FLUX Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Well as the title says I replaced the head gasket and the piston rings. Truck started right up, adjusted the timing and it started back firing through the carb. Got my timing light and found that the distributor was a tooth off (replaced timing cover due to excessive corrosion). Anyway large amounts of white smoke is coming out of the exhaust. Figured it was water sitting in the exhaust from when the previous headgasket blew. Kept cycling the rpms to break in rings and smoke did not stop. Finally I jumped in and took it for a test drive and when I got back (just under two miles) it died. Pulled spark plugs and they were all black. Pulled air cleaner and found A LOT of fuel in the carb. Fellow mechanic said I needed to rebuild the carb, which I completely agree with. My question is can an excessive rich condition lead to white smoke? Cylinder head was pressure tested and resurfaced and I am loosing no coolant and oil is NOT milky and vehicle is NOT overheating. Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Is the oil still clean, free of water? White smoke is likely one of two things, water/steam or a lot of oil being burnt, my valve guide seals were wore out, when I added oil in the morning, it had to burn off what oil got past the seals, it would smoke up the neighborhood till it was burnt off, but it did clear up after maybe 5 minutes. Maybe oil is getting by the new rings? Quote Link to comment
FLUX Posted January 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 There is no oil in the water and the plugs smell of gas... I heard somewhere that an excessive rich mixture can cause white smoke.. I don't know.. How long to new rings take to seat? Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Too rich is usually black smoke, from unburnt carbon. Can you pressure test the cooling system? Are you still running straight water, or have you added antifreeze already? If you have antifreeze in the system, go and smell the exhaust. Does it have a sweet smell, that is antifreeze. Also too rich, will smell bad, maybe like gas, or even make your eyes water. Can you do a compression test? A leakdown test? Look in the radiator, engine running, for bubbles. Quote Link to comment
ggzilla Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 White smoke is water vapor. It dissipates in the air Bluish white smoke is oil burning, it blows away in the wind but does not dissipate Quote Link to comment
mikeanike99 Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 My truck blows white smoke till it warms up then it's stops don't know why that is though Quote Link to comment
ggzilla Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 It is normal for water vapor until the exhaust system gets hot enough to vaporize it. Gasoline engine has two main byproducts: H2O and CO2. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Two miles isn't nearly enough to thoroughly warm up either the engine or the exhaust system. There could be a few cups of water in the muffler still. I imagine it gets cold in Flagstaff? Even a small amount of water vapor will show up white in the cold. Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Fuel burns white in the Z32.. Normally you'd expect a dark gray or black smoke for a rich condition. It's not unheard of to burn white.. but this is a completely different application. Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 If you have a water heated head the intake maybe be loose. but 77 Im not sure the set up. Early L16 has a heater head that usues a water line and if the intake manifold is loose it could suck water in the 2 and 3 cylinders. You can ck the spark plugs to see if which cylinder are nice and clean(water) 1 Quote Link to comment
dr.feltersnatch Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 I agree its water vapor, check your intake gasket and double check all hoses are routed properly. I would also clean or replace plugs and let her run for a while. Quote Link to comment
FLUX Posted January 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Okay so I drove the truck again today. It's about 60 degrees here and it didn't smoke nearly as much as last night. How long does it take for rings to seat? Anyway, I noticed that the smoke would go from a black to a white. Pulled the truck into the shop and tried to let it idle, which it would idle for about 15 seconds then die. I got curious and pulled the fuel return line off on the passengers side of the engine and noticed no fuel (BONE DRY)! So, I took the aircleaner off again and to my surprise fuel is flowing not dripping... out of the jets. So I turn the key off. I guess I should fix the float valve before anything! I should have mentioned that mine has factory A/C and has an electric fuel pump.. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 The fuel should also be returning to the tank, at least some should. Blow in the end... hear anything at the filler? This a stock carb? Just look at the glass on the front. Level should be at the line or dot on the glass. Flooding... Float not adjusted Needle valve damaged or blocked by dirt or debris. Main jet loosened and fell out. Over pressure from the fuel pump. Quote Link to comment
FLUX Posted January 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Stock carb and level cannot be seen in the glass (too full).. Also, pinched the fuel line going to the carb and fuel started to come out return line so it's not clogged. Possibly something go screwed up when it back fired through the carb? Quote Link to comment
ggzilla Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 Yes. Time to reset the float level. Quote Link to comment
Aibast Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 you got L engines with coolant heated manifol???? Damn, J15 doesn't have it and the carb keeps freezing without proper hot air intake. I once had problem with white smoke from the exhaust with a Volvo - reason was water in the gastank from bad fuel. If it sets, then it sinks to the bottom of the tank. And gets sucked in like normal fuel. Just need to burn it out. But if you get water with fuel you should see realy clean plugs not black. Water injecting is an old engine cleaning trick used as long as there been cars. Black plug are result of bad burn - bad spark on to rich mixture. As said before the 2 mile run doesn't get exhaust hot enough to vaporize all the moisture in the tubing. First adjust the fuel level in the carb, that can cause a whole lot of trouble. Recheck your ignition timing and spark caps. Then get the truck to proper work temperature and see what happens. I today ran my R for about 1hour idling in the parking lot to charge the batteri (Volvo has a voltage regulator, giving out constant 14V no mather the rpm, you can recharge the batteri with just idling that way). The white smoke startet to goa away after 45 minuts of running. Thats how long it took to just cook of the moisture in the exhaust. on an carb engine plugs are a good diagnostic tool Quote Link to comment
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