I bought a 1991 Acura Integra (b18a1) and when I got her she would smoke (blue) bad when she sat for long times, so I did a head job on her, all new seals, valve seals and cam seals, head gasket intake and exhaust seals. Then I put some new headers and downpipe on and got a new universal O2 sensor. She is running rich or lean? Black on the bumper and she smokes in WOT and alittle when at idle. This smoke is white and no its not antifreeze its smells like gas bad. When at idle it not really bad, its light and not really that bad when WOT. I don't know what it is. I looked at everything? I think it my be the valve adjustments. Can someone please tell me something

 

If you're worried about whether you're rich or lean the only way to know for sure is with an A/F gauge, although you can see the effects of bad A/F on the spark plugs. If you're modded and running the stock fuel maps, you might be running rich sometimes and lean others. Sounds like you should consider getting an A/F gauge and a tune.

 

Thanks! Only mods is headers and downpipe and muffler , so you think this is it? Yeah everyone is saying get it tuned.

 

if you have more of a gassy smell to it, typically rich. when you run lean it's got more of a stagnant smell to it, but still smells slightly of gas. and from my personal experience, exhaust mods cause you to run rich, i know other ppl will say otherwise, but i'm speaking from personal experience

 

if it's white it should burn off in a few minutes, if it doesn't watch your water level over the next few days, you could have a leaking head gasket. unless you checked the block and had it decked if need be and you had the head decked warped surfaces will prevent seal.

running rich = black smoke. white is nearly always some form of water. water diluting the combustion process can give you that gassy smell that you're experiencing. the fuel isn't completely burning.

 

well i have put a new waterpump on it but i don't see signs of missing antifreeze or leaks.

 

would it be water in the gas or tank?

 

could be.


you really need to drive it a hundred miles or so, let it sit overnight and then check the radiator in order to see if you have a coolant system or head gasket leak.

 

idk man, this is one of those thin red line issues. could be one thing, could be another thing

 

I agree w/ most of the above. I think it also could be that universal O2s. The ECU could be getting false readings from it causing a rich condition. Also, any check eng lights???

 

we still have no idea if there is a rich condition. even a rich guess. what do the plugs look like? that's one hint of what's going on

 

You mention blue smoke in the OP. The would mean oil burning.

How many miles are on the bottom end of the motor? You may have piston ring issues.

 

the smoke is not bad it just looks like choke smoke when you get on it or sometimes when it idles. No check engine! I says its a lite white smoke. did compression test, it check good!

 

the plugs have white on them!

 

so it sounds like the plugs are relatively new. how does the diode tip look? is it melting down, gapped too close or too far out?

 

how far has this engine been driven?

 

well the plugs are pre-gapped (NGK type R )from the store and i driven the car maybe 100 miles tops after the head job (no homo)