I just bought a 1992 civic lx with an auto on saturday. It has 135k on it. 95% of the time the car runs great but I have had three times now had the car run rough with smoke (bluish-white) come out of the exhaust. The problem seems to go away after a half mile or so of driving.

The first time was just after I filled up the tank at the gas station on monday. It was running rough I put the car in neutral reved it up a bit and noticed the smoke. After a bit of driving it was idling fine and no smoke. This was on monday.

Second time was this morning. Pulled into the grocery store parking lot, was idling in park for a few minutes when it started to run rough again. This time it billowed a ton of smoke (it was/is a lot colder now than monday, single digits). My first thought was oh great the head gasket. Drove the rest of the way to work as its not far. Went away again. I let it idle for about 15 minutes and it seemed fine nothing out of the ordinary.

Third time was on my way home from my morning shift, had to stop at the drug store. Same deal as monday only it took a bit longer to "clear out".


So I have looked at the oil, no coolant mixing in with it ( I did that when I bought the car as well). I have a combustion leak block tester that tests for combustion gasses in the coolant. It passed that test. I looked at the plugs. Plugs were in ok shape, the only exception was that the #2 had oil on the outside (in the spark plug hole not oil fouled) was a good amount.

Any ideas on what to do next?

 

1. blue-white smoke is oil burning, not water.... so my guess would be wither valve seals or piston rings.

to test to see where you are leaking from, you need a leak down tester... heres a video on how to do a leak down test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgrfT0LFMhc



2. the oil in the plug tube is cause by a leaky gromet on the valve cover... pick up the valve cover gasket set that come with the 4 plug tube gromets and the seals for the valve cover bolts. also when you change the cover gasket, you need to put a dab of RTV sealent on the corners around the cam shaft. when you pull the cover, youll see what im talking about

 

I should have said white with a bluish tint (more white than blue). This early morning the smoke was REALLY thick and in large amounts. The best way I can describe it is: It looked like someone was doing a seafoam treatment on it. It looked that way until I got moving.

Whats getting me is that it is that is intermittent it runs absolutely fine, good idle and no smoke except for those three times. I would think valve seals and rings would be fairly consistent, or am I wrong on that?

 

I am thinking rings, check the back bumper do you see black or oil spotting?

Also, check the oil levels see if you are burning off oil.

I have the same thing, except I am not billowing too much smoke yet, but I can run it and then it will run rough after I restart it.

 

Its also getting horrible mileage. About 67 miles on just over a 1/3rd of a tank of gas

 

they could just be starting to wear and when they warm up and expand, it seals back off... I would start by just doing a compression test, seeing as how most autopart stores will loan out a comp tester. test all 4 and post results

 

It has new exhaust, the bumper doesnt appear to have soot on it though.

 

LOL since you are new to civics you dont know that.... ignore the fuel guage... it is horribly inaccurate. this is how mine works... first 50-70 miles its doesnt move off the full line, then drops to half by 150-160 and will stay there utill 210ish then will drop to E. Then for me, when it hits the red line, i still have 3 gal left in the tank as it only take 9gal to fill the tank.

The only positive way to test milage is to top off the tank, reset the tip meter, dive liek you normaly would then full back up. divide the gal. you added to full up by the miles driven and that will give you your mileage

 

Yeah the compression test was on my list to do. The plugs looked REALLY good though, thats why I didnt go grab on today and do it.

It actually only seems to happen when the car is warmed up.

 

LOL, I actually have that going now. Just have not refilled yet.

 

another quirk about the fuel guage... it will drop by as much as a 1/4 tank on right turns and raise on lefts... nice was to con friends out of gas money right after a high speed right hand turn (off/on ramps work real well)

 

It was the head gasket. Took it apart the previous weekend sent the head out, put it back together this past weekend.

 

Interesting, so the smoke was prob more whitish than anything else, how was the temp gauge?

 

Yeah, it was more white, but in the bright sunlight it looked to have a bluish tint, I guess I was just hoping. lol

It was weird because it was like someone just threw a switch. It would start to smoke while idling or after just starting. I would start driving and it would go away. It did however start doing it all the time.

Temp gauge was ok until it would get low on coolant, I could see the gauge climb very quickly. I would pull over and add antifreeze, and restart and the gauge would be reading normal. Either it was hot air/vapor or exhaust gasses causing that.

 

Classic headgasket failure, low on coolant, burning off, plus the white smoke.