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White smoke out the tailpipe after warming up

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Old 09-04-2009, 09:28 PM
  #21  
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Are you actively loosing coolant? Have you driven it and had any weird coolant pressurizing issues... (bad head gasket or cracked head will pressurize the coolant system) and or push it out the pipe...(there are alot of Ifs. and's and but's there) but eventually you will have to add water back to the motor because your engine is pumping it out the tailpipe. Put some miles on it, break it in. see if it gets worse.... Whats the difference if you pull the head later knowing you have a problem, or pulling the head now not knowing you have a problem.... As we say in the car world "let it develop"

I see idle condensation..... as later in the video. you see a water puddle out the back of the pipe... and you said it goes away when the engine is warm... all the condensate is used up.

Goodluck
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Old 09-04-2009, 11:34 PM
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Thanks after a short drive. No steam or smoke

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Old 09-05-2009, 12:54 AM
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omg Rushin stop wasting our bandwidth lol you are being a ***** your **** is most likely fine. My vote is condensation get back to us when you have chocolate milk or presurized overflow tank.
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Old 09-05-2009, 08:14 AM
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Will do:-)
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Old 09-05-2009, 09:01 AM
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Ethanol can have high water absorption.

Been driving through the rain a lot? Need to check your gas cap?

Ethanol, especially at higher percentages like E85, can absorb quite a bit of water (2% in E30, proportional to gas percentage above E71) before experiencing phase seperation. Although you just switched, have you observed mileage? A tank with a lot of water would give you worse mileage.


If you are losing ANY coolant at all then my vote is on head gasket. The BPs tend to always have head gasket problems once they've cropped up unless it is fixed right the first time. We gave up on the original motor in my car (mom's at time) after replacing two head gaskets. The second time her bf put the TB on a tooth off and I didn't want to **** with it, so we just replaced the motor. The second motor also started leaking coolant, and my brother drove it sans coolant until it started losing oil.


I've managed to keep this motor in great shape due to a PWR radiator and some shrouding.

Always look at the variables you've introduced first.

1. You've touched the head...likely there's still a problem.

2. You've switched to E85...*slight possibility you could be getting some unplanned water injection.



If it's the head gasket you'll know soon enough though. It will progressively get worse, and you'll have to keep putting coolant in it.
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Old 09-05-2009, 12:30 PM
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Thanks for good info! I am thinking its just lots of condensation. I replaced the headgasket not that long ago, the head was shaved a bit and i put a composite head gasket to make sure it seals well. The car ONLY smokes while its warming up, and does not smoke on acceleration or deceleration. I will just drive it and if it gets worse i will know its HG.
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Old 09-05-2009, 02:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Rushin
how can i make sure thats the problem without tearing the engine apart?
Pull the plugs and look for a shiny, steam-cleaned one.
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Old 09-16-2009, 08:13 PM
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figured this is normal. Just noticed my legacy does the same thing. However after i changed my oil to 5x30 my exhaust smells like raw oil.
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