92RS-HeritageEd

iTrader: (2)

The short & sweet... the car smokes from the exhaust, and somewhere near the driver side manifold from a cold start and when I blip the throttle. A bit of history, car always had an overheating problem. Found cooling fan wasn't coming on, it's now wired to a toggle switch. As long as the fan is on, overheating resolved. There car has never lost oil like leaking on the ground. All the info I get says 2 causes for smoke from exhaust, Coolant or Oil.

Cooling System Troubleshooting performed:
- Replaced Radiator (Overheated one season and cracked it)
- Flush & Fill (Improperly done when radiator was replaced)
- Replaced Water Pump / Hoses / Radiator Cap (Due to recently overheating, I forgot to toggle the fan switch on)
- Flush & Fill (Properly done with spill proof funnel kit, heat on, passenger side jacked up)
- After running up to operating temp coolant reaches fill hot, after hours of sitting it drops to just above the fill cold line but never below it.

Oil Circulation Troubleshooting Performed:
- Monitored Oil Level, Remained consistent, No Noticeable loss
- Removed Valve Covers, No clogged drain holes
- Ran Motor Flush through at idle for 5 minutes + Oil / Filter change

Outcome, like Cheech & Chong... we're still smokin

LO3 305 General Health Troubleshooting is unknown to me. I have a compression test kit, but don't really know how to use it. Again, the car doesn't just billow smoke constantly while its running, if you ease on the throttle there's virtually no smoke, but if you blip the throttle as if you "smashed the gas" there'll be visible smoke. How would you approach troubleshooting this? Thanks in advance

ironwill

If it's oil smoke (blue) on acceleration, that usually indicates a piston ring problem. Blue smoke on deceleration usually indicates leaky intake valve seals.

First step in troubleshooting this issue would be a compression test. There are many YT vids demonstrating how to do this. A much more definitive troubleshooting step is a leakdown test, but this requires an air compressor and other special tools but will indicate where a loss of cylinder sealing is occurring.

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

My stem seals are pretty worn. She doesn't smoke on every start, but she does do it occasionally, sometimes fairly spectacularly (or at least it looks that way to me in the rear view mirror). Not using any measurable amount at the dipstick. A common SBC malady. form what I've seen.

And it takes a moment....starts, runs a second or two, then the blue smoke comes wafting out of the pipes.

92RS-HeritageEd

iTrader: (2)

As promised, here's a vid of the first start up today... just look at all that smoke. What color is that to you, White or Blue?

​​​

Komet

Kinda whitish to me. Cup it in your hands and smell it, if it's sweet, it's coolant. If it's water vapor, it'll just smell like exhaust.

92RSv6

It could just be the camera, but it looks white. The fact the surge tank is not low does not mean much. Once the engine has sat over night, open the radiator cap. If your radiator is low you are losing coolant somewhere. From there I would use a collant system preasure test kit. The one at harbor frieght doesn't cost to much, and decent enough to do the job. Pump it up to your radiator caps pressure rating. Then let it sit for 5 or 10 min. If it drops more then 1 PSI Do a physical check to make sure none of your fittings and hoses leak.

If you have no external leaks, you most likely have a bad head gasket. Head gaskets don't always fail catastrophicly. Mine just leaked a little collant into the cylinder at first. Drove like that for a long time without knowing it. Just had to add coolant every so often, but not a large amount. Then one day on the freeway on my way to work my temp would rise everytime I accelerated, and cool down when I let off. I wasn't looking in the mirror and didn't noticed the cloud. Lol my radiator was near empty by the time I got to work. I filled it up after work and eased her home. That weekend I replaced the head gaskets. There was only a very small bad part of the gasket leading from the coolant jacket to the cylinder. Luckily it wasn't worse, and I didn't have to have it towed.

BOth a compression test & coolant pressure is a good starting point.