So I was driving home from school today in my 88 camaro with a ls1/t56. And after I go into my neiborhood I "gun it" and after I let off there was a good sized cloud of white smoke behind me. Wasn't thick however it was very noticable. I installed a zex nitrous kit (75 shot) the other and sprayed twice only on a third gear pull though. Im not sure my plugs are designed for nos use and I doubt they are. I checked the oil when I got home and it seems fine, goldish color. Never had any problems with this engine so far. Any ideas feel free to chime in.

 

how's your coolant level?

 

Coolant is normal and so is/was oil pressure. I little low but its always been like that

 

I once had a car with the same problem. White smoke behind me all the time. Turns out my problem was insufficient traction.

 

lol

 

sounds like a problem I'm about to become very familiar with.

 

White smoke is not good, do a sniff test on the Antifreeze to check it for carbon in the coolant, just to be safe...

 

Hahaha I knew this was going to pop up. I told a rustang buddy this may have been my problem and he looked at me like I was crazy.

Anyways im going to guess it was nothing and if they problem pops back up then its time to look into a 6.0

 

a clutch will smoke white, i've also seen a rearend smoke white after it went out(doubt this is the case, you would know, as your car would smell terrible). keep an eye on it. how's your tune?....like qwktrip said, when i stab my throttle like that, its generally my tires coating the pavement.

 

I don't think it was the rear.. it went away after that little punch. And the clutch is a centerforce dual friction which is new with the engine and trans combo. I've smelled the clutch burning before but that was when I went up my driveway in fifth lol. Tune is untouched stock tune. I revved it up a bit last night and saw nothing so I went to smell my exhaust and didn't smell much til I put my face almost up to the pipe and it burned my eyes, which is probably normal.

 

Ookay so it happened again today and I actually paid attention to it. Smoke was white for sure no hint of blue I saw. It also happened after wot and when the rpms are coming back down. I went home and check the oil which looks fine, still goldenish from the last oil change and the antifreeze was a little dirty in the bottle so I think I may need to change that soon. It also happened with the cutout open. would this be normal for a car a little higher mileage with no cats? I feel like it would be. If someone could chime in on this it would be greatfully appreciated

 

generally you will get more of a bluish smoke from rings that are letting oil by.....but that could be the cause of your smoke.

 

So normally my situation is the rings going? And what would be the cause of it? No cats running into a cutout?

 

doesn't have anything to do with your exhaust...just a worn engine, happens over time. there are some other factors that can speed up the process, but with it being a higher mileage engine, chances are they are just worn.

 

I see. So any idea on how much longer it'll last? Im guessing a rebuild would be needed in the near future

 

nope, that's up to you. if its not smoking all the time, not a huge problem. but, its not going to get better.

 

Again do a carbon sniff test on the antiufreeze, could be a head gasket seeping, one thing is for sure, it will only get worse...

 

It smokes at idle I notice kinda like when its cold outside and its the exhaust. However it does it still when it warms up to when its cold. Bad sign im guessing? Its strange as I don't recall this happening since I've installed the zex wet kit. Guessing that's what sped this process up?

 

I actually did smell the antifreeze earlier.. it smelled normal to me. Maybe I didn't get a good enough wiff. I smelled it at the overflow tank if it makes a difference

 

this could be your culprit. laughing gas can destroy and engine pretty quick if things are right when using it.

 

Okay so today I got the oil changed and it was very.. watery. However no indication of antifreeze in the oil. Antifreeze also looks fine. I looked around ls1tech a bit today and found that the valve seals can wear out and cause this? Any truth to it?

 

finally had some time today and was kinda curious on the plugs since i never changed them before i sprayed.(i know) they are some a/c delco plugs i put in when we swapped in the engine. i only did the drivers side #1 and #5. i was going to do the otherside but its pretty crowded with the wiring and what not.
#1

#5 looks worse as the tip has already worn away. ill order some new colder plugs soon

also out of curiousity, what is this plug? it looks like it should clip on but theres nothing to clip it to? if it makes sense. its barely pushed on there.

 

Sounds to me like it's valve seals or head gaskets since it's blowing white smoke and not blue. And wow, that's a serious gap on those plugs. If it were me, I'd remove the nitrous and get the car over to a trustworthy mechanic to have them figure out what exactly the problem is. You're definitely going to need a new set of plugs though. Good luck.

 

i know i need some plugs soon. im also guessing #7 is worse then #5 since #1 looks halfway decent and it got worst as i went farther back. i think its the valve seals. im about to go out right now and do the air bubble test. the more i read about it the more im wanna know what it is.

edit: i did it and i *think* i did it wrong. i got a funnel and put it where the radiator cap goes snugged it up best i could. started it and let it run and put water in the funnel. the water got taken in and i kept putting water in and it kept being "soaked" in. i didnt see any bubbles while it was going down but as i said im not sure if i did it right.

