I just bought a 1990 Integra recently for dirt cheap, the car runs perfectly fine at idle but as soon as i give it gas it spits white smoke like no other. Sometimes the oil light turns on and shuts back off. THe car also overheats. At first i thought it was the headgasket(coolant getting into oil, hence white smoke). We checked the coolant and it wasnt milky. I had a buddy look at and he told me it was probably a bad thermostat, bad dizzy seal, bad head gasket, and bad spark plug seals(there were oil on the plugs. I just wanted to see what H-T's opinion was on the problem..so whatcha think?

CLIFFS: Bought a dirt cheap teggy, runs fine, blows white smoke like no other, overheats sometimes, whatcha think it is?

 

smoking is probably just the piston rings, the overheating is probably a bad thermostat and check your oil level for the oil light problem (if that doesnt fix it, replace the filter).

 

piston rings is my guess for the smoking. i dont think its the thermostat because they are made to fail in the open position but it wont hurt to change it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Fluxy Poo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">piston rings is my guess for the smoking. i dont think its the thermostat because they are made to fail in the open position but it wont hurt to change it. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually I thought the same (on my 95 the car just never heated up) but on my friends 91 model a bad thermo made it over heat. Beats me the difference, but apparently there is a design flaw somewhere in there. You also might want to check and make sure your fans are kicking on though.

 

Oh my... here we go. White smoke is coolant no matter what... Oil on the plugs is most likely the seals around the valve cover and head near the wires. The reason its overheating is because your coolant is **** and isnt probably cooling.

If its the thermostat then its stuck closed which is a peice of cake to test, just pull it and put it in boiling water and see if it pops or not.

Overheating has many symptoms which havent been stated... does it overheat on the freeway or just cruising around town... Freeway: Fan is stuck on, plugged radiator. Around town: Fans not comin on

Check your cooling system out again and see what you find then post results if you have anymore questions.