White Smoke/Steam....
Turbo Mini Forums

Hello all.

Heres one for you.....

When my car is running, theres a constant stream of white smoke coming from it. Seems to be about the same level with idle. Its not blue and doesnt look/smell like oil smoke.

The water level is fine, runs normal temp and doesnt overheat.

Headgasket recently done with a bk450, new water pump, thermostat blanking sleeve etc.

Checked with colourtune, nice blue which suggests ok running/burning. Timing is right by looks, according to my manual its 11deg BTDC, which looks right and sounds right when ive adjusted and checked with the timing light.

Now, heres the thing. We richened it up eariler today, and this combated the smoke problem. Slightly richer, basically just played with the mixture and it cleared up.

Dont know if we tried adjusting it back or not, but started the car up about midnight and it was smoking again.

Any ideas? Gunna get the gas tester on it tomorrow and see whats going on fueling wise.

Thanks
Jordie

Should mention its running a refurbished carb too. I havent got a fuel pressure guage to check the reg, but it was driving fine with no problems

are you losing water at all?

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

would dashpot oil have anything to do with this?

Loosing no water, gets upto temp at a normal rate, doesnt overheat

Dashpot oil would burn off quickly if it was, theres still the same amount of oil in since i put the new carb on.

If it doesn't smell, and it's white, it is most probably water.

I would suspect the head gasket as this is exactly what mine did (the 1st time the gasket went)

In the 13's at last!.. Just

i would leave it a bit, its quite humid at the minute and hot/cold all the time. if you're not using it much it could well just be water in the exhaust. its amazing how long that can last!

yip if its a fresh build then jsut ignore it, most likely jsut water in the exhaust, drive it and see how it develops :)

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Would water leaking into a piston cause a tapping sort of noise? The smoke is there from turning the key, but seems to clear when the engine gets above the halfway mark, the white line on the std 3clock temp gauge.

Its tapping like mad, sounds like a tractor.

I re-torqued the head gasket, and the nuts around piston 2 (if starting at radiator end) turned between half a turn and a full turn before clicking. The rest clicked and said they were tight.

I had a problem with the engine when it first run, we realised it had air locked as the heater didnt get warm. We fixed this, but now am thinking it could have blown the gasket and now its leaking water into the piston.....sound reasonable?

Looking like an headgasket and getting the head checked for any warpage.

an airlock may have caused excessive heat in one spot

My thoughts also.

Would water getting into the fuel/pistons/turbo cause a clicking/tapping noise?

take out the plugs, turn it over and see if any water comes out

That sounds perfectly normal for this time of year. Have at look at the other cars on the road first thing in a morning, and all the recently started cars will have smoking exhausts.

Its constant smoke, increasing with revs, for about 20-30mins then it clears abit. Leave car 10mins to cool, and start it up again and its the same.

Plus its tapping like mad, i think i should do the headgasket again, as i cant risk it, im taking the car to holland in may.

Engine warm, no choke, idling abit fast here cos i had been messing with the mixture/idle speed eariler.

Temp gauge showing nearly the half way mark.

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x250/Jo...nt=MOV00224.flv

Take and look, whats your opinion....Note the clicking noise from the engine only started yesterday.

re check tAPPETS ,and check oil level in sump , try to lower it to low point on dipstick and try again .

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

defo the tappets

Had to get the head skimmed 12thou to get it straight. So new gasket, carb gaskets etc, fresh oil and filter and its running champion now.

Guy said the head was allsorts of shapes.

And yes, it was the tappet, one had come loose and was slapping around

is it all sorted now? the vid kinda looked bluish smoke but not overly blue, just my opinion tho

David.

Yeah, running clear as a daisy now. Gas tester reading 3.00% which i think is a pass. Engine seems to idle ok, temp is fine, no water loss.

Good work!

In the 13's at last!.. Just