White smoke... sign of detonation???

rad_al_

Registered User
Within the last week or so, I've noticed my car blowing out a lot of white smoke. It's happening at WOT around 4000+ rpm to redline. Is it early signs of detonation, is it because I have no cats, or something else. Dave Dalke did my tune a few months ago but it was pretty cool out. Today it was around 90° ... could the hotter weather be the cause?
Thanks
 
Its more like a sign of a bad head gasket which can be caused by detonation. Get your cooling system pressure checked to see if there is a leak.
 
White smoke means burning coolant. Since it's only happening at high RPM I wonder if it's intake or head gasket. Probably head gasket but you won't know until you pull it apart.

Keep a close watch on your coolant level and your oil level. If you find coolant in the oil (oil level goes up, or milky cream on the underside of the fill cap) stop driving it. Coolant mixed with engine oil and combustion gases creates a acidic mix that will eat rod and main bearings.

What you might think is detonation is likely just the questionable cylinder dropping out when it gets water in, creating a miss.
 
that is probably normal at higher rpm cause the boost is burning moisture out of the muffler mine does it too and my headgaskets are good . if your not losing coolant dont worry about it
 
rlong said:
that is probably normal at higher rpm cause the boost is burning moisture out of the muffler mine does it too and my headgaskets are good . if your not losing coolant dont worry about it

I would agree with "rlong" that you should not worrying about the little things. When I first had my exaust done i was worried about exaust steam and drips of water out of the tail-pipes. However when i asked the exaust guy said, "Take a deep breath, and tell me what you feel in the air..." The answer was:moisture.
Your motor sucks in moisture from the atmosphere, and it has to leave the motor again. Usually in condensation dripping out the tailpipe, and sometimes in steam out the tailpipe.

If the smoke is excessive, then you shoud definitly think about serious problems that could be causing it.
 
Rad_al_... How many miles on the engine / HG? Milky colored oil, overheating or bubbles in the coolant is a sure sign of HG failure, I have had to replace 2 sets recently at 110,000 miles and another at 160,000 miles.

Mike8675309 said:
White smoke means burning coolant. Since it's only happening at high RPM I wonder if it's intake or head gasket. Probably head gasket but you won't know until you pull it apart.

Mike,

I also have white smoke coming from the pipes, engine was just rebuilt 600 miles ago. The local mech says the rigns may not have sealed yet but, I am suspecting something else. You mentioned the intake gasket could be a problem. The exhaust smells real rich so I am thinking unburned fuel. I guess it is possible the rebuilder did not get the HG to seal correctly but I don't see any antifreeze in the oil. Unlike rad_al_, mine happens at much less than WOT. Are the problems related?
 
When my headgasket failed I never saw signs of coolant in the oil. Just coming out the tail pipe and signs of combustion gases and oil in the coolant recovery tank.

I think the key is that when we mean lots of white smoke , we're talking lots of white smoke. Like a cloud of white smoke. So if you're just seeing a puff, could be anything.

For sure you should see some change in coolant level if you're burning coolant. Either it'll go up, or it'll go down. usually down, but in my last case, it went up.

And yes, if the rings are having trouble seating, you can see some smoke due to that for a while. Local guy had a 4.6 block built forged and was blowing all sorts of smoke at a dyno tune. Took a good couple months to stop smoking. I'm considering the expensive dry compound from total seal to help the rings seat on my engine rebuild.
 
After my rebuild, my motor is still producing white smoke as well. It must be oil because it continues to be low, have to re-fill quite often. I only have about 850 miles on the new motor, how long can it take to have the rings seal? Anything I can add to speed up the process?
 
White smoke is water. Oil burns grey/black.

You may have a bunch of water in the cats and exhaust pipes that's still working it's way out. Otherwise something didn't seal when you bolted it back together.

If rings don't seat after the first 60 miles, you may have a challege on your hands getting them to seat at all. I'd talk to the ring supplier to see what they recommend.
 
Yeah I understand, grey is the color coming out of the pipes, sorry. I removed the cats after the headgasket failure and have downpipes now. Again, it is hard to believe it is water simply because the coolant level does not drop, but the oil consumption is horrendous. Impossible to contact the ring maker or even the company that rebuilt the motor, they went out of business! (great) What if anything can I do to figure out where the oil is coming from? Car runs great, just smoky as hell.

What happened to rad_al?
 
ruswin said:
Rad_al_... How many miles on the engine / HG? Milky colored oil, overheating or bubbles in the coolant is a sure sign of HG failure, I have had to replace 2 sets recently at 110,000 miles and another at 160,000 miles.

What happened to rad_al?

I'm still around. I haven't looked at this post for 2 months.
Anyway, there's about 112,000 miles on the car, the oil looks fine & it doesn't overheat.
I guess there isn't a lot of smoke, it's more like very noticeable puffs of smoke, but to me, any amount of smoke that isn't supposed to be there is a lot! Also I've noticed the smoke starting at high RPM's & a little more right when I push in the clutch to shift. Maybe that new bit of info could be even more helpful.
One more thing I'd like to add. I had put some Sea Foam in the gas about a week before this happened. Most people say that black smoke occurs because it's cleaning out the carbon but white smoke can occur with a cleaner engine just because it's a detergent doing what it's supposed to be doing.

Thanks for all the help guys!
-Al
 
Maybe give total Seal a call and see if they have anything you can add to the cylinders to help correct issues with ring seating. The problem becomes they get glazed by engine oil then can't apply proper pressure to scour the cylinder walls.

If you want to try to get old school on it you can get Seafoam. Run a half a can through the intake via a vacuum line with the engine stuttering. Then let it suck the last 1/2 down and let it die. Let it sit overnight and then try to seat the rings again.

Another old scool thing is pull the plugs and squirt marvel myster oil down the cylinders.

If the rings are stuck, both approaches may free them up.
 
You should have come to the Medina dyno tune we had this weekend. We could have looked at it, there is a possibility that the tune was drifted away from what it was when we did it. This is a common problem.
 
Hey Dave! Sorry I missed out. I probably couldn't make it anyway... I've been so broke, barely had enough money to play 18 holes of golf... drove home with the fuel light on.
The car still runs great. I don't hear anything bad nor do I feel any performance decrease when this happens. If you happen to have another dyno tune day, let me know (rad_al_@hotmail.com). If not, maybe I'll schedule something with you someday to get it checked out.
 
Back
Top