thick white smoke from exhaust, any ideas what's up?

[Adrian]

yeah my best bet being oil in the cylinder as said previolusly do a compression test to check leak in the cylinder either via rings, HG etc. check all gaskets that seal oil, replace oil, replace sparkplugs, check coolant to c if its milky, its basicly all bin said lol good luk.

[celicapain]

A thought!! A common cause of dense white smoke from the exhaust system is 1- TA faulty brake booster if fitted allowing back sucking brake fluid into the exhaust system or 2-the PCB valve allowing a bypass of the EMC and flowing a fat mix of lean oil into the exhaust system. Check both levels!

[o_man_ra23]

celicapain... the PCV (PCB is a Printed Circuit Board, gotta get your TLAs right ) flows into the intake, usually before the throttle, not the exhaust (exhaust gasses in your oil system will cause it to pressurise and kill a motor before you can say WTF!!)

A faulty brake booster would require a faulty brake master cyl also to flow fluid into the intake... I have never heard of it happening in all the years working on cars, including at wrecking yards where every fault you can think of will show up on a tow truck.

Still saying your first thing to do after checking for milk is pull the plugs, they will be your best indicator as to whether the foreign combustible is getting in before or after the exhaust valves.

Cheers, Owen

[TooF]

A faulty brake booster would require a faulty brake master cyl also to flow fluid into the intake... I have never heard of it happening in all the years working on cars, including at wrecking yards where every fault you can think of will show up on a tow truck.

ive seen a car do this. the brake booster/master cyl gave up and was letting fluid to be sucked into the engine. took ages to realise where the fluid was going... was checking for leaks everywhere.

[o_man_ra23]

Still remains, there was no mention of a lack of brake fluid. Also, the likelyhood of both items giving way at the same time (both are independantly sealed) is extremely low, so

A common cause of dense white smoke from the exhaust system is 1- TA faulty brake booster if fitted allowing back sucking brake fluid into the exhaust system

really isnt all that common. This is actually the first I have heard of a case of it happening... and Ive never seen a car do it (worked on commos and foulcans... the most popular cars for gremlins to inhabit)

Cheers, Owen

[TooF]

oh yeah i agree with you 100% given this case its most probaly BHG putting water into the combustion chamber. i had a hairline crack in a HG on an old honda i had. it would drive *ok* but when left for a bit it would seep water into the cyl so when you started it up youd get this huge plume of steam pouring from the tail pipe.

[mikie_121]

Cheers for all the replies, but i pulled out plugs and cranked engine and water shot out of cylinders 3 and 4, so definitely BHG. Oil is fine and clear, only water is low, but it's still nice and green. So no oil in water. Not that it helps coz it still needs work.
I can't be stuffed doing it myself, so I'll get the head recond this week.

I like the idea of sucking brake fluid into the intake, it's so unlikely to happen but it would give any mechanic a real headache.

Well, now I know for next time: Thick white smoke from exhaust is burning coolant.

Cheers guys

PS, how do I up my rep points? I have a whole wrecked celica plus bits to sell and i can't advertise it yet.

[o_man_ra23]

First... you better take away the comment about rep before the Mods do. You up your rep by making a valuable contribution to the Toymods community. I think you have here by stirring up a lot of thoughts about what the possibilities could be from the symptoms you mentioned.

Second.. bummer about the BHG, but the reason why you dont have the traditional signs is that you dont have oil and water interacting. Just have water going into the combustion chamber and out the exhaust... no oil there at all. My solution would be to take the hydraulic tappets from the BHG motor, put them into the rattly motor, and then bob's ya uncle and your back on the road without further great expenses.

Cheers, Owen

[mikie_121]

I have cross to the dark side and taken my car to an engine rebuilder. I just don't have time to do it myself. They ripped the head off and found that whoever had put the gasket on did it with their eyes shut. Two of the cylinder holes in the gasket were stretched so much that they extended past the water holes. It must have been holding on with almost nothing until it finally blew. I guess having it sitting for 14 months just made the gasket a little soft and allowed it to move that tiny bit more when i ran it.
Anyway I'm getting rings, bearings, recon head while its apart. Quoted at $1200, so now i just gotta wait.
Thanks for all the great suggestions.
Mikie

[allencr]

I guess having it sitting for 14 months just made the gasket a little soft and allowed it to move that tiny bit more when i ran it.

No, poor guess - except for possibly a little more corrosion, that had nothing at all to do with it!!

[mikie_121]

Yeah, I suppose you're right. Head gaskets wouldn't be affected by water. It's just wierd that the guy i got it from had been driving it for more than a year before he crashed it and i ran it for 15 mins and it blew. That is of course if he was telling the truth, but i didn't have any reason to suspect a lie.

Anyway, problem has been solvered with a rebuild.

[o_man_ra23]

$1200 for a head reco, rings and bearings doesnt sound bad... just make sure they hone the bores and linish the crank. Head gaskets stretching does sound far fetched, as they have a metal fire ring around the bores.

Cheers, Owen