White smoke when revved high

[wpayne]

Ok, so the light turns grean and no one is in sight so I figure I can gun the engine. I Don't launch it but I get the car going and then I floored it. I waited to shift till about 6000rpm in first and then 5000rpm maybe in second and I'm in third at around 4000rpm going 50mph(?) maybe, but right before i shifted into third, i saw white smoke from my car in the rear-view-mirrow.

What does this mean and is it bad? Should I try and correct it? The only thing chaged for the engine is the Injen intake. Help me out guys...

[skatanic28]

white smoke is usually caused by coolant gettin burned up i believe. check ur coolant reservoir for air bubbles or oil. i think usually its a head gasket <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'>

[s14slide]

If you still have the hose from the top of your engine(from the valve cover to the intake tract, can't remember the name right now) connected to the intake, pop it off at both ends and see if there's any oil in there. &nbsp;If there is, that's probably your culprit and have nothing really to worry about. &nbsp;And on the other hand, it could always be a deeper problem than that.
That hose there that I'm talking about vents the valvetrain area so when you rev out your engine the extra oil squirted in the valvtrain doesn't have to compress the air in that space. &nbsp;Maybe you just got a bit of oil into your intake when you ran it up. &nbsp;And I'm not explaining all this cause I think your dumb or car illiterate or anything of the sort. &nbsp;It's just that there's a lot of flames on this board. &nbsp;
Just an opinion, and what I've gotten out of my experieces. &nbsp;If you want cold hard facts, your gonna have to pay me. &nbsp;J/K.

[wpayne]

Ahh! Coolant, I don't know why I didn't think of that. I actually haven't checked the condition of the coolant since I've gotten my car 3 months ago. I'll do that first. If it is coolant burning, the does that mean I have to change my head gasket?

s14slide - I'll be sure to check that hose. Don't worry about not explaining it. I'll be sure to check the hose too.

The engine doesn't smoke all the time though, thats the wierd thing. Unless this was the first time noticing it. I try not to rev it too high often though.

[wpayne]

The other crappy thing is that my car only has 74k miles on it, I really hope its not a damaged head gasket....

[Kreator]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wpayne @ Nov. 19 2002,01:15)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">The other crappy thing is that my car only has 74k miles on it, I really hope its not a damaged head gasket....</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
It's actually not as bad as most people make it look. It's kinda a pain in the ass to take the head off, but only for the first time. After you do that you'll know much more about yer car than u did before. BTW, my car has only 70K miles and i already had to take the head off, so nothing to worry about <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

[wpayne]

Kreator - How hard exactly is it? I mean I think I'm pretty good with my hands and tools but are there a lot of parts involved? How long does it take? and how much is a new head gasket?

[mrdirty]

If you're on the clutch and at high RPM (IOTW no load) you can achieve something called piston ring flutter (IIRC). It's when the piston rings actually float and don't seal properly;

I don't know if it's your problem but it would make sense if it's only happening at high rpm.

[tys240]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wpayne @ Nov. 19 2002,12:43)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Ok, so the light turns grean and no one is in sight so I figure I can gun the engine. I Don't launch it but I get the car going and then I floored it. I waited to shift till about 6000rpm in first and then 5000rpm maybe in second and I'm in third at around 4000rpm going 50mph(?) maybe, but right before i shifted into third, i saw white smoke from my car in the rear-view-mirrow.

What does this mean and is it bad? Should I try and correct it? The only thing chaged for the engine is the Injen intake. Help me out guys...</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
Could have been your clutch smoking up &nbsp;<img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/nervous.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':nervous:'>

[Kreator]

<!--QuoteBegin--wpayne+Nov. 19 2002,1<img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wpayne @ Nov. 19 2002,1<img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'>6)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Kreator - How hard exactly is it? I mean I think I'm pretty good with my hands and tools but are there a lot of parts involved? How long does it take? and how much is a new head gasket?</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
Well it's really not hard at all. I was doing it for the first time in my life, so it took me way more than it would take me next time. Basicly i'd say it took me like 8-9 hours to take it off. Right now i'm guessing more like 4-5 hours. Most of time spent we were either travellin to a hardware store, or reading the book trying to figure out what to do next. I had a guy helping me who is pretty good with cars but was new to 240s as well. I strongly recommend you find someone to work with, it's much easier than working alone.

As for parts, you'll need some tools. First of all, you'll need a wrench for the cams (don't remember what size though), and couple of torque wrenches. Also get yourself an oil catch tank cuz u'll have to get rid of some oil and coolant.... Other than that your standard house improvement equipment should do.

How long does it take? Like i said, took me about 8-9 hours to take everything off. Than another 9 hours to put everything back on and spending some time getting the car to actually run. And we dropped a metal piece inside the head along the way, and had to reassamble part of it again to take it out so we lost about an hour there.

New gasket should cost about $30-$40 but u'll also need exhaust gaskets, intake manifold gasket and a plenum gasket (the one that goes between the upper and lower manifold parts. Actually no. You won't need a intake manifold gasket if you aren't gonna take the upper intake manifold off (you'll see when u start taking everything off). Anyways, i think i paid around $60 for everything.

But make sure it is yer head gasket. I think burning coolant should smell sweet, so try smelling yer exhaust. Also do a leakdown test and see what the results will be.

[wpayne]

Thanks a lot for the tips Kreator. Alright, I went and checked everything out today and the coolant was a little old, but i don't think really oily, just old coolant. It was still green when I opened the radiotor cap and in the resovior, it was kinda dirty but I don't think oily. Then I checked the hose coming from the valve-cover to the intake and it was clean too. But i noticed that the big hose, that connects to the intake pipe on the underside where it bents up to the throttle, that was on but totally loose, I guess I didn't remember to clamp it down. But i tightened that up. When I was driving around today, I didn't notice any smoke, I drove it hard but I don't think I quite pushed it AS hard but pretty close, but no smoke at all that I could see.

Oh, also when I check the coolant resevior, it was almost at empty, I think it hasn't been checked in a long time. I went to Pep Boys adn they charge $60 to drain, flush, and refill. So I figure I'll do it myself. Just that I didn't see any coolant flush. I don't think I looked that hard but most car stores to have them right?

And another thing, I checked my oil today and it was WAY high! It was at about the or just above the dimple AVOVE the "H". I remember reading on another thread that is can be bad. I've driven about 1000 miles since the oil change. I haven't noticed anything wrong but should I drain some immediatly or can I just wait 'till the weekend?

[wpayne]

anyone?