Hey all, i'm fairly new here. I have a question... I have a 91 xlt. Recently swampped the intake. No damage done except i now have a LARGE amount of white smoke comming out my exaust when she does a cold start. There are little puffs when she is warm. Is this something i can fix or is the engine hooped???
There is no oil in the water or vice versa. Recently changed the water pump and rad. Please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Hmm.. white smoke.. I forgot what color gas is but could it be burning too much gas? I know I had problems with white smoke from my radiator and when my brake line blew up but that wasn't coming from the exaust

I have a feeling it has something to do with fuel/air mix. How do i know if a sensor is toast?

run a code tester on it. If a sensor is gone you should see the check engine like is on. if you don't have a code tester take it to autozone.. they'll run it for free.

Yep... white smore means your buring to much gas and not enough oil. Check your oil mixture and check the oil pump. also is the white smoke only when you start it up from the cold or all day long driving it??

sometimes all day long. Not like cold start but still see the smoke. Cold start is soo bad you cannot see around the truck

ya your burning too much gas. Check your oil pump. Thats probably your problem

Yea.. check the oil pump.. make sure its getting the right pressure on the oil / pump. also maybe,,, just maybe your injectors might be going out and not setting right.

White smoke is usually water- where it comes from? Pull the plugs and take a look, do a compression test, also check the intake manifold for leaks. could be a bad head gasket or craxcked heads, or a loose intake. Take the time to do some checking. How much water were you in?

Explorer 96, and HiJinks Extra gas would be black smoke, oil problems would be blue smoke, I have no idea what the oil pump has to do with fuel problems, since you seemed to think the smoke was from fuel problems. Come on guys.. basic stuff.

i went through water about door deep but went through fast. Water came up over my windsheild then the engine died (when i was out of the water). Took out my plugs and turned it over a few times but no water came out. When i took off my intake tube, there was a little water down the intake and my air filter was soaked. does any of this help? i will check as you said... but cracked heads would lead to water in the oil. Bad head gasket i would be blowing blue.

Start simple. White smoke usualy indicates a fuel/air ratio imbalance, namely too much fuel (unburned). First check your air cleaner, filter, the entire air intake system to make sure the engine isn't starved for air.
Can also indicates burning of water in the cylinders. Are you losing any water/glycol? If you are, it could be a bad head gasket.
If the condition happens when the engine is cold or hot can give clues. If ok when cold, but not when hot can indicate air-trottle valve not opening correctly.
Check all these and let us know.

A cracked head does not always equal water in the oil. Anyhow easy way to tell type of smoke: Smell it. If the smoke smells like hot/burnt maple syrup then you have coolant leaking into the cylinders somewhere (assuming your running antifreeze in your system as you should instead of just water). If the smoke burns your eyes then your running rich and most likely you have a sensor out of wack. And of course oil consumption smells just like that: burnt oil.

From the sounds of it you did not get water into your engine since it did not spit any out of the plug holes (at least I hope you did not). Did you check the MAS sensor for water??


I have to agree with SteveVB, never heard of white smoke from an incorrect air/fuel ratio? Lean burn does not cause smoke and rich burn produces black not white smoke.

JR

No. there was no water in the cylinders and none that spit out the plug holes. What is the MAS sensor? where is it located?

The MAS is located right after the airbox. You should see some wires running to it. White smoke is also a symptom of Tranny Fluid being burned. There is a vaccum valve that goes bad that allows tranny fluid into the engine. Read up on it at the following site - http://www.glue.umd.edu/~singletn/web/pages/smoke.html

The problem may not even be related to your swamping the engine.....

Very good point TPLYNCH, never thought of the tranny fluid prob. It's been a while since I've heard of that failure, guess I've been driving standards too long.

Coast, let us know the cause when you figure it out.

JR

White smoke is either auto tranny fluid or water . White smoke on start is normal . Exhaust systems draw air and moisture in when they cool off . The moisture condenses in the pipes/ muffler . When you start up the engine the heat in the pipes causes the water to boil off . If white smoke is still pumping after the engine is warmed up and it's not cold outside , either the tranny fluid is getting in or water/ antifreeze . Also make sure it's coming out the exhaust and not from under the hood itself . The heater control valves like to leak antifreeze on explorers . Could br dripping on the exhaust . Check for tranny fluid and water first . Also if the "Check Engine" light isnt on I wouldnt go chasing down sensor problems . The MAS could have gotten dirty from the splash so cleaning it couldnt hurt , but I doubt it causing any problems .

