Is it normal to have smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe on a startup when the car is hot? Cause that's what just happened. I was driving for about 20 minutes, turned off my car to go to the gas station, started the car back up and the smoke was there. The color was kind of black mixed with grey, it didn't smell like anything but moisture mainly and some exhaust. It went away after about 10 seconds. Did drive it at high rpms before the smoke do you think that had anything to do with it?

After I got home though, and started the car after it sat for 5 minutes just like at the gas station, and what happened? It didn't smoke at all.


I thougth it was just water in the pipe, but I thought water was only white smoke.


Car runs good, was recently rebuilt about 25,000 miles ago. New stem seals, rings, and pistons. I'm hoping its nothing.



And another thing that might be of interest, the car has an A6 cam in it now that I recently put in it, I have A1 springs still. Do you think that more aggressive cam (A6) may cause something with the stem seals to leak? Not that the smoke smelled like either oil or gas but still don't want to dismiss the possibility... I don't think its running too rich cause the smoke would smell like gas right?

 

If there was water in the exhaust pipe it doesn't actually smoke, it turns into steam. It usually isn't visible until the temperatures outside start to drop. Not usually visible in the summer, unless it was a lot of water.... like a pot boiling.

Coolant is white smoke
Grey/blue is burning oil
Black is usually due to a rich fuel mixture.


The springs will not affect the valve seals... now with the higher lift cam there could have been a ridge of carbon on the valves that is now being pushed down into the seals and stretching them.... Not usual to see that much carbon on the top side of the valve stems though.

 

Sounds normal. Water is a normal byproduct of combustion. When a car is cold it runs richer than when it's warmed up.

 

you might just need a good fuel injector cleaner and a good (FLOOR IT!!!) drive it like you stole it romp on the freeway to blow any crap out of your exhaust system.

 

That all depends on how the engine was broken in.... if it's anything like how you broke in your clutch..... you may have some oil burning issues.

If you have had the pleasure of watching any of his clutch brake in videos you would know that he has no troubles driving this car like he stole it. He's pretty liberal on the gas peddle.....

 

i lol'd, i want to see some of these.

on topic, i would not be terribly concerned about smoke that goes away after a few seconds, would be curious though.

 

Wait till I get the IAB's and double stack installed then I'll take another video lol.

But about the topic. The same thing happened again, this time there was more smoke. It was a white/grey color, and it was strong, like it burned my nose. I was thinking it possibly was some of this stuff burning off cause I had been using it in my gas for probably a week or 2 in intervals,





My worst fear is that it might be the headgasket but when I take the top off the radiator I see clean coolant. However my coolant overflow bottle has too much fluid in it and doesn't seem to be returning the fluid back into the radiator - so I ordered a new radiator cap and will see if it fixes it.

But also I am running with no cat, could that be causing it? And also it was wet outside the times the smoke appeared; but it didn't just appear once and then go away - that's what i'm concerned about.

 

Why are you running that garbage in a freshly built motor?

Running without a cat will not make your exhaust smoke. I have been running mine without a cat for 2 years now. At most it makes it smell like a 4 stroke dirt bike. however there is no smoke/burning oil or coolant.

 

I wanted to clean my injectors, they're used and also my fuel filter is old. My engine has almost 30,000 miles its not freshly rebuilt.

 

GhostAccord is right. You shouldn't need solutions on a fresh build. You should be running fresh oil, and changing it early. Inspecting the oil for particles etc...

Do you have oil grime on the inside tip of the muffler? Is there soot in your oil on the dipstick? Do you check oil to see how much it's consuming?

Rad leak? Hose Frayed? When you let your car cool is the radiator full? When you refill, how much more coolant does it require?

 

Just some updates friends:
The car is smoking more than ever before, white puffs of smoke, then it goes away. The smoke burns your eyes and nose, doesn't smell sweet like coolant.
When I start up the car it idles rough as well.

I have an oil leak which drains my oil on a regular basis. About 1 quart every 5-800 miles.

There's no signs of oil in the coolant, the coolant is clean everytime I look at it, and the oil looks normal too aside from the leak.


Going to do a leak down test. But off the top of your head what do you think it is? White smoke, burns your eyes and nose (a lot), comes then goes away.
Bad gas? The car did overheat one time, but if it really is the headgasket, why is it that my oil is clean and my coolant is clean?

 

Sounds like a botched rebuild. How shocking..

 

If the coolant is leaking into the combustion chamber you won't always see fluid mixing. Engine coolant can find it's way into the combustion chamber without contaminating the oil. It would just get burnt in the combustion chamber and end up out the tail pipe.

What do your spark plugs look like?


As far as your oil consumption goes...... Are you leaving oil puddles with this massive oil loss? If not, it could very well be all oil that you are burning. That could be piston rings, valve seals or maybe even the head gasket or scratched mating surfaces. To be honest with you, where you did this engine build with 0 experience and shortcuts, anything could be a possibility.

 

Yeah but why is my coolant still clean?


