About 2 weeks ago I gased my car leaving a stop sign, just enough to spin my tires.When I did this I heard a loud pop and my car died. Since then, I got it running (needed a new battery). THe only other thing I replaced was spark plugs. Now, there is white smoke coming from the tail pipes and there is a faint "click" coming from the engine. I read about symptoms for a blown head gasket and my car hasn't shown any of those. The only thing is that I have an oil leak so I don't have full oil (I had half according to the dipstick) in the engine. Could this cause the white smoke and what is the click in the engine? Thanks for the help.

 

White smoke = fuel smoke usually. The click could be your engine knocking, maybe a trashed valve. Not sure but the smoke itself would make me start looking at the fuel system.

 

FYI....

White smoke= steam - water / coolant / moisture in exhaust
Black smoke= unburnt fuel
Blue smoke= oil

 

I started my car today and there was no smoke. Car idled and ran normal. I checked my oil and antifreeze and both looked normal. My oil is a little low but that's because I have a leak somewhere. Only reason I'm still not ruling out a head gasket is the pressure in the radiator builds up fast. I let the car idle for about a minute then shut it off. I waited about 30 minutes then took the radiator cap off. SOme antifreeze spewed out. Think it may be the head gasket?

 

you don't have to have oil mixing with the coolant (chocolate milk) to have a BHG. If it's a combustion to coolant blow, it will just push exhaust gases into the cooling system and a little coolant will mix go into the combustion chambers causing minimal white smoke...enoguh to not be noticed all the time or cause too much of an issue. The best way to test for a BHG is either a compression test and/or getting a tester from NAPA. I had to do this on my supra (sold by the way!!!!) and it showed I had a BHG. You replace your rad cap with teh tester and it changes certain colors, if there's combustion gases in the cooling system, it changes a certain color and tells you if you have a BHG. I'd do this test. OH, and white smoke IS NOT UNBURNT FUEL! black smoke is unburnt fuel! White smoke is burning water or coolant.

 

i thought blue smoke was unburnt fuel black smoke was burnt oil white was coolant....hmmm...ok rule out the headgasket once and for all and do a compressions check on your cylinders....then you can know if engine is healthy or not...its a start...

 

nope...blue smoke....burnign oil....black smoke....unburnt fuel......white smoke....burning water/coolant

 

Lol............. on smoke color

 

"Smoooooke on the waaateeerrrr,
and fire in the sky"

 

I'm going to test it tommorrow. What are good compression numbers?

 

NA 142-187psi, TT 128-171psi

 

Deep Purple, 1973

 

Even if the compression numbers come out good, if you still have issues, I'd test for combustion gases in the cooling system. You may find that it runs fine for in town driving and short trips, but as soon as yuo take it out on a longer drive or something a little more challenging for the car, you may start to overheat.

 

Well my numbers seem okay. I had 150,145,140,140,140,130. I'm assuming thats decent if not good. How would I test for combustion gases in the cooling system? The car still runs good and doesn't smoke as much. I guess I can pretty much rule out a blown head gasket?

 

hmmm.... a bit unsteady....not bad...sept that 130...that would worry me. nothin is gonna suffer...but i would watch that cylinder make sure its not loosing more and more compression. i umm...doubt theres a blown headgasket though, youd get much lower numbers....the tinyest of leaks will result with huge compression loss...

 

Aww man...now I'm really confused. What does purple smoke mean??!

 

This isn't true. My compression #'s looked ok when I did a compression test, but I still had a VERY BHG. To test for combustion gases in the cooling system, go to NAPA autoparts and get a tester (around $40 last time I checked). Just ask them for it. Follow the directions (includes placing the tester on your radiator in place of your radiator cap and then running your engine until warmup. the tester will change certain colors letting you know if there is combustion gases or not.)

 

I assume that since he said his numbers seemed fine that he has a TT, because if it were an NA, he wouldn't have said they were fine as four of his cylinders are out of spec for NAs. Of course, as usual, the thread starter didn't give us this bit of critical information, but I think we can make the assumptions that it's TT.

So, if the Factory Service Manual says 128 to 171 psi is acceptable for a TT, and 128 < 130 < 171, you can conclude that the cylinder is fine.

When I had a cracked piston, it still fired provided I was under 14 psi of boost, and it had less than 75 psi of compression.

 

yeah well my cylinder didnt show signs of crap till it went under at 95 psi.....and it was an NA....so i assumed this from my experience. but your right never said if it was a TT or NA.

 

Yeah, sorry I never specified. I do have a TT.

I'll get the tester to see if there is gases in my coolant. I'm still having some minor white smoke coming out of the passenger side exhaust. I drove the car though and runs fine. That smoke just worries me.

 

Ever think it might just be steam?

The products of complete combustion are water and carbon dioxide. Heat up water enough (like in an exhaust) and it becomes steam...

Of course, it could be coolant too, but if you do the coolant test and it comes back fine, it may seriously be nothing at all to worry about.

In the end, if this test shows that your coolant is not contaminated, just find a local shop that works on Zs and see what they say... if it runs fine, though, it's probably nothing major. If it were black or blue smoke, it'd likely be more serious.

 

Imagine that....a problem with a Z32 may turn out to be nothing. That has to be a first.

 

I have, as a matter of fact, been so fortunate.

Once, after punching it down a strip of road in the forest preserves, after not driving the car for months (the first day it was out of storage), I lost a cylinder. Knowing that I had used ethanol gas recently by mistake, I suspected it was a dead injector that stuck open after I boosted hard. Tested the injectors the next morning, and they all read 11.3-11.4 ohms. One of my ignition coil caps had come loose due to engine vibration.

 

forest preserves around here are great to hit it....and some are twisty....but they are paved like CRAP....

 

of course, if it tests out ok, you'll probably be fine like zlover said.