Possible serious damage????..PLEASE READ (long)

[BlackS14]

About a month ago I had a real problem with running rich....and as we all know there are so many factors as to why it would run rich...I decided to knock them all out one by one. Got the car all back together and tried to start her up and it wouldn't start...ended up being a massive fuel leak started due to stressed o-rings. I went and replaced both o-rings on each injector and she fired right up.

Drove well for two whole days....this past weekend I started it up after paying my cell phone bill and I noticed the idle was lumpy, but nothing real bad. I thought nothing of it and proceeded to drive to my buddies house. Well I got about two miles down the road and was at a stoplight when all of the sudden my idle really starts to dip (I had it set at 1,000....it dipped to 800, 500, 300) and I looked in the rear view and noticed TONS of thick white smoke pouring from the exhaust. I kept it alive and drove it into a parking lot and it just died.

I got around to it the day after to see what was going on. I pulled all the spark plugs and noticed they were semi black, but number two was pitch black. On a whim I puled the fuel rail again and sure enough the lower o-ring was bulged and leaking like a siv. After a couple of tries I finally got it to seat right, pressurized the systme and noticed no leaks. Installed the rail again and tried to start again....nothing....number two was filled with fuel again. Either the o-ring bulged again (didn't have time to check) or I'm thinking the injector is stuck open (have yet to check the resistance).

Cliff Notes:
. Replaced injector o-rings
. two days later idle is bad and TONS of white smoke purs out of the exhaust
. fixed o-ring on number two that was found to have bulged
. cyllinder still fills with gas at a moments notice when pressurizing fuel system


Questions:

1. My injectors DO NOT have the small pintle caps on them (the yellowish/tan four pronged plastic hats that are found on the "squirting" end of the injector). Are these caps neccessary for proper operation....I have had friends tell me that they will still spray fine with them off......but I think they are there to help protect the lower o-ring from doing exactly what mine did....bulge...any thoughts?

2. In regards to the white smoke....what could that have been. I know black smoke is fuel and white is coolant. I presumed it to possibly be a head gasket, but the car ran for a good 5 minutes after it first started smoking and my temp stayed at a solid 180 degrees and after checking, there was no coolant in oil or the reverse......what could that have beem?

Thanks guys....give me anything and everything you might be thinking...

-Bill

[Steeles]

Dammit bill get an sr in that thing sorry mang i'm not much help. your way past my problem solving skillz.

[DJ_Sunrise]

did you try checking the ECU for Codes? here, maybe this'll help. http://www.pdm-racing.com/features/plugs.html about the idle.. check your engine grounds, and whats that white smoke smell like? btw.. when starting ur car, does it try to turn over?


~Sunrise

[xsparc]

white smoke is usualy a sign there is coolant in the combustion chamber (ie, blown head gasket). check your compression, check your oil, if it looks like a chocolate milkshake thats bad, and look for oil in your coolant.

[sr240mike]

The SAME thing happened to me today!!! It looked like white smoke was pouring out but it smelled of raw fuel. I wasn't over heating either. I pulled all the plugs and checked compression. The #'s were fine except for #4 being drenched in fuel. I almost positive my #4 injector is stuck open. I pulled the injector connectors after all the fuel was out of #4 and cranked it a few times. I looked inside the cylinder and it was drenched again. It seems as though it failed gradually as its been hard to start in the mornings. I havent pulled the fuel rail yet But I will in a few hours if I find some replacement injectors.

[Steeles]

Search for Bill's fix of his problem on FA... I dont think he ever put it up on here. or maybe it was another thread in chat... (i *THINK* he's stealth240 on FA)

[Var]

damnit the same thing is happening to me..kinda. It starts well in the morning but every other time during the day it floods the engine, and there is a little black smoke when i get on it. I just bought a coolant temp sensor yesterday, i'll see if that's the fix.

[sr240mike]

What year is your car Var? I may be able to run conzult on it and see if the coolant temp sensor is the problem.

[Var]

just installed the sensor on my lunch break..i THINK it fixed the problem. Thanks for you offer tho. We'll see if the car acts up again by friday

[Var]

Ok after driving around for a couple days the problem is gone. Prolly not the same thing for you guys but mine is fixed.