ahc'monracing

alright guys,
just today I was racing with my friend after work I noticed white smoke coming out of my tail pipe as I down shift to third. I was pretty scared that something was wrong but when I checked as I got home, nothing was wrong. No codes were thrown also. Can anybody tell me what the hell is wrong with my car when I accelerate at high speeds? I really need to know so I can resolve this issue!! Any advice would help a whole bunch.

virginia_dude

Sounds like oil control rings. Valve stem seals tend to be more on decelleration, Rings on acceleration, make certain your not losing coolant too. or have coolant in your oil,

Urban Business

your broke part of your headgasket most likely.
do a compression test.

Urban Business

that would result in black/brown smoke.

virginia_dude

If he is leaking on the head gasket he's going to see a noticible drop on his coolant in the radiator. but those tend to be more constant on the smoke, besides you can smell coolant in the exhaust if thats what is wrong. It is a very distinctive odor.

virginia_dude

no oil smoke is bluish almost white. I';ve had cars that burned a quart of oil every 100 miles. They never had black or brown smoke.

Urban Business

so i guess my valve seals being blown to **** causing black smoke from oil didnt really do away when i did a head swap...... ic ic

SIRX

and a leak down test. It will tell you were the pressure is going, E.G. rings,valves,coolent.

virginia_dude

black smoke isn't oil, black smoke is an overly rich mixture, or a mixture that is not igniting reliably. oil is a blueish white smoke, , coolant is white smoke with a sickly sweet smell to it. Very distinctive. I've have blown head gaskets, cracked cyclinders worn rings cracked rings bad oil rings with perfect compression and passing leakdowwn tests. I have put over 100,000 miles on each of 14 cars. All but 2 were used when I bought them. I have rebuilt engines, transmissions and everything, have been doing so for over 25 years. I know of what I speak. And you head swap cured more than just seals, you probibly had low compression due to other problems which contributed to a rough running condition. Besides you can do valve stem seals with the head on the block. Hell of a lot cheaper than the price of a head gasket to swap even a free head. If thats all that was wrong with the head.


[Modified by virginia_dude, 2:58 PM 12/31/2002]


[Modified by virginia_dude, 2:59 PM 12/31/2002]


[Modified by virginia_dude, 3:02 PM 12/31/2002]


[Modified by virginia_dude, 3:06 PM 12/31/2002]

Urban Business

$30 an 29 bolts. that is by no means exensive

man... look at all the white smoke.


[Modified by TorteX, 3:15 PM 12/31/2002]

ZCcivic91

I gotta go with VG on this as well. Blue smoke is burning oil, black smoke is fuel (too rich ect). Not only have I sen both out of my own cars, but its a pretty normal site on the drag strip to see guy with black smoke out the tail pipe going down the 1/4 mile. Its becouse they are running rich so as not to blow the motor. Happens all the time. But blue smoke is oil. You can smell the diffrence too. White smoke Ive never had, so I cant say what that is.

edit: and I dont think showing a pic of crude oil burning is any comparison at all. Unless you wanna go ahead an put unrefined oil in your car?


[Modified by ZCcivic91, 3:09 PM 12/31/2002]

virginia_dude

Crude oil burning in an oil field fire has absolutely no bearing on refined lubricating oil burning in an engine. Excessive oil consumption in a car is blue/white smoke. pure white smoke ( not smoke but steam) is coolant. Which do not smell even remotely alike. Black smoke is unburned fuel.

CimorelliCRX

Oil-Bluish/White
Coolant-White and smells real sweet
Fuel-Black

Ive experienced all 3, luckily none of it is now, lol. Had a ZC go through 2 head gaskets(cylinder head bolt had helicoil in it when i bought it, and it came loose).

88_SC_CRX_Si

Pull your plugs and check there color... Also, white smoke can be created by a rich condition too. When I am setting my fuel pressure, I can get it to smoke white. No blown head gasket or anything like that. Otherwise, why does it stop... when I adjust the pressure back down. Not to long ago, a friend of mine HF dist. went bad. His was pouring our tons of white smoke, here again no blown HG...

broncoman74

Did your car just finish warming up or had you been driving it a long time? It is winter now and you probably just had some condensation trapped in your exhaust that was forced out and hit a hotter part of the exhaust system when you suddenly accelerated the motor which in turn caused that white color(Forced evaporation from the water hitting the hot surface). Hope this helps!

