eg_beast

my car just recently started smoking a ton and is puttering ALOT! anyone have any suggestions on what may be the problem and how to fix

rick_rabies

piston rings are junk = burning oil white smoke
or
bad head gasket = burning coolant blue smoke
depends on what color smoke

or red smoke cuz you put koolaid in instead of oil like my sister did

EKhatch914

If its black smoke your running rich, I have the same problem recently after my swap. I was told to check the PCV valve, timing, check for air in my coolant (bubbles in the radiator), Vaccum leaks, Check and clean the IACV, also someone mentioned my VSS might be bad causing the rough idle because my speedometer drops and sticks while driving also.

Hope this helps, I've tried a few of these things with no luck so far.

EG8R

You have that backwards. blue is oil and white is coolant.

Former User

I'm pretty sure he has the red smoke right.

rick_rabies

i thought so. sowy

Hardedge

Smoke can come from different places, but I assume you mean exhaust. Black smoke would mean your rich on fuel and the exhaust will smell like gas. Get your whole fuel delivery system checked out.

If it is strictly blue and very smokey then you're burning oil, but how much it's smoking could indicate the problem. A little bit could just mean leaking valve guides/seals, or a ring issue, but a lot of smoke most likely means a ring issue. Run compression and leakage tests, and if the rings are fine then check the guides/seals.

White/gray smoke, especially if it's kind of humid like steam means you're burning coolant, which usually means your head gasket isn't sealing. If this is the case, there are plenty of other things to check. If two adjacent cylinders do poorly in a compression test, the gasket may be bad or the head is warped. Check to see if any coolant or oil has mixed. You can also run the engine with the radiator cap off to see if there is a steady stream of small bubbles coming up. If it's the gasket you'll have to pull the head and have it resurfaced, then reinstalled with new gaskets and bolts.

punkrockkiel

sounds like headgasket, my car is going down the same road...watch your coolant level in the overflow bottle to see if its going MIA, then youll know for sure. my putters at idle and sometimes the idle jumps around sparaticly

EKhatch914

I fixed the problem I was having with the black smoke due to running rich this morning. Bad primary O2 and my Throttle Body gasket was pinched causing a vacuum leak. Sprayed some carb cleaner all around the Air Manifold and TB till I found it.

Hope this helps assuming it is black smoke.

enzok20

what everyone else said. black smoke is rich, and if its white check the head gasket.