Another white smoke question....

Chaotic Neutral

ex machina
Jul 5, 2005
32
0
6
Canton, GA
Yep, car has white smoke at start up. But, let's backtrack for a second.

Got the car about a year ago. Transmission was shot, so I wasn't really driving it around. On start up, it was pretty much an explosion of white smoke out the back, that would mostly go away after a few minutes. Still some, but mostly gone.

Took it into Toyota, their response was that I had a gasket leak, and oil was seeping into somewhere, and burning off at start up.

$600 worth of repairs, they said it was good. Sure enough, when I fired it up at Toyota, no smoke. Towed it home, fired it up again, no smoke.

Unfortunately, the car has sat for a long time, having no funds to fix the transmission.

Started it up yesterday, because my daily driver is about to die, and I was thinking it might be cheaper to fix the Supra.....instant mushroom cloud of smoke. Let it run for a while, and the smoke died down, but didn't go away.

Turned it off, started up again, no mushroom cloud, but after a few seconds - whitish smoke. Not a heavy amount, but definitely visible.

Did the test of removing the coolant cap, and starting the car; which I saw in another post. Coolant did not overflow.

No check engine light. All gauges seem right. All fluid levels seem right. Idle is solid.

If it's a bhg, I'm going to have to just bite the bullet, and sink my money into my daily driver....but that's about to die too, so either way, it's going to kill me.

Ideas? Somehow it just doesn't strike me as a BHG....had one of those before, and this seems different. But what do I know?

Thanks!
 
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Fuzz420

Are U Here 2 take My Baby
When my hg blew my car smoked like a freight train at start up and the rest of the time. Before the hg blew i had smoke on start up which was more like a healthy puff which sizzled down after warm:due to the valve guides being worn.Is it more like a train or a puff?
 

Chaotic Neutral

ex machina
Jul 5, 2005
32
0
6
Canton, GA
Fuzz420;1235865 said:
When my hg blew my car smoked like a freight train at start up and the rest of the time. Before the hg blew i had smoke on start up which was more like a healthy puff which sizzled down after warm:due to the valve guides being worn.Is it more like a train or a puff?


Well, I fired her up again, and let her run for about 10-15 minutes, to see which it was closer to.

No smoke on initial start up, now. About 20 seconds of idling, smoke begins to appear. Less than you'd see on a cold morning.

I let it idle for a few more minutes, no change in amount of smoke.

Reved it to around 2500 for a few seconds; instant huge amount of smoke.

Dropped back down to idle, but the smoke kept coming at the same volume. Had to shut it off, because my garage was getting filled with smoke. Idle remained solid, all gauges looked normal.

So....not sure which of those two, this would fall under. :dunno:

Side note: checked the oil while I was there. Oil looks fine. Medium brown. Right level, etc.
 

supraman508

New Member
Sep 19, 2007
496
0
0
maryland
dumbo;1236488 said:
i would do a compression test after you give it a drive, its been sitting. only my opinion.
Sorry to say,but you have a blown headgasket.How i know is that iv'e gone and had to fix this problem 3 times and had the same simptoms.white smoke,timing sound like it's off because of the blown headgasket.At the same time my gauges were fine,no engine light as well.when i drove her their was hesitating when steping on the gas,like she had 80hp l.o.l.good luck.
 

Chaotic Neutral

ex machina
Jul 5, 2005
32
0
6
Canton, GA
supraman508;1236914 said:
Sorry to say,but you have a blown headgasket.How i know is that iv'e gone and had to fix this problem 3 times and had the same simptoms.white smoke,timing sound like it's off because of the blown headgasket.At the same time my gauges were fine,no engine light as well.when i drove her their was hesitating when steping on the gas,like she had 80hp l.o.l.good luck.

Well, though I'm loathe to say it, I'm glad that at least I know what it is now.

That definitely matches the symptoms. When I tried to drive her around, she'd barely get up to 20-30mph; wouldn't shift, etc. Felt like there was just no guts to her at all.

Toyota had told me I had a leaky valve cover gasket, so they fixed that. Said the shifting/lack of power was a bad ECU.

Got a new ECU, no change. ECU was perfectly fine. They ended up firing the guy who told me that, lol. Not because of me, but because I was one example of many.

Then I got told: bad tranny. So, got a new tranny, but haven't installed.

At least now I know where to start, before chasing down ghosts.

Thanks everyone. :)

I suppose my next question/post will be if there's anyone in the north GA area, that can help me repair this cheaper than Toyota will......
 

dumbo

Supramania Contributor
Jul 16, 2008
1,911
0
0
Albera, Too Far North
supraman508;1236914 said:
Sorry to say,but you have a blown headgasket.How i know is that iv'e gone and had to fix this problem 3 times and had the same simptoms.white smoke,timing sound like it's off because of the blown headgasket.At the same time my gauges were fine,no engine light as well.when i drove her their was hesitating when steping on the gas,like she had 80hp l.o.l.good luck.

if you certain its a bhg then yes a drive would only further worsen things. otherwise a car thats been sitting i like to give it 'spirited' drive to help "re-seat" the rings.