blowing smoke?

littleboylan

Registered User
white smoke, then black out the exhaust, any help?

Alright heres the scenario, I left work and my buddy was behind me, he says that when I take off, there is a burst of white smoke out the exhaust, then black smoke there after, under acceleration that is, there is no abnormal smoke under idle, Im thinking that my spark plugs are needing to be changed, is this a good idea? please help me asap, THanks MIke
 
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Changing is probably not going to help puff of white if it's actually what I think it may be but pulling them for a once over is definately a good idea. I would be watching coolant level and pulling the dipstick looking for milk. How many miles on the motor? Black under hard acceleration is pretty typical without a tuner and may be cleared up a bit if plugs have not been replaced for some time. You need to start diagnosing for a blown headgasket though.
 
white smoke

i see you are in Michigan (or is MI Minnesota?? ) well either way the point is you are in a cold climate...... could it be that the 'white' smoke is just normal vapor from the hot exhaust going out into the cold air? Just a thought...... if that's not it then definitely check for coolant in oil, oil in coolant. You can also get a kit at NAPA (and other's i assume) that uses a blue fluid to check for exhaust gasses in your cooling system. You hold this thing over the radiator opening (it's got like a rubber snout so it's a universal fit) and if there are exhaust gasses in your cooling system the fluid will turn from blue to yellow....... costs about 40 bucks for the kit.
 
update

ok, first the plugs havent been changed since I have had the car, which has been about 8 months, and I doubt the guy before me changed them either, also I believe the white smoke is just the vapor, Im thinking that a tune up is defintely needed, the engine does have some miles on it, but im sure the headgaskets are fine, I had a mechanic check them, but hes not sure why the black smoke, I didnt give him the whole details though, anyways any more help would be great thanks MIke
 
black smoke is often a sign of a boost leak. the maf meter reads the flow and tells the computer how mutch fuel to add. if you are leaking air the mix will be rich. i think there is something in the f.a.q. section. but also that 40 bucks could save you several thousand.
 
Re: update

littleboylan said:
ok, first the plugs havent been changed since I have had the car, which has been about 8 months, and I doubt the guy before me changed them either, also I believe the white smoke is just the vapor, Im thinking that a tune up is defintely needed, the engine does have some miles on it, but im sure the headgaskets are fine, I had a mechanic check them, but hes not sure why the black smoke, I didnt give him the whole details though, anyways any more help would be great thanks MIke

You had him check them? What did he remove the heads and inspect them? He doesn't know what black smoke means???

Get another mechanic.

Black smoke is normal. it means that the engine is burning excess fuel. Ford has set up the fuel tables for a rich condition, this keeps the engine out of detonation and cool, which saves the engine.

I'm pretty sure that it's cold up there and the white smoke could be just vapor. knowing ang thinking that your headgaskets are OK can be 2 different things. You need to check. Do a compression check. It took about 3 months b4 my headgaskets finally went. mine started out as a little white smoke on startup and ended up with a 200 psi cylinder when I did a compression check.

Jeff
 
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