Charlie Moua

iTrader: (3)

YUP white smoke form tail pipe is coolant.
hope nothing seriousley got fuged up

efcivicsi

dude its most likely ur headgasket, check if ur low on coolant in ur car, and tel someone to rev ur car high an smell the white smoke, if it smells like coolant then ur head gasket is cracked
sorry
its all good though aat least its a honda

Vinceg99

OK well I have had leaking headgaskets, seals, valves, rings,...ETC, ETC...... I have never seen Black smoke coming out it was darker yes but by no means black. Now as for pure (as you stated) white smoke there is 2 different problems that I have had that caused it.
1. Was a blown head gasket (88 POS Grand Am) and
2. Was when my brake booster was going bad (85 CRX) what happened with that is whenever I pushed on the brake pedal really hard it caused brake fluid to enter my motor and be burnt up. It blew out the thickest whitest and worst smelling smoke that I have ever smelt in my life (well coming out of a car that is) And man let me tell you my motor didnt like brake fluid one bit it started bogging way down. So even though that wouldnt have been his problem I think it was worth mentioning since the topic of the colors of smoke and what causes them came up so I figured I would throw in my $.02
Oh and one other thing it was pretty funny when it happened though cause it would smoke up the street REAL bad and it sat around for awhile kind of like burning rubber in a way. Good way to get looks back when I was 17 in High school...lol


[Modified by Vinceg99, 3:07 AM 1/4/2003]

NOSED_CRX_VTEC

I think it's like this:-White smoke = coolant
Blue = oil
Black/brown = to rich fuel mixture

nihkon

When I first got my Crx it had a mad oil leak. Was burning like a quart every few days. My brother was working at Honda at the time, and he did some research. Honda had a "bulletin" (kind of a list of things wrong from the factory) on the '91 Crx Si. It stated that some '91 Si's had problems with the cylinder walls being slightly out of round, allowing oil to pass, and burn. I don't know if this may be your problem or not, but just thought I'd share with ya.

FUP23

White smoke can also be running extremely rich.

charjacq

White smoke is usually engine coolant burning. Can be cause by cracked head gasket, cracked head, cracked cylinder block. Definitively run a compression test before doing anything.

Hawkrider

Oil and fuel smoke can both be a very pale grey , almost white color . You should be able to detect the scent of oil or fuel . If you blew the head gasket ,which is most likely , it will be whitish steam with a slightly sweet smell , but you won't confuse it with the other two .
Stupid head gasket story : a buddy of mine was faced but allowed his slightly less drunk gf drive his Civic and ran over a streetsign . I was called over to survey the damage ( didn't look too bad as the bumper had popped back and the hood just had a crease ) and saw that the fan was pushed through the rad. so I had to massage the rad mounts back into place with the jack and prybars .Anyway , I got the new rad in and connected but heard a psssst sound when cracking the block coolant petcock open . Silly me thought he had the car brought back to his house on a roll-back or something , so I asked * Didn't you get this towed ? * , to which he answers of course not because he left before the cops came Dumbass actually then tells me he didn't think it was that bad because the temp gauge never went up in the 25 miles he drove the thing with no coolant whatsoever !

Infinity_Racer

so if its white smoke, its more than likely coolant, correct? what exactly happens? the coolant enters the block?because i think thats whats wrong with my engine... coolant seems to always disappear, but i thought it was the cracks on top of the radiator...when i jb welded it, it was fine and kept coolant in the catch tank...but my car doesnt smoke ALL the time...sometimes after driving for a while, or at a stop light, or when restarting the car, it blows white smoke out...where exactly can i get a compression check done? TIA

Frosty_spl

you can buy a compression tester, i dont think they are expensive (auto parts store) it is a dial with a hose that screws into the spark plug holes. Take one plug out and screw the compression tester in, crank the car over a few times, the dial will say what the compression is.

It sounds like a headgasket to me also. The water leaks out around the head gasket and gets burned off in the cylinder. it makes white smoke.


[Modified by Frosty_SPL, 10:40 PM 1/4/2003]