Plumes of white smoke after MS installation
 

So after days of trying to get my MS working I finally did today. Then what I believe to be my head gasket has been blown. Car started and ran fine no smoke or oil burned at all. But after I installed my MS (after a rather lengthy trouble shoot because only 2 cylinders wanted to fire) the car smoked like a chimney. I though it was all that fuel from the unfired cylinder but then water was leaking out my tail pipe after my first 2 cylinder start. Could MS have done this? Or is it just coincidence? The cylinder head is the only place internal leaking could occurs right?

Where do you live. If its been rainy its probably just condensation. I pulled apart my exhaust the other day and water poured out.

What color did it smoke? White is coolant, black and blue is a shitty tune. Well, black mostly. With high humidity, my exhaust sprays water for like 3 or 4 minutes.

read title

You probably didn't know that seafoaming your car is not part of the standard MS install.

I'm curious as to what it is, when I first put it in my barn it got really cold then hot, condensation was unbelievable, maybe absurd amounts of water entered the exhaust and its burning off. But it smelled really sweet and when i had the car running on 2 cylinders there was no smoke at all, so the break is probably on cylinder 1 or 4

filled my car up with seawater, like the manual says

Why are you determined to consider your engine toasted? You can fire two cylinders and not fuck things up. This just means your engine was in poor shape before megasquirt and your fishing for answers.

What does your wideband say? You do have a wideband right?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1456233228

Oh my god, you're definitely new to cars.



What did you mess up that caused your lengthy troubleshoot and running on two cylinders.

Yes I have a wideband. I really think the head gasket is blown because it shows all the signs of a bad engine. It really does look like I seafoam'd my car. Car ran fine before ms installation, had good power and was really healthy with only 101k on the clock. The 2 cylinders were not firing because of a bad solder joint on an IAC output mod. Once I fixed that it smoked alot, maybe it was condensation, maybe it isn't. Thats what I'm trying to figure out. Wideband read that it was running lean at a 15.7-16:1. Pulled the plugs and re-calibrated the sensor, every thing was jet black. I dont want to run it alot until I figure out the issue because I heard coolant kills O2 sensors.

Signs of a blown head gasket-
-Coolant leaking externally from bellow the exhaust manifold.
-White smoke from the exhaust pipe.
-Overheating engine.
-Bubbles in the radiator or coolant overflow tank.
-White milky oil.
-Significant loss of coolant with no visible leaks.

Only sign I observed was white smoke and smell. Any major objections to run it more when I get home? Will check oil to see if it's milky. Seemed a good color when I pulled the dipstick yesterday. Thanks for the advice

Pressure check the coolant system or see if you're blowing bubbles through the overflow tank.

Change your oil. Do a leakdown test on all cylinders. Built a new motor. Have a beer.

Would a head gasket show a compression test?

Do you have a cat?

:laugh:

Yes, but I don't have to pass emissions in MA and I'm sure it's the original cat

Where in MA?

Do you have a dog?



Don't worry about running it more. If your oil is fine, clean the plugs or replace them. Allow your car to warm up and dial in idle and fuel so it's stoich. If you are still blowing smoke, then investigate other gasket possibilities. I doubt it'd be from the actual MS install. All your required fuel settings are correct? Stock injectors?

When I first started my car it ran pig rich, blew what looked like white smoke, but it was fine. Even firing on two cylinders, my engine was ok. Unless that was my last motor, and it actually blew up. But I don't remember. You'll be fine

Are you just trolling us?

you sound retarded.

Yes, I didn't understand how seafoam worked it's way into the equation so I figured I'd play along.

So car ran fine.

added a MS, car was running on 2-cly.

fixed MS, car now shooting out white smoke.


is that the actual sequence of events or are you leaving out important details?

The same exact way MS is to blame for your "blown head gasket"

Pro tip:
If you want legit responses you might try not trolling your own thread.
It's pretty easy to derail a thread, but relatively challenging to get it back on topic again.

you may have popped the gasket after you may have hydrolocked the engine with the 2cyl issue

yes this is the way it went

note taken

would it take that much fuel to hydrolock a cylinder. I removed plugs half way through and there wasn't an absurd amount of fuel. IE fuel wasn't gushing out the plug hole

it might. It think it happened on RyanG's car (or someone else with an MSM who had a ms/injector issue and blew engine upon first startup)

not very common, but can happen

....and that's of course assuming you didn't screw up anything else that may have caused this

How would it be gushing out unless the pistons where in motion? Aren't liquids incompressible?

lol "gushing out of plug hole"

this isn't free willie dude, it doesn't take 2 gallons to pop a HG

so you're thinking that I had almost like a small scale hydro lock that blew the gasket? Ill go home and see if the coolant tank is bubbling

possibly.

