over the weekend my friend and i swapped out my LS head for a b16 head, stock internals and in pretty good shape. ever since we swapped them, white smoke has been emitting from the exhaust at various rpm's and at idle..... i have read past posts saying that it could be a number of things such as a cracked block or cylinder head, leaky headgasket, or something like that. is there any way i can check this out before pulling the head back off? how many people have actually encountered white smoke and have found where the problem was? the block has been in the car for a couple months and was running strong, the head looked to be in great condition. could something have cracked on start-up?

 

Compression check and leak down check.

 

Does the smoke have a sweet smell?

Have you watched for air bubbles in the rad? Took 20+ minutes on mine, the last time it let go, before they showed up...

 

White smoke (steam) usually means water is getting in the cylinders

 

since you just did the swap, it could be a oil leak or a head gasket leak most likely. get those checked out

 

yea, white smoke from the exhaust usually means that oil is burning

 

blueish white smoke is oil, white is steam and black is fuel

 

I thought white smoke was indicative of coolant.....hence headgasket

 

sounds like a bad head gasket, make sure to check that out, maybe even piston rings, doubt that though

 

change or re-torque head gasket or change valves stem seals.that if your block wasn't smoking before you put the head on

 

yeah, the block had a 195 compression throughout the board, but now i rechecked and the fourth cylinder has 120, the rest are at 195. it was fine before i swapped the head. the smoke i think is actually blue-white..... so it makes sense it's something to do with the head. would a bad valve stem seal drop my compression and allow me tp burn oil?

 

does anybody know how to change the valve stem seals?

 

i think but not sure that if you put some oil direct in the piston thru your spark plug hole and the compression stays the same or litle big higher then is for sure the valve stem seal.just replace all of them.now you were capable or changing the head then you can put the valves stem its easy but you need tools.
1--take the head out again and let a machine shop do it for you.
like 150.00 incl. parts
2--or compress the valves using air again thru the hole for spark plug,buy a spring compressor and valve stem remover,its not that hard

 

another thing,check your radiator is there oil mix with the water then is your head gasket

 

after replacing the valve stem seals, is there anything i should keep in mind? valve clearance or anything of that nature? is it just a straight-through swap of parts?