269

I've called a few places but nobody has them in stock. Really dont want to wait a week to have one shipped. Thanks again

All the tell tale signs of a HG. Did you put the head on yourself?

The milky substance you are seeing could be condensation and oil mixing under the valve cover. Even more likely since the car has been sitting.
I've seen it with almost any kind of oil but it seems to be worse with Valvoline VR1.

Nah i bought the engine from hmotors. I did a balance shaft delete. If i fucked up the step in tapping the block for a plug it could be oil burning off but im not losing any oil and im confident i did a good job doing it

Yeah i've had it happen before a long time ago. It went away after a few minutes of idling. I wiped the cap clean yesterday and its back to being milky. I cant imagine there is that much condensation in the engine for the amount of smoke that is being dumped out

Another small finding. Pulled the sparks plugs again to look at them. Cyl 3 there was a small amount of white powder like stuff. This could be coolant correct? The other three were just black

cocaine in number 3. Chop it up and snort it. Start it up and no more cocaine smoke

i did. nothing happened

Scrap is 13 cents a lb. Best I can do

try pressurizing the radiator and see if the level of coolant changes

Worse than this?

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...o/DSC_0478.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...o/DSC_0473.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...o/DSC_0474.jpg

Drop an LS1 in it. Problem solved.

Oil cap sortaish. Valve cover no idea. If this white substance on the spark plug is from the coolant it looks like its just in cylinder 3 and hasnt blown open to do that much milking yet

Edit: Just read this. Idk how true this is. But it said if one or more of the spark plugs looks cleaner than the rest that could be the cylinder thats blown. Cylinders 2 and 4 looked pretty normal. Cylinder three had some white powder on the bottom and cylinder 1 looked much cleaner than the rest. Not sure what to think about that?

Double edit: Cylinder 1 is the cylinder that compression tested slightly lower than 2-4 which showed a perfect 220 psi. Cylinder 1 spark plug looked exactly like cylinders 2-4

Block tester available from NAPA pt # BK 700-1006. Have had some success useing it. Also have hooked cyl leakdown tester to suspect cyl and look for bubbles in coolant, check engine when cold and hot.........

Yes...I hate those bubbles! :roll:

Here is my blown head gasket exhaust...
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...h_MVI_0039.jpg

And my blown head gasket bubbles...:roll:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...h_MVI_0033.jpg

Pull the radiator cap and listen. You might have a fish tank in there (similar to what Shane's ride did ).

Well all of that is just condensation from sitting.