or a really untimely coincidence

That'll only explain if gases are breaching the waterjacket. I'd look at oil as well. Not from the dipstick. Just drain it and see if it smells of fuel

That'll only explain if gases are breaching the waterjacket. I'd look at oil as well. Not from the dipstick. Just drain it and see if it smells of fuel or has moisture

well, oil tends to be pretty moist :giggle:

and if he ran without spark in 2 cyl I'd be surprised if he doesn't have fuel in the oil. but I'm not sure that's what blew his HG

You are right, I meant to elaborate by saying vapor that may have stratified in the oil making it look milky diarrhea.

Head gasket failures arent really a common thing on miatas. you see many guys running turbo miatas with great power on stock gaskets and studs. take a picture of the smoke and post it for our entertainment............i mean evaluation.

If i am remembering right, you can pull one plug wire at a time while it is running and see if the smoke reduces. that could tell you which cylinder is presenting the problem. It has been so long since i have dealt with a head gasket i cant recall if that works or not. Im sure one of these guys will tell me im an idiot if i am wrong. Hell, they might tell me that even if i am right.

That sounds like a cool idea. Only because it reminds me of antilag and dropping spark in cylinders to allow fuel to be pushed through the exhaust manifold to ignite at the turbo and making a chuchuchu sound during throttle lift because compressor surge and no bov.

i looked inside the cylinder hole and it looked like the firing cylinders, should've been more specific sorry

my vocab is off jeez. There wasn't any pooling fuel in any cylinders. I think I'm blowing this issue out of proportion.

they're not a common failure from making power safely
if you have an uncontrolled explosion or sudden pressure spike inside the cylinder at the wrong time, it will take out the hg and can even snap a rod
Miata owners are known for blowing things

Have you swapped back to the stock ECU and tried starting the car to see what happens then?

There wasn't a turbo added at the same time as the MS was there? A turbo getting too much oil or with a blown seal will smoke.

If there's nothing being left out of the story I'd take the radiator cap off, let the car idle a few minutes, watch for bubbles in the coolant and see if the smoke clears up. No bubbles and smoke clears up then it's fixed. Bubbles and it keeps smoking then I'd look toward the headgasket.

Sorry to disappoint many of you, the head gasket was not blown. After running it for a few minutes the smoke turned from thick white to water vapor and then to nothing. It looks like someone dumped a full Poland springs water bottle behind my tail pipe. The car seems to running decent for a few minutes then tacks up to around 3000 which I'm not comfortable with because of how its only on the basemap, so I kill it also my O2 sensor is giving bad readings because of how black its getting so the fuel maps need some work there. Also the map reads very low, around 30 kpa. Spark is as close as I could get to 10 degrees. I will attach a few data logs I took and maybe a picture later. Thanks to every one who helped

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1456259412

Yes my car is filthy and yes that is my noob sauce spilling out the tail pipe

yay!

i have to say that is nothing. i was expecting way more than that piddly puddle.

30kpa seems about right at idle I think.

How high does it idle before it warms up? You may have a leak on the intake manifold, that'll give you a high and uncontrollable idle. Check around for an open vacuum line or port.

Awesome to hear that it's coming together, I certainly don't think anyone is routing for failure. I had a hell of a time getting my first car running right on megasquirt, there's a steep learning curve but you'll get there.

It idles fairly decent at about 1900 rpm when its cold. hits decent afrs. I know before I did the ecu there was a vacum leak coming from one of the injectors that I never really bothered to fix because I knew I would be in there soon enough but on the stock ecu it was a rising and falling idle not a constant rise. But I'll throw my new injectors in tomorrow. Check if they flow and put them in. I had an airfilter that was on there for a temporary thing that I found was actually hurting the airflow, pulled it off and it seemed like it ran better. Also my coolant was reading at about 230 degrees when it was warmed up, what should it be? I was thinking around 200-220 right?

Gasoline is a hydrocarbon, which means it's made up of C and H. When burning it, the Hs and Cs break apart and combine with Oxygen (O2) to make H2O and CO2. CO2 is a colorless, odorless gas, so it just vanishes out the tailpipe, but H2O is water or in this case steam.

So steam comes out of the exhaust valves and flows through the exhaust system. If the exhaust system is cold (as in, below 212F) the steam condenses against it, turning back to liquid and puddling in the exhaust. Gas pressure pushes it out.

That's why you get water coming out of the tailpipe. Any car will do it if you leave it idling for 15-20 minutes after starting it from cold.

--Ian

Should be around 200 degrees warm with stock thermostat.