Wizard Posted April 29, 2010 Report Share Posted April 29, 2010 Last week my car started blowing white smoke out the tailpipe massivley. It started eating water out of the radiator when it gets to normal operating temp. The temp will rise to near top of temp gage if you drive it for quite some time It seems to have good power yet and I just rebuilt this motor and it started this at 3750 miles on it. I checked compression in cyl 1,3, and 4 and they all have 135lbs in them. Ran out of time to check #2 last night but going to do that. Just wondering if there is any sure way to tell if it is a headgasket that blew or gasket from somewhere else like throttle body that is allowing water into cylinders? I drained the oil last night and it did have hardly any noticable white apperance to it. Thanks, Wizard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apedog Posted April 29, 2010 Report Share Posted April 29, 2010 Idk man thats what mine did and eventually I found out it was a headgasket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indiana Posted April 29, 2010 Report Share Posted April 29, 2010 Spark plugs should show you which were burning coolant. throttlebody leaks go into all cylinders, intake flange gaskets don't go into #2 but will on each end depending on which is leaking, and a cracked head could be any cylinder, the headgasket could be any of them and it might not show up with a compression check. Does it sound like its missing? Did you get all the old gasket off the block and the head? Did you use that black colored metal Ajusa gasket by chance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted April 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2010 No, motor is running strong. Althought it just started this white smoking last week and I only ran it about 4 hrs like that. Yes, old gasket was completely removed from head and block last time during rebuild. What color would the spark plugs look like if they are burning coolant? It only blows white smoke when it's at normal temptrature or near it. Wizard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indiana Posted April 30, 2010 Report Share Posted April 30, 2010 That sounds like how a crack in a head begins to let the coolant in. Had one like that one time, after it gets hot the crack opens enough to let the coolant in and the amount it lets in is much greater after the crack expands and the rpms go up. The plug usually looks clean while the rest might have some black on them. You can also pull the spark plugs out and get that cylinder you are looking at up near the top so you can see the piston dish, get an led light on a stick and look in there and see if one piston looks different on top from the rest, the coolant just steam cleans the entire combustion chamber and when there is just a little coolant coming in the motor will still run smooth. There is another reason for this to happen and its happened to me and the first time it did happen I pulled the head back off too but that's not what the problem was. When the motor was out the engine bay pressure washed and water got into the exhaust system, after the engine was hot or should I say the exhaust system, that soapy water was blowing out white smoke and it sort of smelled from the soap and it looked just like burning coolant but it was nothing to worry about, if you did that or someone did then that might be why its smoking. Takes half hour or so for it to burn out if there was just a little in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted April 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2010 No, didn't pressure wash the engine bay or nothing so it's got to be a crack in the head or another blown head gasket. Going to check the tops of pistons when I have time next week and see what they look like. Thanks, Wizard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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