Bad FPR - White Smoke

[lonestar]

How would a bad Fuel Pressue Regulator lead to white smoke? I replaced a bad fuel pump, which lead to a bad FPR. After driving to lunch, I could not get it started. Vacuum lines full of fuel, replaced fuel regulator and now its blowing white smoke. I thought it was a blown head gasket until I read a thread where a guy had the same problem, but the head gasket was not blown.

 

[Pete]

I had the same thing happen when I did the FPR in my '88 Bronco II. When the old FPR went bad it allowed the entire crankcase and all six cylinders to fill with gasoline to the point where the motor hydraulic-locked. So I drained the oil, blew the gas out of the cylinders, and changed the FPR. When I went for the first drive after changing the FPR you would have thought I was a portable mosquito fogger, there was so much white smoke. It did that for a few miles and then quit.

Not sure what causes the white smoke... my guess is it's a combination of liquid gasoline in the exhaust that is somehow changed in the catalytic converter, mixed with regular exhaust gases. It's some type of incomplete combustion going on.

 

[lonestar]

Hmmmm, maybe I should just drive it a couple of miles and see what happens. How long did it take to clear up. So far all I have done is start it up and shut it off in fear of a blown head gasket.

I don't think the crankcase has fuel in it, atleast the oil level is the same and it doesn't smell. I checked the PVC tube and it didn't look like any fuel was in that line.

Although my antifreeze is disappearing I checked the oil for water too, looks good. I have noticed a small white cloud before while filling up, but now it is just smoking everything up. I'd hate to drive it and find out it I shouldn't have.

 

[Alec]

Well, if you're losing water and don't know where it's going, and have white smoke > I'd guess it's water.

 

[lonestar]

Yeah, that would be my guess too, but it didn't smoke like that before the FPR went bad. Maybe I did pump some full into my exhaust and the antifreeze is going somewhere else. I can hope, but not too high, I'll see how it goes. I'll pull the plugs and see if any look funny, along with some new wires, the old ones leaked and caught heater core insulation on fire, scared the crap outta me.

 

[Alec]

gasoline smoke is usually black.

 

[lonestar]

yeah, that's what I thought, but there are atleast 2 peopel here that experienced white smoke after replacing a bad FPR. Seems weird. I don't know what happens if you have raw fuel in your cats and exhaust system. Some type of incomplete combustion like mentioned bt Pete. ????

 

[Bronco_bill]

I have white smoke with no coolant loss. It starts about 15 sec after I cold start and my tailpipe smells like raw fuel when it dose it. It goes away after warmup. I am in the middle of a battle tring to get mine to run right so I will post a solution when I find one.

 

[lonestar]

Good News - the white smoke cleared up.

I checked for bad head gasket. Pulled plugs and they all looked good. My coolant was actully only about a qt. low, it had been atleast 6 months since I last checked it. No bubbles in the radiator. I'm glad I don't have to tear it down. Yippee.

Plugs did looke a little sooty (rich) and I am now getting a code 41 O2 sensor lean. The bad FPR probably fouled out my O2 sensor.

 

[Pete]

Bronco Bill you need to replace your FPR - it is going south on you. My Ex did exactly the same thing you're describing. Other symptoms were poor gas mileage and surging/hesitation/cutting out at freeway speeds. The yahoos at the Ford stealer couldn't diagnose it so they wanted to charge me $400 for a major tuneup as a 'let's try this first' kinda thing. Geez. They <said> they checked the FPR and fuel pressure and said they found nothing wrong there, and maybe they did, but who knows.

So I posted here and Dr. Alex suggested the FPR so I thought I'd take a $90 gamble since my truck had 175k on it and the FOR had never been changed, so I knew its days were numbere anyway. I got a new FPR for $90 and it fixed it right up.

My BII did the white smoke thing for about 10-15 seconds after I changed the FPR and it never did it again.

Some small amount of coolant loss is normal over an extended time period assuming no overheating episodes. The rubber parts (hoses) of the cooling system are slightly porous; they are not impermeable. If you lose a BUNCH of coolant over a short time interval then you have a problem.

 

[Pete]

Lonestar you should go ahead and change your oil anyway. Cheap insurance. It takes very little contamination in the oil to ruin the capacity of the oil to make a lubricating film. The truth is, you don't know how much gas got into the crankcase.

 

[Bronco_bill]

I have a new FPR any other sugestions?

 

[Pete]

Yeah - another thing to try is to clean the IAC (Idle Air Control, a/k/a Idle Air Bypass valve). It is the silver cylindrical thing mounted on the side of the upper manifold with a wire going to it. Disconnect the wiring connector, remove the valve from the upper manifold(don't lose the gasket or muck it up). Take some electronic contact cleaner - don't use brake cleaner, kerosene, diesel, gasoline, carb cleaner, etc., use the right stuff - and blast it in there in the opening to remove the carbon. You can move the valve plug via the shaft that connects to the solenoid in there using a pliers - move it back and forth as you spray the cleaner in there. If the valve shaft won't move back and forth then the valve is history and you need a new one. If the cleaning doesn't fix your problem then go ahead and replace it with a new one.

Your O2 sensor might be dead also. Or you may have a stuck injector (not likely). If you try these things and it doesn't fix the problem then you'll have to take it somewhere where they have diagnostic equipment and pay them $75 for a diagnosis.