I was following my brother while he was driving my car, when he got on it, noticed smoke puff coming out of the tailpipe.

Is this normal?

 

what color was the smoke? also was the car cold or up to operating temp?

 

X2 on color. Was it during accel/decel?

 

if it was white smoke, indicative of a failing/failed headgasket, it would be smoking continuously, right? since he said smoke only "when he got on it", i'm going to say black smoke! dark bluish/grey would be oil, black would be too rich - both would make the back bumper "dusty".... if the engine is old, oil rings are probably not spinning or bad. OP, does the engine consume oil between oil changes?

 

headgaskets don't "blow" on these engines. if you do have coolant entering the chamber you have a warped head or warped deck or both.

most common cause of smoke on the b18c is worn ring, worn guides, and hardened valve seals.

 

Your car mileage how many kilometers already, there are so many causes, when did you observed this, is the engine hot or cold during that time, what is the color of the smoke is it black, white or bluish.

 

hmm... mine did. ended up being a crack in the metal leading from a water jacket straight into the cylinder hole. ripped motor apart, block & cyl head were checked at a machine shop - both straight. although it may not be common, it DOES happen

 

like a crack in the block? that is rare. could have been a casting flaw i suppose

 

check pcv valve and the hose see if it becomes flat during suction.

 

car has 56K miles. smoke looked kind of gray and it was on hard acceleration. we were on the highway, so i figure the car was warm. Hard to say on oil consumption, I have leaks on the block at the dipstick on the oil pan. Will be replacing the gasket and dip stick soon.

When doing this. Should the car be running?

 

if you're blowing oil up the dipstick you either have a clogged pcv system or a **** ton of blow by and a good guess is that it's the pcv system. i have seen a clogged pcv valve make a pan gasket seep and puke out the dipstick tube before.

if you run cheap crude for motor oil it's even worse as that stuff vaporizes and leaves sludge deposits.

if you want a cheap decent motor oil get the 1 gallon containers of T5 rotella syn-blend at walmart it's a group 2/3 oil blend with a great additive pack. also only $16 a gallon

 

no, it was a crack in the FACTORY honda headgasket... not felpro or any other aftermarket. the block and cyl head were fine (measured for flat even). arp head studs for fasteners too... stock compression. it simply was drawing coolant into the cylinder chamber, enough to cause that particular cylinder to NOT fire, and enough to visibly SEE the coolant when i pulled the spark plug - that's not even mentioning the plumes of white smoke it was trailing behind the car... smoke screen style!

 

Will check on this, this weekend. Hopefully it is that, can add it to the list of parts I need to order. Never ends, lol.

 

do you still have it? would like to see a picture as it's extremely rare. in fact i could not find a thread or image anywhere on google. the steel layers that make up the HG are quite flexible. you had a gasket like this correct?

 

Just ordered parts to replace, the cost of a new valve is minimal.

 

x2.