White smoke coming out of driver's side tail pipe
 

Yesterday white smoke started coming out of my driver's side tail pipe. It was mostly when I punch it, but now it comes out at idle as well. At idle you can see just a small amount coming out, almost unoticable, but when I punch it is like a james bond smoke screen and smells like motor oil. The car runs fine and there is no difference in performance. On Thursday and Friday the car ovreheated, but I think the cooling system needed to be bleeded. I bleed the system and it has not overheated anymore.

Here is what I posted the other day about the car overheating.

While driving to work this morning my temp gauge went all the way to H. I had just left my house and had driven about 4 miles. I immediatley turned the car off and pulled over to the side of the road. I checked under the hood and opened the radiator cap slightly to let the pressure out. After all the pressure was let out, I let the car sit for a few minutes and then restarted. At this point the temp gauge was in the normal range, so I drove off and the car ran fine and did not overheat.

The same thing happened yesterday morning, only I didn't noticed the temp gauge immediately. Yesterday the car felt like it stalled cause when I would give it gas it would no go. I had the radio up loud so I couldn't tell if it stalled or not, but when I turned it down the radio the car was still running. I pushed in the clutch and the car would rev, but I couldn't get the car to rev with the clutch depressed. This is when I noticed the temp gauge on the H. I turned the car off and let the pressure out of the radiator like today. When I restarted the temp when back to normal and the car ran fine.

I was not in boost when this occured on either occurance. Although last night I was driving the car hard and didn't have any overheating after the first incident.

What could cause this? I am thinking the cooling system has bubbles in it. I had the stock radiator replaced about 2 months ago with the PE radiator so the system was drained and refilled. Could air bubbles be in the system for that long with out cause any issues and later surface?

So what could this be? If you are going to bash the greddy kit, then don't even post here and stay off my thread. Thanks! I'll check the board later cause I am off to put up my hurricane shutters. :mad:

It sounds like there is a breakdown between the oil and water systems somewhere. Are there bubbles rising in the radiator when you rev gently and can you smell oil there?

This sounds like a classic cylinder head gasket issue which I had go on an older car but what with all your mods and all, is it possible on this car.

Feel for you buddy - hope it gets sorted quickly and inexpensively.

Good luck with the weather too :icon11:

I had a test completed to see if the head gasket was the problem. Although there was slight hint of carbon in the coolant, it was nowhere enough to think the gasket blew.

You got no error codes either then?

I have a SES light (cylinder misfire), but it has always been on since I got the built motor. I did not have access to a code reader to see if it is throwing a different code.

First thing that came to mind was headgasket. With the custom dual 3" exhaust it really helps you narrow down the problem gaskets location. White smoke is typically coolant being burned. Burned, superheated exhaust gases getting into the coolant jacket from the combustion chamber would cause the coolant to temperature spike. It is highly doubtful that air bubbles from the radiator change would appear this long after install...especially if the car is driven hard. There should be no carbon at all in the coolant either....especially with a freshly built motor that was hot tanked before assembly. Carbon presence would most likely be from exhaust gases getting into the coolant. If you can pull the sparkplugs for the cylinders on that side of the motor I would right away. Coolant typically steamcleans the combustion chamber and makes everything nice and clean compared to the other cylinders. There should be evidence on the plug as well. You may even be able to bring each piston to the top of the bore and look down with a flashlight to check for irregularities. Some shops even have mini cameras that you can put down the sparkplug hole for piston inspection.

The weird thing is I can give the car a good flogging and it won't overheat. I just idled the car with the radiator cap off and after a few minutes it started to bubble and boil out of the radiator. I also noticed some black specs of residue in the coolant.

If it is the head gasket, what does it take to fix other than the labor of the pulling the motor out and pulling it apart? Will replacing an inexpensive gasket turn into a $2500 job just because of the labor?

If it is a headgasket it could be just a bad gasket installation....if the gasket was nicked by mistake it can lead to an eventual failure. A more serious question would be if there is a surface problem with the block or cylinder head. I am certain SGP would deck the head after headwork, and deck the block after overboring the block so I would lean toward just a faulty gasket.....OR....you may want to have the ARP headbolts re-torqued to see if any have backed off a little....that could be an easy thing to check before pulling the cylinder head off. It's always worth it to look for the simple stuff first. There was talk about the ARP headbolts needing to be re-checked after some mileage has been put on the motor and it has heat cycled a few times....worth a shot.

I was told that the heads might be lifting under heavy boost, but now that I am see smoke at idle I don't know.

BTW, SGP does redock the head and block, I believe that's what they told me when they were building my motor.

Any good builder should do this....it is mandatory with a rebuild.

Usually once a coolant pathway has formed into the combustion chamber it establishes itself quite nicely and may still flow even at lower cylinder pressures. Could be residual as well.

If redock is the same as 'skim' here in UK; they would certainly do that. If its any help, attached are pages on compression testing from Service Manual

Aw man this sux. I hope its just something simple!

thanks. I will do a compression test tomorrow depending on how the storm is.

If you need the pdf file for 'Engine' PM me - it is 4.9Mb though :icon38:

Hey George, I know we talked on the phone about this already. On Monday, do the compression/leakdown just to be safe. You mentioned white smoke, but the smell of oil. I know its sometimes hard to describe the color of the smoke, but if it smells like oil, maybe its a bad turbo seal. You could pull the test pipe off and inspect for oil....if the comp/leakdown tests come back ok.

ok I am bunkered down waiting for hurricane Wilma. I feel like I am in a cave with all the shutter and every window and sliding glass doors. Anyhow, I don't think I will able test the car tomorrow cause everything will be closed. I will drop the car off at the shop on Tuesday morning. Also when I took the car to fill it up with gas this evening it was backfiring and it was hesitating. I am thinking that maybe it is a head gasket, because 2 people told me it smells like it is running hot (coolant smell).


How many hours would it take to replace a head gasket? What should I expect to pay to have a head gasket replaced?

This car is starting to put a serious strain on my marriage. My wife is extremely pissed about this. :icon25: I might fix this issue and sell the car at a huge loss. :icon27:

Anyone thinking of a warped head due to overheating?

With ARP hardware....not likely.