Shidou

First of all I had a problem with the temp after fast driving but fixed that problem because it was the rad that wasn't in a great condition..

But now after a week or so my car smokes a little. Not really big clouds or something like that but it's enough to notice.

Checked sparkplugs, were good and a Nice brownish color but changed them anyway.

New fluids, motul optimal in the rad and 5w40 motul in the engine with a hamp filter.

I noticed the puffs of smoke after a install on a whale intake (before it was just a alu pipe with a pod filter).

Car starts good and runs great! Nothing to complain about! No smoking when I drive only when the car idles..

Did see some drops of water (I think?) at the end of the exhaust tip.. Checked it on a white paper but had no color to it and didn't leave any residue.

So what could it be? Headgasket, valve seals or something else that is causing this problem?

Car isn't overheating, no weird gunk in the oilcap, the coolant in the rad is nice and clear, no coolant smell from the backbox..

Also I run a 4-1 header with a ek3 midpipe with a Spoon N1. No cat!

It's a EK3 with a D15z6 in it and has around 280***km on the clock

JDM_SOHC

Have you done any leak down tests?

Shidou

Not yet, hope to do a Co2 test on tuesday.. Checking for exhaust gasses in the coolant.

But it's weird that this all of a sudden happend :S

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

color of smoke?

Shidou

Looks white to me.. But it isn't really thick.. Density looks a lot like water vapour on cold starts on a cold day..

Honda gorilla

a seal needs to be replaced.

TomCat39

Temperature outside is dropping. At idle, the car exhaust doesn't keep the whole thing hot enough to prevent condensation and water evaporation from happening.

I am willing to bet it's just water vapor naturally occurring that you are seeing.

AKA, nothing wrong what so ever.

I've noticed every fall and winter, these posts come up again and again.

Block tester results negative, no coolant in oil and no oil in coolant will tell you, don't worry about the car.

Shidou

Photo of the spark plugs looks normal to me, only 1 has a bit of oil on it as you can see!

Hmm could be, but still.. I find it weird because cold starts are great! No big white clouds or anything like that..

If I drive it late in the afternoon no smoke... Park the car and check the exhaust.. Nothing weird to see only after a minute or so you can see a bit more smoke coming out of the exhaust and a little bit of water drops.. If i drive it nothing to see, not in high rpm or low rpm.. Only when I Need stop and idle it and take off I see a bit of smoke again.

also after I go for a quick run to the supermarket
and go back and start te car, I sounds like a subaru for a bit and then it's normal but the smoke is more clearer to see (especially @ night if other people are behind you with the lights on). Still runs great and no overheating! The subaru thing is only when I restart the car after when I shut off the car for like 10mins or so.. Cold starts is perfect!

Jimi Hondrix

Are you seeing white smoke fom exhaust and/or engine bay?
Antifreeze is viscous and can take a few days to a week or so to burn off from engine and radiator after oveheat situation.Does engine bay smell like antifreeze?
Light white smoke on cold start and warm up (to operating temp) with condensation coming from tail pipe is pretty normal, especially during early morning hours.
Get the engine up to operating temp, go for a dive and have a friend follow close behind you while oberserving your tail pipe (communictae by phone during test). Do some hard accelerations and decelerations and ask your helper if he/she sees smoke and if so what color, smell (if possible) length of duration and inceases or decreases with accelerations or decelerations.

Notice any loss of coolant in radiator and gain of coolant in reservoir?
Rent (free) a block tester from Autoboned or O' Railme (O'Reilly's), buy block test fluid ($10) and test coolant. Test for at least 10 minutes and rev engine occassionaly. Instead off dropping coolant level in radiator to test you can alternatively remove the overflow hose that attaches to the reservoir and mate that end of the overflow hose to the block tester.

TomCat39

Seeing the oil on #3 and it's on the thread side of the plug only, nothing on the piston side, says you might have a valve seal problem on that cylinder.

That also correlates to only seeing smoke after stopping and idling a touch and then giving her gas to take off.

I probably wouldn't worry about it as these cars can burn serious amounts of oil and not skip a beat. Your emissions may be the only area of challenge depending.

Shidou

Maybe this is more helpfull? The first 1 is taken in the evening and stopped @ tank station after startup.

other 2 are in the morning when I just parked the car and let it idle..

That's the only time I can see smoke.. If I drive away.. Then you see nothing but when I Need to stop and wait you see it again.

Oh and both photo's are taken after a 100km drive (highway).

Shidou

Oh and a Friend of mine checked it out when I was revving the car (wasn't really warm engine) but he couldn't smell anything weird like coolant..

XVNVX

Could it be the valve seals, as it was said?
My car smokes when I rev above 4k, and I've been told that it's burning lots of oil, because of really old piston rings. The mechanic who told me about it, also told me that if it happened when deaccelerating (after revving, idling), like in your case, it would probably be valve seals.
I'm talking about what other people told me, but it's the best contribution I can give.. :/