Brown Smoke????

[Danson]

Hey everyone,
I started my explorer this morning to move it on the road, realised i had to leave after i shut it off, when i went to go restart it, it was cranking but would not start, finally it started and shot out a huge cloud of brown smoke and was then gone. Any idea on what this was, i heard it was a bad cat???
Thank You
2000 4.0 SOHC

 

[1AJeremyD]

If it was a brownish color it could be a mixture of oil and fuel. If the cat was bad it would smell like rotten eggs. How many times did you have to crank it before it started? How cold was it out? What was the temps? Have you been having any problems lately?

 

[Danson]

cranked it twice and on the third time it fired. it was the morning so pretty cold, but i had already pulled it out of the driveway and it was fine that time, except when i went to go start it a minute later it did this. and i havent noticed any problems lately, thanks for your help

 

[jremington59]

While you were cranking it you loaded up the plugs with gas. When it started it was burning it all off, thus the smoke..... It will be fine now....

 

[shadowless127]

Sounds like you may need new plugs/wires.

 

[Danson]

thanks for your help, wires were done when i bought it 3 years ago, should i replace them again? and spark plugs probably a year ago

 

[shadowless127]

thanks for your help, wires were done when i bought it 3 years ago, should i replace them again? and spark plugs probably a year ago

I'd examine them. It sounds like you didn't get enough spark the first 2 cranks to ignite the fuel, and then when the plugs sparked the 3rd time, you wound up with the cloud of excess fuel.