white smoke

[digitaldrifter91]

Not sure if this is the right section for this.

My friends car, 2000 acura integra gsr recently got some work done. it was misfiring alot and had no compression on 2 cylinders. He got a shop to do the head and send the head out for work and every seal was replace (thats what they said).

Now on startup mainly cold, white smoke comes out of the exhaust. It never did it before, and only started after the head rebuild.

In my mind maybe the wrong valve guide seals were used, but I have this other mechanic saying that it can be the oil control ring. And the reason it wasnt noticed before was because that cylinder wasnt firing correctly...

my friend is a little bummed because we convinced him to just do the head instead of the whole motor. It only had 135k on it and thats why I assumed the bottom block would be fine, also the budget wasnt that great for parts.

Any info or input Id appreciate it.

 

[tom slick]

White smoke usually indicates water/steam. Does the puffs of smoke linger in the air or disappear quickly? Steam dissipates quickly, genuine smoke will linger and you can see if blowing away in the breeze.

a valve stem seal or ring would usually be blue smoke.

 

[HangerHarley]

I have heard someone suggest one of the lifters is sticky. This causaes some type of misfire, and some smoke out of the tailpipe.

A clue to head gasket or not: Does the smoke go away?

If it does, its NOT the Head gasket (there will always be a little tiny bit if it was, at any temperature.)

Also, your exhaust should smell like exhaust: Stinky. it should not smell like Antifreeze.

This could be Oil-related since Lifters can get un-stuck by Oil too. ARX?

The engine probably runs fine, just noticeable at startup and idle, yes?

 

[digitaldrifter91]

the smoke kinda lingers for a bit enough to go through a garage with haze. maybe about 5 seconds dissipation or longer.

Engine runs fine.

...perhaps a leak down test

 

[HangerHarley]

Originally Posted By: digitaldrifter91
the smoke kinda lingers for a bit enough to go through a garage with haze. maybe about 5 seconds dissipation or longer.

Engine runs fine.

...perhaps a leak down test


The thing i was looking for is if it goes away.

Cars with Bad Blown Head Gaskets have a highly Visible (Cloud either out of pipe or behind car, usually pretty long behind it) White, Candy-smelling Smoke that smells like Antifreeze, and, therefore, Candy. It gets "Thrown" some distance behind the car for some reason, and does NOT Disappear.

The "Puff at start-up" combined with kinda misfiring (not backfiring) indicates a fouled plug, or sticky lifter.

So one of the Cylinders is in worse condition than the other six. Good Oil should help heal, clean. ARX comes to mind (This isan application of an additive that has to be done methodically, not just dumping in MMO.)

After that, some people say "Restore" Helps, but im not sure if i would put Restore in after Auto-Rx, and that is in oiL Additive section.

Does anything "Tick?" And yes, I assumed you had a 6-cyl. of some sort.

Oil suggestions, folks?

 

[firefighter]

Hi just a little more info please. Why would no compression from a missfire, cause the head to have to be redone? What led up to the repairs. I seen a post about sticky lifters, as far as I know I don't think this engine has lifters, the cam just hits the rocker arm, so I think that would be a moot point. If you can post a little m ore info that would be great then I can think.

 

[fdcg27]

A typical symptom of a head gasket leak, or cracked head, is overheating.
Does it?

 

[digitaldrifter91]

Originally Posted By: firefighter
Hi just a little more info please. Why would no compression from a missfire, cause the head to have to be redone? What led up to the repairs. I seen a post about sticky lifters, as far as I know I don't think this engine has lifters, the cam just hits the rocker arm, so I think that would be a moot point. If you can post a little m ore info that would be great then I can think.


The car was misfiring in those cylinders all the time. When he took it to the shop they found that the 2 cylinders had little to no compression. A leak down test pointed to the valves leaking (exhaust). So thats why he got the head done.

 

[HangerHarley]

Originally Posted By: digitaldrifter91
Originally Posted By: firefighter
Hi just a little more info please. Why would no compression from a missfire, cause the head to have to be redone? What led up to the repairs. I seen a post about sticky lifters, as far as I know I don't think this engine has lifters, the cam just hits the rocker arm, so I think that would be a moot point. If you can post a little m ore info that would be great then I can think.


The car was misfiring in those cylinders all the time. When he took it to the shop they found that the 2 cylinders had little to no compression. A leak down test pointed to the valves leaking (exhaust). So thats why he got the head done.



How did the Spark plugs look?

 

[firefighter]

Ok thanks for the info. If it smokes white generally that is coolant. Anything with valve guides or seals will generally give a blue haze. If you get the car hot, and park it overnight, when it is started the next day does it miss fire for a few seconds??? That is normally the sign of coolant in the cylinder. I can normally find them at the shop this was. Then pull the car in bring the piston to TDC and put shop air in the cylinders and watch for the air bubbles in the radiator. Hope some of this helps

 

[digitaldrifter91]

spark plugs are new, havent looked at it since the job was done.

It doesnt misfire on startup, it did BEFORE the job. It starts normally aside from the smoke.

So instead of a leak down test just shoot air into the cylinder?

 

[firefighter]

A leak down test will just give you a % of cylnder leakeage. If you have a leak down tester you could use that. If not just put about 90-120 psi in the cylinder and watch the radiator level to rise or bubble over.

 

[demarpaint]

White smoke is one or two things. Bad HG, or condensation. Since your friend never noticed it before I'd pressure test the cooling system to rule out a bad head gasket. Since the cyl head was pulled to do the work, it is possible things didn't go back together correctly.

Pressure testing a cooling system is easy. I saw some coolant on the floor yesterday and couldn't for the life of me figure out where it was coming from. I broke out the pressure tester, pumped up the system, and in about 20 seconds determined I need a water pump. I've diagnosed bad head gaskets in no time flat with it too.

 

[mechtech2]

Also, sometimes it takes a long while to get rid of all the spilled coolant in the exhaust after a head gasket job.