white smoke out exhaust + rough idle

a month ago I fail smog for high nox.

so I did the complete tune up(even though the care was running strong). I changes plugs, wires, 02 sensors, fuel filter, pvc value,oil, filter.

After the tune up the car was running even better than before. I drove the car monday through friday to work with out any problems. Then on the way home from work friday I start to get a rough idle, and a constant stream of white out the exhaust.

At first I thought, "Did I not seal the intercooler tubes correctly? Did one of the spark plugs rattle loose?" I don't think this would cause white smoke. Correct me if I am wrong, doesn't it indicate that you are burring oil if you have white smoke?

Are my head gaskets shot?

Alex

LikeNew92 said:

a month ago I fail smog for high nox.

so I did the complete tune up(even though the care was running strong). I changes plugs, wires, 02 sensors, fuel filter, pvc value,oil, filter.

After the tune up the car was running even better than before. I drove the car monday through friday to work with out any problems. Then on the way home from work friday I start to get a rough idle, and a bunch of white out the exhaust.

At first I thought, "Did I not seal the intercooler tubes correctly? Did one of the spark plugs rattle loose?" I don't think this would cause white smoke. Correct me if I am wrong, doesn't it indicate that you are burring oil if you have white smoke?

Are my head gaskets shot?

Alex

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white smoke is water, blue smoke is oil...

didn't notice any blue in it

I just started the engine agian and noticed that not only does it have white smoke, but the white smoke just keeps comming out. The smoke also has a smell to it.

If this is water what should I check?

If this is oil what should I check?

Does it sound like the head gaskets?

Check to see if the smoke smells sweet, like antifreeze. There may also be some dripping from the exhaust. Check the overflow to see if it's bubbling. With the radiator cap off, it should shoot coolant out if they are blown. Also temp guage may read very high and heat may be hot then cool, ect....

Check oil to see if it is milky looking, like chocolate milk. If you have several of these going on, I'd think the HGs were blown. How long have you driven it since it started doing this? If the coolant has mixed with the oil and settled in the pan, your lower half may need rebuilding.

Im having this same problem did anyone ever figure this out, my car only gives the white smoke when the idle gets rough. other than that the car idles at about 800-1000 rpm and is smooth as butter.

Another thing the car is doing is that when Im drivinging, mainly in first or second gear (stick shift 91) I can hit the gas and its like the engines only running at 50-70 percent, then at around 1800- 2k rpm it just kicks in all the sudden like it was turbo lag and the cars running normal again but the surge is really sudden and I never change throttle position.

most of the time when you see white smoke out of exhaust it is blown head gasket(s) or cracked head(s). Dont drive the car period...if you get coolant in oil you could seize your engine.

That s ahead gasket and I wouldnt reccomend starting it again..Check water..check oil//DRAIN oil

whats with all the old thread ressurections....
p..s all signs point to headgaskets.

when mine let out a huge white cloud, it was cuz it was flooded, or running really rich.

Seriously check oil and water

BlackbirdSc94 said:

... my car only gives the white smoke when the idle gets rough.

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Or you might say, your idle only gets rough when your car gives off the white smoke. Sounds like a head gasket to me, and the water in the cylinder is making it hard to keep running. Do you have any bubbles in the coolant overflow tank?

DamonSlowpokeBaumann said:

That s ahead gasket and I wouldnt reccomend starting it again..Check water..check oil//DRAIN oil

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I just changed the oil 2 days ago and it was fine, black but it was straight oil, will do check the coolant for bubbles or choc milk after class but like I said it only puffs white smoke when the idles rough and no it dosnt always puff white smoke when the idles rough just sometimes and only when the rpms get way low, like 4-500 rpms.

Most of the time she idles at 800 smooth as butter but sometimes it will get loppy like theres a cam in it, I have a bunch of crud all over the cam sensor. I was thinking should I clean the connections or get a new one all together. I still have to run the check engine code when I get in class tommarow. Was going to do it this weekend but the tool guy at the shop was gettin all moody with me about bringing my car in the shop when I didnt have class so I didnt get to do that

Could a bad fuel pump/regulator be a suspect??

rzibilske77 said:

whats with all the old thread ressurections....
p..s all signs point to headgaskets.

