Help, my radiator hose blew up and it soaked my airfliter, and got water in my carbuerator and now my engine is stalling, and white smoke is blowing out everywhere, what can I do to get my car running right? Please help

 

dac,

A clean air filter element and washed air cleaner housing should get you running. You should be able to safely run the engine under no load (idle to high idle) until it is warmed and no more excessive water vapor spews out the exhaust.

As a precaution you should consider changing the oil and filter before you drive under load. The oil/water emulsification will not lubricate as well as clean engine oil and should be dumped while warm to eliminate as much water and ethylene glycol as possible. The ethyl alcohol in antifreeze can leach some of the tin and lead out of the bearing shells if allowed to remain for too long. Newer engines with cadmium in place of the lead and copper are more resistant to this effect, so if you are talking about a '96 or newer, the risk isn't as great, but I'd still advise dumping the oil/water mix for lubrication value alone.

Later,
Vader

------------------
"Some Body...Someone"

 

thanks Vader, yeah I cleaned out the air fliter element, and ran the engine without the fliter and sprayed some carb cleaner to get it started again, but I have to keep aload on it to keep it going cause it dies out, I think something broke really bad when the hose exploded. The antifreeze is leaking out somewhere, cause the massive cloud of white smoke, I ran it for about ten min and it just got worse.I have to try to locate it tomorrow, cause its to dark right now. Well thanks vader for the fast response, I appreciate it.

 

dac,

If you're still getting coolant smoke after ten minutes of running you probably didn't just blow a hose and wet the filter. You likely injested a lot of coolant in the engine and wet down some cylinders pretty well. I'd suggest an oil/filter change and a new set of spark plugs before you restart. While the plugs are all out, crank the engine over for several revolutions to expel as much water as you can.

If you're lucky, you didn't cause a hydraulic condition in a cylinder(s) and damage a piston or two. If you're not so lucky...

Later,
Vader

------------------
"Some Body...Someone"

 

Da,

It's beginning to sound like a blown head gasket to me, which would also explain the blown hose to begin with.

a blown head gasket can, and often times will, pump compression from a cylinder directly into the cooling system. That pressure blows the radiator hose. Then, after hose repair, you find that the same cylinder pressure is now routing itself into the cooling system, where it looks for the path of least resistance to equalize.

That is many times an adjacent cylinder to where the head gasket blew. You wind up with coolant being pumped into a cylinder, and this causes the cloud of white smoke out the exhaust.

I believe a temporary leak would have stopped in less time than 10 minutes. Also, the cooling system is isolated from the cylinders by head gaskets, so one of two things is indicated:

1) Blown head gasket
2) Cracked block

Try a leakdown test to confirm. Good luck.

BOR

 

To add to BOR's idea:

Intake gaskets often blow, they have water in them at the corners. They can leak water into the runners, water into the oil, oil into the runners, and oil into the coolant. If your motor overheated and white smoke is coming out somewhere, then there's definitely a problem. If it's coming out the exhaust after the car's fully warmed up then you have some one of the problems that BOR and I have mentioned.

You might also want to take it to the car wash and clean up the mess as much as possible. It's alot easier to spot leaks on a clean engine. Get a couple of cans of engine degreaser (diesel fuel in a spray can), drive to the car wash, let it cool down a bit, soak the motor with it, wait a few minutes, soak it again, and blast the motor off. Even if you have to tear it apart, it's a whole lot less of a PITA to work on a clean motor than a groaty one.

------------------
"So many Mustangs, so little time..."

 

Thanks guys. I didn't think about it being the head gasket before, but now that you mention it, you're probably right. Is there anything else that I should check, in case it is the head gasket that's blown? I want to make sure that if I fix this, it won't happen again. Thanks again you guys.

-dacuma