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The text above is a follow-up to ...
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hello and thank you for helping me out well i have a 95 geo traker and it has the 16 valve 1.6 engine in it with 200,000 miles on it and i just got it to run but it seems like its been awhile sence it ran but when it started i could see some white smoke out the tail pipe and when i riv it up i see oil smoke also i think but its alot of smoke and there was some white stuff on dip stick and oil cap but after running awhile that went away but still smoked out tail pipe so let me know what it could be and what i can do but i also can do headgasket change i have done one on a dodge neon so i can do one but i also wanted to know if its worth doing it or not so let me know what it sounds like and thank you very much for helping me out
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Hi Holly,
Impressive that you can do your own heavy car repairs. Good for you. I know of only a half dozen girls who have gone through autoshop around me, in high school. I think I heard that there are only a dozen or so lady State Certified Mechanics in Michigan. It is too bad. It is not hard, just dirty sometimes. There is a lot of $$$ under a hood.
Anyway, your question. I get long winded sometimes. Blue is Oil. White is steam. Black is rich gas. You know that I bet.
Here are the things it could be:
Is it cold where you live? Could be temperature. Are other cars smoking at cold start-up?
How well do you know this truck? Was it doing this the last time it was driven? Does someone else drive it? Could they have done something to the truck?
Do you think the exhaust could be retaining water vapor? Many exhausts drip water, and if it accumulates in the tailpipe, it could produce a smoke.
Blue is oil burning. A puff of blue at start up, or puff at rev from a red light is tell tale valve steam seals. Consistant blue with that oil smell is rings. If rings you would see oil in the air intake valve, or air cleaner. Oil soaked plugs as well. Can come from a cracked head or bad head gasket.
Black is rich fuel mixture.
White smoke is steam. Could be normal, or not. Lots and lots of white smoke indicates anti-freeze in the combustion chamber. From age or over heating the engine. You should use a less poundage radiator cap with that many miles. Too much pressure can blow head gaskets and old wore out radiators. Causes of this smoke is cracked cylinder, cracked head, blown head gasket. There are some off the wall pathways too. But I doubt that applies here.
Now, to diagnose a head gasket:
A lot of smoke. More at rev up. More at warm up. Lack of power. Has a real strong unusual smell with it. What is the level in the oil pan? Is it high? Is the oil milky? Looks like a rootbeer float? Is the radiator low? Does the car overheat? Did someone overheat it? Only a couple of bad plugs.
Do a pressure test on the radiator and see if you get noise in the oil pan. Also do a pressure test on the cylinders and listen for gurgling in the radiator. Check the plugs for the one that looks like it may be passing funky material.
White stuff on cap and dipstick is sometimes normal. This can be foam from the detergents in the oil. Ford is known for this 'stuff'.
Is it worth it? Up to you. Go to KBB.COM to evaluate the car. I don't know all the questions they ask.
SOUNDS LIKE A HEADGASKET TO ME!!! The question is, why. Did this overheat? Or just age? Or some other reason. Check for prices before you start. You may be able to get a new long block (with heads) for not much more, or the same price (if your cracked). Changing the motor is not much harder than the head.
If you do this job, beware that this probably has dual over head cams. Verify this and if so, get them synchronized correctly on the rebuild.
Hope this helps. Write back sometime to tell me how it went. Good luck with your 'wrenching' over the years. You seem young based on your question. If so, a career in Drivability can pay $100K or more. Mostly computer work. Check it out:-)
C J S
hey hows it going lol its me again well i done a compression test and they all came out to be 190 in each and the normal range is 175 to 190 lol and also i drained a court of oil out of the engine to make it right at the full mark and also i had a cup under the tail pipe and in about 25 mins i got a ahlf cup of water come out of it lol so what now but the engine sounds real good the bottom end sounds good and all u can hear is the injectors ticking and thats it lol so let me know somthing and thank you very very much and i like long winded answers so tell me all u like and thank you so very much again
your friend
Holly
AnswerHi Holly,
I am going to talk to you as if you were a fellow mechanic, since you seem to more knowledgeable than most people I respond to.
By the first description, I got the impression that it smoked blue and white at first then went to white. The white never stopped, even after warm up.
By this description, I get the impression that it runs great, the oil was overfull, and the tail pipe produces 1/2 cup of water in 1/2 hour.
I know that if you are a quart over full, it could cause the oil to get into the combustion chamber. Pressure in the crankcase will cause the oil to be drawn up into the bottom of the jugs, and overcome the rings. This ends up being burned and sent out the tailpipe.
Bad valve stem seals or worn valve stem shafts will cause oil under the valve covers to leak down the stems and upon start up, this pooled oil is sent out the tailpipe.
Oil is the CAT's enemy. If you smoked oil throught the CAT long enough, you could have killed it. If the CAT is dead, then exhaust gases that are supposed to burned off and turned to CO2 get by, and come out the tail pipe in the form of steam.
When a head gasket or head is bad, you will get profuse smoke. Not just a little. The radiator will be empty, and you will have milky oil. The motor will overheat. The compression could be OK, if the problem is not related to a cylinder. You could have lost a seal between oil and coolant journals. The coolant would pour into the oil.
My guess, your motor is fine. If the stem seals are bad, no big deal. Check the oil periodically. Once you have determined this is a problem, if you want to change them, I can tell you how. The CAT may be failing, that is OK. As long as your exhaust is not plugging up. Now that the oil level is good, you might notice the smoking going away.
Good luck with this. Check out KBB.com.
C J S
