White Smoke= Bad. Whats the Prescription?

[jgscott]

99 SC400 VVT-i
93,000 Miles

Oil: Mobil-1 5W-30


I was stepping on my car pretty hard today for about an hour or so, until I noticed a light haze of white smoke in my rearview mirror

Not good.

Changed oil 2 months ago, where I know my SRT ECU, headers, exhaust system has me running rich. This is a fact, since I barely didnt pass emissions 4 times!

What could be causing the smoke?

And most importantly, what to do about it that doesn't involve rebuilding and leak-down tests since I dont want to think about rebuilding on the motor.

BTW- Spark plugs were changed 2 months ago as well


So what does the Doctor prescribe?

 

[cribbj]

JG why don't you go ahead & run a leakdown test? It's not much more involved than a compression test.

Failing that, try the used car salesman's trick and change to straight 30W. :veryhappy

John

 

[doey]

I read the following - White smoke when first started is normal. If white smoke continues you have an internal coolant leak, i.e., cracked head/blown head gasket
There is a chance that the white smoke was caused by water splashing up from a puddle onto the exhaust pipe. Keep an eye on the coolant level in the radiator in any event.

 

[V8superlux]

Check that the vac switch on the bottom of the powersteering pump has not let go. You can do this by pulling off the vac hose at the front of the inlet manifold that runs from it, if you have oil in this hose it could be your problem ( I have seen some types of p/s and trans oil burn white before) and replace the switch.

 

[Death By Bass]

Check that the vac switch on the bottom of the powersteering pump has not let go. You can do this by pulling off the vac hose at the front of the inlet manifold that runs from it, if you have oil in this hose it could be your problem ( I have seen some types of p/s and trans oil burn white before) and replace the switch.

I have smoke at high revs, and under load, could this be the reason why?

the car has also once or twice blown a cloud of smoke upon startup, after it had been sitting for a week or two without being started.

any help would be great?

 

[V8superlux]

It's only a 2 second job to check for this, it's something that everyone with one of these engines should do. At start up could be from something else like valve stems.

 

[Death By Bass]

It's only a 2 second job to check for this, it's something that everyone with one of these engines should do. At start up could be from something else like valve stems.

pics of what I'm doing might be good, please?

appaerently they can blow smoke on startup if the power steering fluid is low... but I duno about that one...

 

[V8superlux]

If they blow smoke it's proberbly because they are sucking it into the engine and burning it and thats why the fliud is low. Cars should not consume Power steering fluid if all is well. I dont have any photos of it, but if you find the vacume hose that runs from the bottom of the power steering pump to the front of the inlet manifold, you can disconect it at any fitting. If you find oil in the hose instead if air, change the vacume switch on the power steering pump that the vacume hose connects to.

 

[Death By Bass]

my smoke isn't coming from the exhaust... its coming from the engine bay... possibly off the exhaust? maybe around the cats, or further forward? hmm...

 

[Loroh]

Just a quick question about that vacume switch on the P/S pump,
what's it for?
What happen's if you dissconnect the vacume switch?