megaracerx

?? anyone know what this is from? it only comes from the tailpipes..


maybe i'm burning oil? that was my 1st thought...

anyway any help in needed...


Oh, btw, the engine is a 301 4bbl.

walterrao

white smoke is water or coolant. maby you have a blown head gasket

megaracerx

i thought white was oil?? can your tell if you have a leaking head gasket just by looking?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Blue = oil.
White = water/coolant.
Black = unburnt fuel.

A shop can do a combustion products test of the cooling system. May be a head gasket, may be a cracked head.

megaracerx

also, my carb is totaly screwed, would that have anything to do with it?


i hope its not a cracked head...

406GTA

I know this sounds like one of those oversimplified solutions, so forgive me if I insult your intelligence.

Here in Minnesota, "white smoke" comes out everyones exhaust when it is cold enough outside. Warm engines and exhaust collect moisture when the car is shut off. When you finally restart the hot exhaust gas reheats that moisture and it comes out the tailpipe. We get a lot of this white smoke when the engine starts, and sometimes it goes away, sometimes it doesn't depending on the humidity and the temperature outside. If you are smoking going down the road and no one else is, it could be a problem.

water leaking in to the combustion chamber be it a cracked head or blown gasket will overheat an engine, even in the dead of winter.

megaracerx

its not that kinda white smoke, it was about 65 degrees, so its not from the cold

kinda wish it was though..

rx7speed

don't know how well this would work for you
but what you might be able to do is WHEN THE CAR IS COLD take the rad cap off the car start it and let it warm up
if you see a lot of bubbling in the coolant and foam or worse yet gyeser like stuff shooting out like a foot high you prolly have a blown head gasket I woudl think
don't know how well this would work on a piston motor but on a rotary it works when the coolant seals go which are just like your head gasket pretty much.
combustion pressure pushes past the seal into the coolin system getting released by none other then your rad cap that isn't there

if anything it should like just like a nice smooth stream though once everything warms up but I wouldn't recomend leaving like this for long after the motor is up to full operating temps

another thing maybe smell the exhuast
thats right put your hand right down there and take a good ol' wiff

sometimes it's hard to see the difference between the blue exhuast and white coolant unless you look at it just right
but by smell coolant has a sweetish smell to it while oil I'm sure you know what it smells like


if nothing else
.....
.....
have you checked your oil level or coolant level in a while?

megaracerx

it doesnt smell "sweetish" at all...more like oil...


this is on a car that hasnt run ina 1 1/2 years....so...maybe it just need a good running?? plus i'm going to rebuild the carb...maybe that will help..

mike316

If it only does it at startup maybe bad valve seals? If its a bad head gasket wouldnt you be running hot?

TVRPAUL

How is you coolent level?? I had a head gasket go and the white smoke is a lot more then what you see when the car is just warming up.

megaracerx

its not just during warm up, its a constant smoke.

my oil level is perfect. havent checked the coolant. i'll check tomorrow

TVRPAUL

Its a lot of white smoke ? even after the car is warmed up well, my friend would say it look like cotton coming out of the pipe..

Paul

tilstad

If you havent ran the car for 1 1/2 year, do you still have the old gas in there? If the tank is not full when you park a car for a long time, condensation will make the gas contain some water in time. Other than this, gas is supposed to have a limited life, and 1 and 1/2 years is way over the limit.

I had a car once who had only been parked for 6 months, but the first thing I needed to do to start driving it again was to have it inspected and smogged. Of course it failed, even though I had done nothing to the engine since the last pass. I drove for two days, filled up with new gas, and then it passed.

I agree with the others on this, white smoke is water or coolant coming into the combustion. The question is only how.

megaracerx

the gas prolly 8-9 years old...because the guy had it before me said it sat for 7 years....but it wanst smoking when i i drove it home... maybe it wasnt 7 year old gas...but still...yea the gas tank was only 1/2 full while it sat

TVRPAUL

That is hard to beleive that the gas was that old and that the car ran, or that the gas was still there after all that time

megaracerx

i'm not sure it was the same gas, but the guy told me it was sitting where it was when i picked it up for 7 years...maybe he added gas.

Kevin84Z28

iTrader: (3)

White "Smoke" can only be coolant or a deteriorating aluminum component such as a valve or piston (catastrophic)