trustdestruction

My del Sol shoots white smoke out the tailpipe at all times. It smells a little bit like fuel. Compression is 195-200 psi across all 4 cylinders. I don't lose coolant. The engine never goes above normal temperature. The coolant doesn't have oil in it, and the oil doesn't have coolant in it. The smoke coming out of my tailpipe dissipates into the air after it gets about 2 feet from the tailpipe.

Last night I drove to Taco Bell, and while idling in the drive-thru my exhaust was creating a smokescreen of white smoke. It was 61 degrees outside, and a little foggy. It only did this at idle. I cannot recreate what happened, no matter how hard I try; all it will do is smoke like it always has. When I got home it was the same exact conditions outside and it was still smoking at idle, just not as bad. I tried an hour later and it was even less smoke, just as much smoke as it normally does.



The little bit of smoking I get I assume is due to me running rich... I wasn't all that worried about that. But the smokescreen my exhaust created last night really started to worry me. Anyone who has any idea what might have been going on last night, please input your ideas.

TOO MUCH TORQUE

white smoke is normal...there will always be some when the car is warming up. Even when its totally warmed up and you turn on and off the car, there will be some again.

trustdestruction

It does it when I rev the engine too. It does it even after it has been warm for a long time.
Here's some video so you can see what I'm seeing. This video is of the usual smoke... Last night was horrible, I'm more concerned about knowing the answer to why last night was so bad.

jeremyrocksursox

have you checked your head gaskets?

tx_ej8_49

Either you have some bad valve seals, maybe a funky injector or 2 or you have the beginings of a bad headgasket. My Jeep Grand Cheeroke use to randomly smoke at idle, only sometimes. Outside temp, warm or cold engine, night or day, did not matter. The valve seals had dried up from the vehicle sitting for months on end without being started while i fixed it to be sold. I changed the oil a couple times, ran some "lucas" through it everytime and the owner is very happy with the car 4 months later...no smoking.

trustdestruction

I am pretty sure it's not my head gasket.
That's why I mentioned the compression, that the oil and coolant are not contaminated, and that i'm not losing coolant.
If I were burning coolant it would be sweet smelling; I said it smells like fuel.

trustdestruction

What lucas did you use? Did you use the kind that goes in the gas tank, or the kind that you put in the crankcase with your oil? I may have to try this... even if it doesn't work, it couldn't hurt.

tx_ej8_49

Lucas oil stabilizer i think it was. 2100 miles later i changed it again, then one more time before i sold it. BTW- What kind of motor is this? Does it smoke worse when in vtec...if you have it? Does it leak any oil? Do the oil change and drive it hard for a couple days, assuming you dont have a leak, check your oil and see how much it dropped. You could also have bad rings....

trustdestruction

It's a D16Z6. With the exception of last night at idle, I can never see the smoke from inside the car.
It leaks a little oil from the oil pan gasket, but not that much... I plan on changing the gasket when I do my turbo project (currently saving money for it).

I just went and bought lucas oil stabilizer and put it in. I'll see what happens. I didn't change the oil because I just changed it a few hundred miles ago.

amonty303

Was it unusually humid when this was happening and you're sure it's smoke not just hot exhaust meeting humid cool air? If it's not humid and warm outside and this was happening I'd have to say it sounds like a leaky injector dumping in too much fuel. I'd try pulling them out cleaning them. Your CEL isn't on showing a rich condition?

trustdestruction

It was unusually humid and cool (pretty foggy outside) when the smoke was really bad... but it still seemed way too bad to be caused by the temperature. Today during the day it was 75 and sunny though and it was still smoking, but this time only a little bit. My CEL isn't on.

If the lucas oil stabilizer doesn't help, then i really hope it's the injector, because I'm going to be doing this turbo project and I already have some brand new RC 440cc injectors i'll be putting in, so i'll be fixing that anyway. I just really hope whatever this is isn't something serious that's going to prevent me from being able to safely boost.