workin on a freinds car,its a crx,we are putting a turbo on it.the other day i was test fitting the radiator,started it up and it smoked like crazy,lots of white smoke.today after doing some work,i started it up just for a few minutes with out the radiator in there,and there was no smoke hardly at all.

what does white smake mean,im thinking it might be a bad headgasket letting the water in,and since there was no water in ti today,it did not smoke.how can i check this with out pulling the head?

 

isnt white smoke coolant burning?

 

your headgasket could have been cracked, white usually means there's water in your system....better not start up the motor, or you could do some serious damage to the head / valves..

 

You could try doing a leakdown test...

that would tell you it's leaking but it'd be hard to tell if it was the headgasket or the rings...

check the oil for coolant... it'd be milky looking...

it's almost definately the headgasket imo without seeing it.