 

heres a video to. tried to get the sound of the new valve train noise (i know its common and not normally anything to worry about, but since it is new...) and the exhaust. it shows the car is pretty much warmed up to still shooting out white smoke.

 

Bro if thats warm you have a blown head gasket... worn valve guides wont make white smoke... DO THE RADIATOR TEST AS PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED. The new noise is most likely from the water in the oil, if you didnt change it its probably eating up your bearings.

 

If your asking what sensor that is its the coolant sensor... Whats all that copper looking stuff on the side of your head?

 

I did the radiator test. Check the edit in post #24 on this page, I just need to know if I did it right. And that's warm not hot. Hot its normal temp. Which is a hair under 210? Whichever number is in the middle temp. gauge for the fourth gen dash.
also its not a copper residue, its weird I just noticed how that looked to in that pics. Ill have to check it out tomorrow

 

http://youtu.be/CCPMW84_zAc N.O.S raises compression on cylinders dont continue to use it on this motor. What was the liquid in the oil?

 

Not sure what you mean by what liquid was in the oil? None as far I was concerned. It was time to change the oil and I did. I even asked my dad if he sae antifreeze in the oil and he said there was none as there would be white stuff milked in. Kinda like choco milk. It was real black and watery which means it was overdue for a change. Oil is castrol gts.
That is a really neat test...
where did he do that at? And what kinda of kit is it?

 

Been looking into this problem a bit more.
I read up on ls1tech that a blown head gasket will use a very noticable amount of antifreeze and have a misty exhaust which I do, but I haven't used any antifreeze.
have been noticing the smoke more and more though.
im going to do a leakdown test this weekend and check it out. Also read up the pvc system causes problems with oil getting into the intake which ill check out when I do the leakdown. In the meantime I changed the plugs on the drivers side and found this interesting...

(Sorry if its huge, haven't resized yet) but plus 1,3,7 all look new and 5 doesn't even have the tip?
Couldn't get to the passenger side plugs yet as I have my heating lines in the way. Will redo themthis weekend and change the plugs at the same time

 

as someone else said, have you checked the gap on the plugs? that looks like an hellacious gap. how is the idle of the car?

 

Idles normal. Tomorrow im changing the other side plugs and redoing the heating lines I have their since their what's in my way. Also the leakdown test is tomorrow. So ill post up #s for that.
certainly been smoking more and im also pretty sure it has a blueish tint to. So oil is getting in some where.
1.as mentioned the rings could be going.
2. Valve seals could be worn.
3. Possibly the pvc or emissions is leaking oil through the top of the intake hose.
For 3, I did take the hose off and used a earswab and it was coated in black crap.
Leakdown test is tomorrow and im going to pay attention to cylinder 5 as it looks corroded while all the others look fine(the ones I've checked at least)

 

Yeah man this just sounds like the poor girl is two shots of nitrous closer to the grave, nos is hard on everything if the build wasn't set up for it, my bet is that the poor stock motor running 2 75 shots took 25k miles of hard driving off the motor, ide look for a swap personally but maybe a rebuild would be better for you. good luck.

 

nitrous just isnt good for your engine..thers your problem

 

I didn't think a 75 shot would hit it that hard that's why I started so low. ****, besides the somewhat noticable smoking under hard acceleration, there's been no hiccups at all. Runs fine, oils good, oil pressure, temp. is normal, everything seems to be in decent shape. And im looking already before even knowing if I need to be concerned haha. Like I said earlier, im going to try to find a used 6.0 in decent shape and transfer it all over. Maybe get a decent cam in it and port the heads

 

this is probably pointless lol, but how are your injectors cuz i was throwing lots of smoke about a year ago too, i changed all 8 injectors and it hasnt done it since.. never know.

 

Doubt its the injectors. Only happens during spirited driving. And it seems to happen more when I wont hot rod around and then gun it. After that it doesn't seem to do it for a bit.
I did a leak down on 1,3,5,7.

dry:155, 160, 155, 160
wet:185, 185, 220? Redid it and it came to 185 when I did it instead of brother, 185

seems extremely consistant at least on the drivers side.
passenger side will be tomorrow as Im still waiting on some hose to redo my heating lines which are in the way. Doubled check oil today and I haven't really lost any in 500-600 miles. And coolant level hasn't moved. So if the passenger side is fine then im stumped

 

Passenger side plugs from 8 to 2. The gaps were .60 when I checked them
Finished the leakdown to. Came out to (from 2 to 8)
dry-wet
160 170
150 185
175 190
160 200
I didn't get to double check these either liike the other side. And we put oil in using a hose instead of the can. #2 we put oil in the actual leakdown hose which is why its low for the wet.