No oil puddles but I can smell it when I drive as it falls onto the exhaust pipe. Its a pressure leak it doesn't leak when the car is turned off. My valve stem seals are new as also the piston rings, and I had the machine shop do all the measurements. The head gasket is a guess because when I torqued it down I realized that I had put it on backwards, so I took it off again and fixed it. I am thinking I might have deformed the gasket by doing that... Or, because my car overheated one time after the rebuild. Yeah, that's probably it.
I'll check the spark plugs to be sure. But I was thinking of using some head gasket stop leak, is this recommended? I can't afford to fix it the "right way" and I don't have the time.

As for the fact I had no experience, I do not care, now I DO have experience.

 

I think you need to cut your loses and throw in the towel. Every week you have a new problem and ask about fixing something you replaced and obviously botched. Anyone can pick up a wrench and work on a car, but without the proper technique, know how and precision it's pointless and the result is apparent. For the money you have spent on this car, you could have bought a decent manual EX coupe of the same generation in good running condition. Or even a 5th gen as well.

Cars are money pits we all know this. It's better (especially in your case) to have something bone stock and reliable then something that's been jimmy rigged to the fullest. I would hate to see a thread about how you lowered and "overhauled" the suspension, only to have cheap ebay made in China ball joint(s) fail and you end up crashing into someone. You get what you pay for in the car game, don't bother if you're just going to slap lesser quality, prone to failure type parts in. I doubt you will comprehend this and reply with some I can do it all myself, I have all the know how type rambling. The hard headed never learn. At least get some proper training/have someone who has expertise w/ rebuilding Hondas to guide you through, before you rip the whole thing apart trying to make it "fast."

And just because someone on here says something is easy to do, doesn't imply it really is. You don't know the extent of their mechanic training and experience. Food for thought, take it as it is.

 

My car is running fine and has good compression its just a pinhole coolant leak in cylinder 4 that's causing issues... I think you guys have a point in saying I am inexperienced, it is true, which is why I think I am going to order an JDM engine that was made from Honda factory. Even so It is just the head gasket that is leaking, not a har thing to fix. i think the problem of why it leaked was because I torqued it down backwards then forgot to replace it after putting it on right. No big deal. I don't see that building engines is all that hard, my bottom end and my head seems to have good compression. Just the head gasket. I think i'm going to invest in some studs and fix it the right way. I just have a lot of doubts myself and negativity about what I do and I guess its radiating to others, I just need to stop thinking like that. I have made great accomplishments with my accord and I do not want to give up on it now. This car would have gone to the junkyard had I not gotten to courage to work on it... And about money, I am not worried about that, I knew the risks involved in this build, I just had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I learned a lot; how to overhaul and engine, how to remove and engine; how to remove a cylinder head; how to 5 speed swap; and also what NOT to do. So you don't worry about me, I can handle this, I just have some questions and need advice. Simple as that.

 

Or you could be proper when doing something and not **** it up the first time. Oh wait.

 

I think you are right.

 

I put some Bars Block Stop Leak and it fixed the issues I was having. I used the copper stuff. No more rough starts and my coolant isn't getting low anymore.

What I think i'm going to do when its time to fix it right is get some ARP studs and a new head gasket and torque it down to about 70-75 ft lbs... Car is running great right now I don't think I'm going to do this soon.


This stuff worked great though, its supposed to be permanent, was only $9, and wasn't even the official "Headgasket" stop leak formula (which is $30). Worked like a charm though.

 

Sorry Mr Honda Snob, I am only human and prone to error... Just like YOU.

 

I can't believe you would pour that into an engine that was recently rebuilt.

Gross!!

 

Oh I'm perfectly prone to errors. But at least I'm not a completely incompetent dumbass.

 

Well i agree it is a bit gross but Bars knows what they're doing when it comes to this stuff. It worked fine and greatly alleviated the issues i was having. before i could barely start the car up and it would pout out smoke; now it starts right up and doesn't smoke at all... this is giving me time to fix the problem the right way. When i think back i realize what happened. i used copper spray and torqued it down backwards, then realizing my mistake, i used even more copper spray but forgot to clean the remains of the old spray off the mating surfaces, so they weren't exactly 'clean'. This time I won't use any spray and i will be sure to install it correctly. Only thing is i have no ride right now to get my head milled down once i pull it. speaking of which do you guys think that my head is warped? it did overheat about 10,000 miles ago, but I don't think that's what caused it to blow out cause these issues are happening much later on... It was after i installed A6 cam (more aggressive) and the Pt6 ecu (which is designed for the A6 cam) that this happened, i think the extra bang in the cylinders is why it blew out... and the mis-installation of course.

 

okay so you are prone to errors then you're no better than i am. but you act like you never made a mistake in your life, why else would you think you can talk down to me.. .. And saying that I am "completely incompetent" is slander.
I'm tired of your snobbery, you do realize how much of a jackass you are being don't you?

Maybe I need to do some more research, and maybe you need to find something better to do than talk **** to people who are asking questions.
What a low life thing to do.

 

You act like I'm the only one that utterly dislikes you and your foolish attempts at repairing anything.

/thread