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everyone tells people that make new threads on old subjects to use the search button but then when they dont just make a new thread and ask a question in the old one they get bashed for ressurection....WTH DO PEOPLE WANT MANN

Thanks for your input though

BlackbirdSc94 said:

everyone tells people that make new threads on old subjects to use the search button but then when they dont just make a new thread and ask a question in the old one they get bashed for ressurection....WTH DO PEOPLE WANT MANN

Thanks for your input though

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Actually, I liked seeing that you searched and found a post that matched your problem.

Well, you could have an electronic issue. Like a bad BAP sensor or failing crank or cam sensor.

BlackbirdSc94 said:

everyone tells people that make new threads on old subjects to use the search button but then when they dont just make a new thread and ask a question in the old one they get bashed for ressurection....WTH DO PEOPLE WANT MANN

Thanks for your input though

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its no big deal and am also glad to see you used the search quite well, i just said that because someone also drug one up from 2002 not to long ago.....

S_Mazza said:

Well, you could have an electronic issue. Like a bad BAP sensor or failing crank or cam sensor.

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No bubbles in coolant, all levels are fine for the moment and oil is clean

There is a lot of oily grime all over my cam sensor and I also have a oil leak thats droping down on my upstream oxygen sensor, How well do these electrical connects fair with a power washer (engine running of course) because I really need to knock most of the grime and oil off to tell where its leaking from.

Wheres the BAP and cam sensor??

someone else also told me to check the MAF sensor and see if it was dirty but I couldnt get the hose off of the damn thing and I didnt have time to mess with it the last time. On a side note the car didnt start doing the smoking thing until the day AFTER I tried to take the MAF sensor off and I also unpluged it while I was trying to get it off. Battery was still connected.

I wouldn't worry too much about the grime on the cam or O2 sensors. The good stuff is all internal there.

The BAP sensor is located near the passenger side of the firewall. It's the flat black box mounted to the underside of the cowl panel. It's possible to test that with a multimeter that reads frequency. (There is a narrow range of acceptable values for the ambient air pressure.)

The crank sensor is mounted under the black plastic clamshell that surrounds the harmonic balancer.

The MAF housing can be hard to remove from the pipe, but you don't need to do that to clean the electronics. Just remove the 2 tamper-proof Torx screws from the sensor unit and pull it straight out. Then you can see and clean the fine wires inside. You have to be careful with them, as they are pretty fragile.

S_Mazza said:

I wouldn't worry too much about the grime on the cam or O2 sensors. The good stuff is all internal there.

The BAP sensor is located near the passenger side of the firewall. It's the flat black box mounted to the underside of the cowl panel. It's possible to test that with a multimeter that reads frequency. (There is a narrow range of acceptable values for the ambient air pressure.)

The crank sensor is mounted under the black plastic clamshell that surrounds the harmonic balancer.

The MAF housing can be hard to remove from the pipe, but you don't need to do that to clean the electronics. Just remove the 2 tamper-proof Torx screws from the sensor unit and pull it straight out. Then you can see and clean the fine wires inside. You have to be careful with them, as they are pretty fragile.

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made another discovery after class yesterday, I already know my motor mounts are bad but I was looking for that friggin oil leak and discovered that I have a spark plug with a slight chip of insulation missing from it and one of the pullies has moved up against a wire down on the right hand side of the engine bay and exposed the bare wire, its not touching now but theres no doubt that the pully did it so after I get those issues straight (gotta do the mounts, oil filters touching frame) and the oil leak fixed and o2 replaced IF (Im praying thats all it is) that dosnt work what should I check next.

How hard is it to get to the crank sensor, am I going to need or should I just get a new balancer while Im down there messing with it.

Thanks for everyones help so much, the suns out today so Ill get some pictures of my new baby up for you guys started to wax her yesterday and realized im going to need a paint job before next winter and preferably before this winter. but that just means I get to paint it black or whatever color I may change my mind to, was thinking a dark metallic siver with red rally stripes. Gotta do some research to see how these look with rally stripes on em though. Anybody know where I can find some pics

Oh one more question, theres this thing on the SC tubing behind the blower that looks like the part of the throttle body you move to make the engine rev while under the hood except that I noticed when the cars off its all the way to the stop and when the cars running its (i guess) open but when you hit the throttle body really quick it opens or closes partially and is hard to move (stoped trying didnt want to break something) when the engines running.

What is this and what is its purpose. and what would be the symptoms if it were sticking or not operating smoothly