I have an old 1992 Accord. It has been in the garage for 4 years. when we left it, there was nothing wrong with it, ran fine, had minor amint done. Now my sister needs the car for school so we changed oil, spark plugs, and battery.

Now when we started the car it started up sorta, then died. But on the second try it fired up perfectly. Only problem was all this white smoke came pouring out the tailpipe.

The car sounded fine (no rumbling, loud pops, or obnoxious shaking). Hit the throttle for a few and it was still fine.

Now at the time we started it there was about 1/2 tank of gas that had been sitting in the tank for 4 years. So is it simply a fuel problem or is this a bad cat, 02,etc problem??

**Cliffs: Is 4 year old gas gonna cause white smoke to come out the tailpipe??

 

what color is the coolant?

 

Green ish, not hella but green enough and not goopy, but it flows fine....

 

white smoke usually means coolant, does the smoke smell sweet at all?

Sometimes white smoke will indicate carbon burning as well, and it should clear up in a lil bit.

 

It's probably condensation built up in your exhaust...drive it and then make an assessment...

 

Yes, the white seems to be getting less and less thick as we let it idle for around 15 minutes. After taking it out (keeping it under 2000 or right there the smoke started to diminish)

It's not completely gone, there is still some smoke, but much less.

It doesn't smeel sweet, I poured this additive that absorbs water built up in the gas tank and it smells like that stuff (the additive).

Hopefully it'll clear up before the smog check on Thursday...thanks for the hlp btw

 

I hope you put in some gas stabilizer 4 years ago before you left that car to sit there for that long, otherwise the gas gets all funky. Not only is there water condensation that builds up, but something else happens to the gas, I forgot what.

That's where all the white smoke is likely coming from (the gas tank). There's a possibility that there's a coolant leak, but I doubt something happened in the car in those 4 years (unless somehow the water mixed with the coolant began to make the system rust or something). You might want to change the oil again because of all of the water that the oil absorbed after you drive it around and get a fresh tank of gas in there again, but don't quote me on that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SOhp101 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I hope you put in some gas stabilizer 4 years ago before you left that car to sit there for that long, otherwise the gas gets all funky. Not only is there water condensation that builds up, but something else happens to the gas, I forgot what.

That's where all the white smoke is likely coming from (the gas tank). There's a possibility that there's a coolant leak, but I doubt something happened in the car in those 4 years (unless somehow the water mixed with the coolant began to make the system rust or something). You might want to change the oil again because of all of the water that the oil absorbed after you drive it around and get a fresh tank of gas in there again, but don't quote me on that.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah... what happens to the gas...and only after 2 years.... it starts to gel up... so you might wanna be kinda careful with it... or you could screw up A LOT of the fuel system... it almost sounds like you are lucky tho, so who knows...

 

yeah, we did put that additive in there that is supposed to absorb water and "de-gel" whatever was in the tank....I'll change the oil again and add some more of the stuff, hopefully that'll take care of it...

 

The gas is also bad after 4 years it has more than likely been exposed to ALOT of moisture condesating in the gas tank - best bet is to purchase enough fuel stabilizer to treat the gas in the tank - drive the car easy for few miles and burn all of that old gas out of the tank. - Then refill with Premium and gas gas line antifreeze as well as more fuel stabilizer to get rid of the remaining water in the tank -

 

Why don't you just drain the entire gas tank. There might be a drain bolt on the gas tank.

 

the last thing you want to do is drive till its empty.. you WANT to dissolve the bad gas with some new stuff. Don't drive till empty!

Also, "premium" gas is no "cleaner" than the regular stuff.. Octane ratings have nothing to do with how clean the fuel is, rather how much pressure it takes to ignite.

 

behold...here comes insight......i am about 97% sure that you have a gasket problem. gaskets are not meant to be left sitting for four years. gaskets used in cars are continually heated, and compressed over the life of the car. if the engine is left to sit for some time (4 years!! ) the gaskets become brittle (like a cookie) and will crumble when heated and compressed.gaskets act at seals.if the gastek is bad then some fuild (in this case, coolant) will seep inot someplace it was not meant to go. the reason the white somke decreases after 15mins is because the engine (metal) has expanded to do some self-sealing but this metal on metal is not good. you best guess is the head gasket. you can check this by doing a cylinder compression test...easy to do if you have the right tools.....the gasket itself only costs about $15 but to get a mechanic to put it in will cost you..if you can do it yourself then good for you. if you decide to do it...do some research first...ie. tightening and loosening sequence of head bolts,head bolt torque sequence....
p.s. not a bad idea to drain your gas tank and change your gas filter