Yesterday a group of honda people ran a canyon run. The car was ran pretty hard (mostly 2nd gear) for about 15-30 minutes straight on the road. A shortwhile after the canyon run...everyone pulled over and stopped. I opened the hood quickly to let some of this hot air out......I noticed I was leaking a little bit of radiator fluid out the top of the reserve tank...and the fluid was much higher than when the engine was cold. (the toyota behind me was overflowing his radiator fluid). The temp gage didn't move at all.....but we probably climbed over 2,000-3,000 feet from the ocean we started at.

Since the guy overflowed his radiator...or something was wrong with his car..everyone decided to go back to the gas station and check it out...refill his radiator with water.

I noticed small/medium puffs of WHITE smoke coming out of my tail pipe at random moments when we slowly went back to the gas station. It was kinda farting out little/medium clouds of white smoke. On the way back....we probably dropped 2-3000 feet at a very rapid rate (8% decline). I was wondering if there was anyway some radiator fluid might have gotten into the cylinders since the car was pressured...then shut off....instead of a slow cool down...or the pressure effected it.

Most of the white smoke came out at the bottom of the mountain...near the ocean on the ride back.


It kind of scared me....so I made the 70-80 mile ride home from the canyon roads.....the car performed normal....no white smoke at all....and everything was hunky dory.


Q) Should I get my car checked out? Is something wrong? Why did white smoke happen to come out of my exhaust at that time?

 

just some pictures taken by one of the guys who was on the run.

 

it was bright and sunny when we went later on.

 

Wow, those are some beautiful hills!

Was it cold and/or wet? That could cause white puffs of smoke that are condensation instead of water from your engine.

If you're worried, just swing by autozone and get one of those UV dye test kits to check your coolant out.

And the changing altitude would not cause the problems you are speaking of, so don't worry about that as a cause. The overflow tank is just for when your coolant gets hot and expands, so it has to have somewhere to go. When the car cools down and is running, it should suck most of the coolant from the overflow tank back.

 

anyone else?

 

what would the dye kits do?

 

the dye kit would find any leaks, you need a blacklight with it though (i think). i wouldnt worry too much about the white smoke unless its screwing with your engine. does your car bog down or anything? how hard were you driving when the smoke came out? you sure it wasnt blue smoke? you may be burning some oil.

 

well.....I drove the car hard for a good 30 minutes or so.....then we got to the top of the mtn...(climbed 3000 ft or more) and everyone shut their cars off to relax and talk about the mtn we just climbed. We drove easy on the way back to the gas station from the top of the mtn. We got to the bottom of the mtn and while going 50MPH in 5th gear.....my car started to release white smoke from the tail pipe. It was kind of farting it out.....nut billowing it out....but puffed it out in spurts at a time. The car was essentially the same power with or without the smoke. I did however see some radiator fluid that had leaked out from the reserve tank. at the top of the mtn...when the car was shut off.


The smoke looked almost white....I think it gave a different color brownish tint inside the exhaust tip....from what I remember. Other people behind me confirmed it was a white cloud....with not really a hint of blue.......I was at about 2500rpms and I am running a test pipe.

could be a blown HG....i checked my radiator fluid and its as clean as can be. I do see some very minute bubbles on the dip stick after driving the car....which could be from normal driving(never paid THAT close attention to it before).

I'll check the oil again.....(300 miles on the oil change) to see if water is in the oil.

could white smoke come from unburnt fuel? I am running a test pipe.