Uh OH Huge Cloud Of Smoke

[Fuzz420]

I went to Mcdonalds for a late night snack. Everything was fine until i ordered. I noticed a lot "steam" coming out of the tail pipe. I immediatly thought it was a little odd considering its fairly warm out 50-60 degrees. Then about a minute or two later as im easing through drive through i noticed an ungodly amount of smoke now absolutly engulfing the area. It was so bad that the car behind me wouldnt come close, which i dont blame them.

My first thought is my hq let go. But when i was finally able to leave drive through and get on the main road and give it throttle, i only got a puff of smoke and the "freight train" smoke stopped. I came home and revved the motor and no smoke whatsoever.

Another scenario im thinking of is oil has seeped in and accumulating to the point to where it had to go somewhere and that somewhere was to be burned up and sent out the tail pipe. Tomorrow when i get light ill check fluids and make sure no coolant overflowed.Lastly the car did not overheat during this whole fiasco

 

[Nomad707]

Theres a few possibilities here...

1) You could have old valve seals with oil getting through into the cylenders thus causing huge amounts of smokey exhuast.

2) blown headgasket thats burning water off (causes steamy exhuast)

3) Oil is leaking onto your exhuast somewhere.

Check your oil, pray for no milkshake... but it sounds like bhg or seals.

 

[johnathan1]

Were you pressing the brakes when this happened?

 

[Fuzz420]

Nomad-Thanks for the input, ill definetly be checking the oil in the moring

johnathan-yes i was pressing the brakes while this was happening

 

[Frank Rizzo]

Color of smoke?

If it was blue it sounds like valve seals to me.

 

[Kckazdude]

Look for a blue tinted cloud that lingers when you first crank your car. May even be able to walk behind it and smell the smoke. If it clears up shortly and smells like oil then it is a good chance you have leaky valve seals.

 

[johnathan1]

johnathan-yes i was pressing the brakes while this was happening

Hmm...I'm wondering if it could be you brake master cylinder leaking into the intake manifold. My NA Supra had that problem, I started the car, pulled out of my garage and stepped on the brakes and the car was immediately engulfed in smoke. I literally couldn't see 10ft away there was so much of it. The smoke also smelled very strange and was pure white.

 

[AJ'S 88NA]

Hmm...I'm wondering if it could be you brake master cylinder leaking into the intake manifold. My NA Supra had that problem, I started the car, pulled out of my garage and stepped on the brakes and the car was immediately engulfed in smoke. I literally couldn't see 10ft away there was so much of it. The smoke also smelled very strange and was pure white.

Wow that would be an odd one, never heard of that before but I guess it is possible.

 

[Fuzz420]

Frank-Its Hard to determine the color of the smoke when it was dark, The best i could tell the smoke was white

Kckazdude- I do get blue smoke at start up.Its been like this for almost a year. But it would only smoke on cold start ups

Johnathan-Ill give the BMS a look over

 

[Fuzz420]

Ok just got back in from checking the car over. First thing i check was the overflow tank and it look normal, wasnt low or anything. Didnt appear to overflow at anytime. Next i checked the coolant in the radiator. First thing i noticed it was low. I filled it back up with about a quarter gallon of fluid. After i filled it to the top, i proceeded to check the ground, and it appeared to be quite the amount of fluid on the ground. I know i missed a little but there was A LOT of fluid on the ground.Lastly i check the oil, and it looked normal besides needing to be changed.

While i filled up the coolant in the radiator, i let the car run and turned the heat on full blast. After 10 minutes or so the car finally reached operating temperature but the heat blowing from the vents never got hot. I woke up too late to get anything done today, but tomorrow im going to check for any coolant leaks from a high pressure hose. Ill go out a little later tonight to make sure nothing but oil has reached the ground since this first check.

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

Wow, something's amiss in KY... Mine's been doing the EXACT same thing ever since the meet! I about choked a couple dozen kids to death last week when I dropped my son off at school.

I've settled on valve seals and/or guides as the issue and the main excuse I needed to take my car out of commission for a rebuild.

 

[Fuzz420]

Wow, something's amiss in KY... Mine's been doing the EXACT same thing ever since the meet! I about choked a couple dozen kids to death last week when I dropped my son off at school.

I've settled on valve seals and/or guides as the issue and the main excuse I needed to take my car out of commission for a rebuild.

How ironic two different cars same symptoms. The car needs to hold up just a bit longer, and ill have a fresh rebuilt gte to swap in, but until then:aigo:

 

[cuel]

Check the heater valve(next to charcoal canister), and make sure it's opening correctly.

 

[AJ'S 88NA]

If your coolant level got kind of low then you probably need to burp the system, and like cuel said to check the heater control valve.

 

[Fuzz420]

Welp its official the car is done.

It survived the holiday weekend thank god, she didnt fail until everything was said and done with. Saturday night when i returned home from a 100+mile adventure, the second i pulled up in my parking spot and stopped. Smoke came bellowing out from the under the hood. I check the temp gauge and it was going up. I shut the car down, popped the hood and serious smoke came out. I could hear the coolant in the radiator boiling. I checked the overflow tank and steam was rolling out from there as well. I closed up everthing for the night and went to sleep.

went out when i woke up the next day started it up ,and the car was stumbling something serious(5 or 4 cylinders firing only), and the infamous smoke cloud started coming out the tailpipe engulfing the area. It smelled of coolant real bad. Without doing a compression test, im pretty sure the hg is done. Its been a fun run but its time take the car off the road

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

Good thing you've got the rebuild coming up quick, but sorry to hear Aaron. Is it going to be done soon enough or are you going to have to pick up something new?

I've been down the bhg road once before and read a hundred threads on others, but blue smoke on idle/decel being an indicator of a HG going?!? That's new to me, and scaring the crap out of me since I can't seem to get the tranny installed on the Celica and I'm SOL if I don't have something to drive.

 

[Fuzz420]

Good thing you've got the rebuild coming up quick, but sorry to hear Aaron. Is it going to be done soon enough or are you going to have to pick up something new?

I've been down the bhg road once before and read a hundred threads on others, but blue smoke on idle/decel being an indicator of a HG going?!? That's new to me, and scaring the crap out of me since I can't seem to get the tranny installed on the Celica and I'm SOL if I don't have something to drive.

The goodnews is i just got off the phone with the shop, and they are FINALLY building my block. I told them my hg let go, so the car will be going in today or some other day this week. The shitty part is i have to get it towed in



blue smoke is oil my smoke was white and sweet smelling, i wish it was blue on idle/decel. Goodluck with the celica project, i like you am carless as well