SteveV8 is right, white smoke is water vapor, or it could be ATF. Only in diesel engines will there be white smoke if the fuel is lean. Lean mixtures will show nothing, while a rich mixture will be black smoke and oil is blue.

I have a 5 speed so it wont be the tranny. I'll look into the valve and sensor. I'll keep you all updated. Thank you all for the ideas!!!

Coast,

To bad you dont have the automatic, I forgot all about the modulator, and its an easy fix.

I think a compression test should be next, and also pressurize the cooling system and see if the cooling system is holding pressure. Hows your temp gauge look, is it the same as before?

I agree that pulling codes and looking for sensor problems is a waste of time at this point. It wouldnt hurt to pull the codes, but they may not be the problem, but results of the problem. Check the cause.
Good luck

Sorry about the mistatement in my previous reply. I forgot that white smoke indicating a lean mixture is only evident in diesel engines. Thanks EDGL.
I just reread your first message COAST on this problem. You say you recently replaced your water pump and radiator. Did your engine overheat? What caused you to replace them. Was it a catastrophic failure of one of these components? Did you lose much coolant when your engine was still running?
If so you most likely have a cracked head. Hope this isn't the case. Let us know.

what is the best way to tell if a head is cracked without taking it off?
I had no heat and fluid was leaking out the weep hole in the bottom of the pump... I asked around about it and everyone told me the pump was shot. I went to get a pump and on my way back (even though i filled the rad that morning) my temp went from the usual 'OR' to 'AL' in a matter of minutes. I Pulled over and watched as my rad emptied from a crack along the seam that wasn't there b-4. I sat and waited for it to cool down when i heard cracking... I dont know where it came from but there were about 12 cracks in a row.
Sorry about the story but i had to describe what happened that caused me to change both the pump and rad. This help??

There are a few things that could have happened on your way to get a new water pump. If your engine got hot enough, the head gasket would be the first to go. If it got really hot, the head would warp.(which would mean you will need a need gasket and have to maching the head flat again. If it got really really hot the head would crack.
The most likely senario is that you blew your head gasket. The cooling system normally carries a pressure of about 17 psi. This can be checked at any shop (Ask for a cooling system pressure check)
But it may not show up on a cold engine. If the gasket failed between a cooling port and a cyclinder, pressure from the cyclinder (over 100 psi), or failed between a cooling port and an oil port (40-60psi), the increased pressure would transfer to your cooling system...hence blowing a few seams in your radiator.
Water in your oil is unlikely, but oil in your water is possible. Heat up the engine, then after it is safe (safe is the keyword here), siphon off some radiator fluid and let it sit for a while, and look for any oil.
Also run your engine , starting cold with the radiator cap off. Make sure you can see the level. The level will burp when the themostat opens (a few minutes) then the level should stay the same. If it keeps running out or burping, the head gasket is blown.
Installing a new gasket is not very difficult to do yourself. If you do it, take the head in, since you got it off, to a machine shop to check for any cracks (you probably wouldn't see them with the naked eye) and check for any warping. Good luck . Let us know what happens.

Well all, thank you all for your help! I went to a mechanic friend of my dads and we narrowed it down to either a cracked or warped head. Gasket is definately shot.

Easiest way to check for crack/ blow head gasket is run the engine at idle . Take the hose off the radiator overflow tank (coolant resivior) and put it into a cup of (or plastic bottle) water . Run the engine till it's nice and hot to blow off any air that could be in the cooling system . Once then engine is hot there should be no air bubbles coming out of the overflow tube . If there is a bubble from time to time , let it warm up for a little while more . If it looks like a aircompressor is in your cooling system ..... your chit it busted . Your down to pulling the heads off after that unless you can figure out which one has failed . Only way to possibly do that is remove the spark plugs and pressurize the cylinder with air (froma compressor) and watch for bubbles out the overflow . I doubt youll find it that way as cracks like to leak more when hot . It sounds like you had a problem with your heads or gaskets for a while . The radiator failure was from compression in the cooling system if I had to even slightly had to guess . Most times when you have a compression in coolant problem every hose on the vehicle will suddenly start gfoing bad one rigfht after another . It is from the 12 to 17PSI normal going to 30 or more PSI from the failure .

The pressure in the rad was due to a bad thermostat and bad pump. I just replaced the rad, pump and thermostat.