White Smoke?

[98Warhorse]

Alright guys time to teach me something about exhaust smoke.

If i let my car sit idle for a few minutes and give it a bit of gas i'll get a thick puff of white smoke. This hasnt been happening for too long, at first i thought it was excess fuel but im afraid it may be coolant what do you guys think?

If im correct oil out of the exhaust has a blue tint to it and water is thick white, but im not too sure. Any info you guys can give me is appreciated.

Thanks.
Raul D. Martinez

 

[Musturd]

Sounds like water in the exhaust ports like possible headgasket failure

 

[theory29zane]

as said could be water in the exhaust which can be a few things. head gaskets being the worst of them, depending on climate of where you are could be morning dew if its only happening then. i will say getting closer to the colder months and running a o/r x pipe i do get a bit of condensation at first start up in the morning. alright back to the worst the head gasket few tell tell signs are milky looking oil, coolant looks darker and milky too, smell of coolant at the tailpipes. you can use those ways to check if no signs and it seems to keep it up i would do a compression check and that would tell you right off the bat. hope that helps you a little.

 

[Rice_slayer]

Water in the exhaust is normal, it's a natural by-product of the engine combustion process. COOLANT in the exhaust isn't normal lol. If it smells sweet, it's a head gasket, if it smells normal, probably just from it being cold outside, my car does that now too as we get closer and closer to freezing point in the mornings now .

 

[98Warhorse]

Well I live way down in south texas and we have damn near 90 degree weather all year round, I'm going to rule out the cold issue. I recently had to add coolant to my car so I am going to assume its some sort of a gasket failure because it doesn't just do it in the morning it will do it any time it idles for a few minutes and I tap the gas again.

SOB anyone got any estimates on replaceing head gaskets?

 

[Whitepony]

I would say around $700 - $800 labor....i'm in Colorado though. I was quoted this at a jeep shop when I blew my inline indistructable POS 6 banger up in my lifted grand cherokee.

 

[98Warhorse]

Man that is way above what I want to pay for some damn gaskets, I might just consider doing this job myself if that's the quote I get.

 

[JRad405]

Well is it really bad? And does it continue after you drive the car for a few hours? And is this when you first start up the car or after it is hot.

I would check to see if it persists after the car is hot and to see if it is sweet smelling so you know its coolant. If you are planning to pay someone, you want to make sure this is what's wrong or ask them to check to see what's wrong and come back to us if you think they're trying to pull your leg.

 

[98Warhorse]

yeah i got a guy whos familiar with my local mustang club and hes pretty fair from what i hear, i already spoke to him and he said he'll do a compression test to make sure we dont have a bigger problem and he'll diagnose it for me and give me a quote before we start any work. I just hope it isnt too costly, if thats the case i'll buy an 04 gt 4.6 and drop that in my car instead.

 

[98Warhorse]

The car got droped off at a local shop last night, heshould beable to get at it in the afternoon today. Let's hope it ain't too bad, I've got aa wedding to fund coming up in april.

 

[98Warhorse]

Got some good news yesterday and I'm back in my car. A compression check was done on my car and all cylenders are between 110 and 130, during the compression check we found the heater hose was not damaged but I guess its so wornout that it was leaking at higher temperatures. There was fluid puddled towards the back of the block that's what really tiped us off to the faulty hose. As for the white puff I'm assumeing it was just some water that ran down the pipe from the leak maybe. Too bad I was likeing the idea of dropping in a PI engine