Alright so recently I did a plenum pull to fix a busted coolant line, and after putting it back together I found that it is running rough (see here.) After checking all the hoses to make sure they're on correctly, I turned on the car, and it has started blowing white smoke and some form of liquid out of the exhaust, more out the passenger side pipe than the drivers. The liquid is clear and doesn't really have a smell, although the entire garage smelt like fuel so I couldn't really tell that well. What could be the problem? My googling has turned up with people saying that it's a head gasket issue, a PCV issue, a blown turbo (which isn't possible seeing as it's N/A) among other things. The head gasket issue doesn't seem plausible seeing as the car hasn't been driven in over two weeks, and never had this problem before the pull. Also if there are any Z owners in Cairns I'd be happy to buy you a carton and a pizza for coming out and lending a hand. TIA
Hi SpanIchabod, You mentioned "busted coolant line" on the plenum... How log did you driven the car like that ? Was there sufficient amount of water left in the system? White smoke can be associated with few things "blown head gasket/bent cylinder heads" is one of them, generally speaking symptoms of water founding it's way in to the cylinder/s. Two options here: 1: Water in your passenger side cylinder 2: Vacuum leak somewhere in among all those hoses. Maybe someone else will have more ideas. Cheers
Could just be that it's been sitting for a while and is vapour. It is winter, this stuff happens. Could also be fuel vapour from a locked injector, comes out as a white smoke. I did that once after a plenum pull. Shorted the injector driver in the ECU and it locked it open. Don't test it by igniting it...
The coolant line had a small crack in the hose that leaked under pressure, it never caused any major issues with the car, i had been driving with it for months, and just checking the levels each morning before driving it. There is a small amount of some coming from the right hand exhaust pipe as well, but nowhere near as much, and no liquid. I guessed I might have a vacuum leak but I wasnt sure.
I dont think its vapour to be honest, Cairns doesnt really have a winter (26°c degrees here currently).
Did you remove the bonnet. If so check your windscreen washer pipe is not connected to a vacuum line...... Don't ask how I know
Alright since you got me paranoid about connecting the wrong line up I went to check it. Can confirm that the washers aren't hooked up to a vacuum line somewhere as far as I know. I did decide to follow the vacuum line that runs off the drivers side of the balance tube, and it ends up... ****ing nowhere!
Ok good! One thing determined - You do have a vacuum leak... Few options: 1: Easy/Fun - Get someone with N/A Z around your area and check / compare your vacuum lines to setup that haven't been tempered with. 2: Boring - Check the manual Cheers
I do have a buddy with a Z, unfortunately his isnt running either, so ill have to duck over there and take some photos to get an idea as to where it all goes.
Is this the car....... ......you have for sale? http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=332830
Long story. Car hasn't been for sale for a while now though, I decided to keep it until after I get back from basic training. I forgot I posted an ad on here.
So after my new brake light arrived today I decided to try have another crack at fixing this damn car. I went over to my mates to check out his Z and turns out it is completely different to mine (his is a '92 manual Aus spec and mine is an '89 auto J spec), so that sort of killed that idea. I went through again and checked that all the hoses were on correctly, and upon starting it again, the smoke* was back again, this time coming evenly out of both exhaust pipes at a pretty constant rate. I decided to check the ECU for fault codes and got a code 55 so no problems there. Really starting to lose my patience with the car and the only mechanic I know who will touch it is expensive as hell, and that's after I hire a car trailer to get it into town. *I don't really think it's smoke, it seems like it could be steam and it's thinner than smoke and doesn't have a smell. Absolutely no idea how any form of liquid could get into the cylinder though.
I wouldn't worry about it.... if its only at idle then its probably nothing. after I had my Z sitting for 5 weeks doing the engine bay, I had a lot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. and I mean A LOT! I started thinking I ****ed something, and even when I took it for a drive around the block it was still there and a lot of it. I had some oil in the cylinders doing a compression check and thought that might be it, but figured that would all have been blown out pretty quick. I had to start and run my engine a lot to sort out my problems, and eventually the smoke got less and less until it wasnt there. My take on the whole thing was that the smoke was present until the Z was run enough to get it up to operating temperature. even going around the block i might only be on 60degrees... so if you have the Z at 80 degrees and its still blowing smoke, it might be a problem. my guess would be its got condensation sitting in the exhaust or cats, and its just that getting blown through the system. on another note I did the whole 500ml of water into a vac line to clean up any carbon deposits (alternative to seafoam) just last week. I expected to see a ton of white smoke coming out of the exhaust having the vac line sitting in water sucking that through the system.. but it didnt even have a small amount of smoke with all the water getting sucked through.. it did wonders to my engine, ran really well after the treatment, but looking at videos of other people doing it they get massive amounts of white smoke pouting out their exhausts. so even then, it would probably have to be a LOT of water getting into the system before you see white smoke, ie. blown head gasket, ie. you will definately know it is running like a POS if you have a blown headgasket. if you've sorted your other problems out with your engine and you still have smoke, as long as it sounds like it is running properly and not going to blow up because of any other issues, give it some good revs and hold them for a while. make sure the engine is getting up to operating temp, and you might find that the smoke will disapear after a little while by itself. especially because we are having some really cold weather this time of year anyway, I wouldn't think too much of it. my guess is, water build up in the exhaust system, not in the engine itself. but I'm not a complete pro on the topic. just my own experience as for the wiper water lines that get mentioned in threads like this. you should only notice that if you are pressing the water jet button for the windscreen which activates the pump. without the pump pushing water through the line I doubt even with the vacuum on the hose that you would pick up any more water than what might be present from the tip of the line through to the pump near the front of the drivers wheel. wouldnt be enough water to create smoke, but I could be wrong. Wz
I read. maybe post up a vid to youtube and link it here. easiest way to listen to whats going on. have you done the balance test to see if all cylinders are firing? (remove 1 coilpack connector at a time and listen for change in idle)
