Thick White Smoke at WOT
Thick White Smoke at WOT So this afternoon me and a buddy of mine in his Mustang decided to head out and just cruise around. We ended up on a highway with no traffic and decided to get on it from a 30 roll. Needless to say I blew right past him and let off, and when I did he pulled up beside me and told me to pull over.
He said that when I passed him I was blowing smoke real bad. He said it was a light grey cloud colored smoke so I'm thinking this has to be burning oil. He also said it was so bad that it looked like I was doing a mini-burnout and it was bad enough for him to see it out of the corner of his eye at first.
We had been driving around quite a bit and he never noticed any smoke when I got into the throttle. It was only when I had it floored and went through all four gears that he noticed the smoke.
I do burn a little oil. I was a quart low about 500 miles before my last oil change which is done every 3000 miles like clock work. I know that a lot of people have said that LS1s usually burn oil, but this seems excessive to me...My oil pressure is seems great to me. It's about 60-65 on a cold start at idle and stays around 45 at idle when fully warm.
My initial thought is a piston ring, but I wanted to post this first before I take the car in and see what kind of ideas you guys have. Please tell me what you guys think it might be. Any suggestion would be appreciated. And please tell me if you know of some things I could do to get a better idea of what could be wrong before I take the car in to have it looked at.
Thanks guys
He said that when I passed him I was blowing smoke real bad. He said it was a light grey cloud colored smoke so I'm thinking this has to be burning oil. He also said it was so bad that it looked like I was doing a mini-burnout and it was bad enough for him to see it out of the corner of his eye at first.
We had been driving around quite a bit and he never noticed any smoke when I got into the throttle. It was only when I had it floored and went through all four gears that he noticed the smoke.
I do burn a little oil. I was a quart low about 500 miles before my last oil change which is done every 3000 miles like clock work. I know that a lot of people have said that LS1s usually burn oil, but this seems excessive to me...My oil pressure is seems great to me. It's about 60-65 on a cold start at idle and stays around 45 at idle when fully warm.
My initial thought is a piston ring, but I wanted to post this first before I take the car in and see what kind of ideas you guys have. Please tell me what you guys think it might be. Any suggestion would be appreciated. And please tell me if you know of some things I could do to get a better idea of what could be wrong before I take the car in to have it looked at.
Thanks guys
It would seem as though you would be able to see it yourself in your rear view mirror if it was as bad as you buddy says it is.
Burning 1 qt. in 2500 mi. is not bad at all.
I doubt you would even be able to detect that from tailpipe smoke.
Maybe your friend is having some fun with you since you blew his doors off.
I would get some one else to drive behind you and see if they see the same thing.
If in fact they do see a lot off oil smoke (not dark from fuel ) I would pull the plugs and see if any look oil fouled. Then you should be able to narrow it down to a specific cylinder and component.
Good Luck
Ryan
Burning 1 qt. in 2500 mi. is not bad at all.
I doubt you would even be able to detect that from tailpipe smoke.
Maybe your friend is having some fun with you since you blew his doors off.
I would get some one else to drive behind you and see if they see the same thing.
If in fact they do see a lot off oil smoke (not dark from fuel ) I would pull the plugs and see if any look oil fouled. Then you should be able to narrow it down to a specific cylinder and component.
Good Luck
Ryan
Teching In
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 26
Likes: 0
From: Oklahoma
It was deffinetly not dark smoke, it was a light grey color and i'm not messing with him. there was enough smoke when he passed me while i was at 90 to catch my attention cause i wasn't looking at the back of his car, I have seen that sight plenty of times already. When i said a "mini-burnout" i don't mean smoke was rolling out like at the staging line just PLENTY enough smoke to make me look over and take notice after about 30 minutes of driving around town not seeing it. The cloud of smoke dissiapated at about the top of the bumper so i'm sure he couldn't see it but i gaurentee it was pushing out a sizeable cloud of smoke. Also it wasn't just a puff of smoke it was coming out the entire time he was at wot after i noticed it so that leads me to belive it was for a longer duration than just what i noticed (i saw it when he was in third gear i believe), because all day i had not noticed it before. Also i have had another person tell me that he saw his car smoking bad at wot on another occasion also.
Well i have always heard white smoke is an idication of a leaking headgasket or intake gasket. Colant is getting by into the cylinders maybe? Have you noticed a drop in coolant level but have not seen it leaking out?
When my friend told me it was smoking I immediately thought oil and asked him if it was a 'blueish' colored smoke. He said it was more of a light grey smoke...
Another question for anyone to answer:
If it is a piston ring or valve or something that's causing oil to burn, would my car not smoke real bad on start up after it has sat for 12 hours or so?
In my experience usually the "code" is White/grey=water, Blue= oil, and black= fuel. This is what I go by, but my best guess is water. My buddy has a 97 z28 and had the same symptoms you describe, it ended up to be a head gasket.
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TECH Apprentice
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 326
Likes: 7
From: Columbus,Ga
mine smoked only on decel from a wot run when i installed LT headers and ory (white smoke), i took them off and smoke is gone i think it's something to do with back pressure. do a search there are alot of people having the same problem with all kinds of repairs from catch cans to totally deleting the pcv. good luck!
yeah, white/gray is coolant. besides if you were burning that much oil you'd drink way more than 1 qrt ever 2500 miles. my guess is head gasket. what kind of gasket is it??
anyway, consider yourself lucky...head gaskets are nothing compared to a piston ring as far as labor intensive repairs.
anyway, consider yourself lucky...head gaskets are nothing compared to a piston ring as far as labor intensive repairs.
On The Tree
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 160
Likes: 0
From: PNW
Oil will burn kind white too. Haven't you ever seen some old oil burner going down the highway. If someone followed the smoke, they should be able to notice if it smells like oil or anti-freeze. Put your finger in the exhaust pipe. Is it wet with moisture, or with oil.
Also, check your oil for water, and even check the coolant to see if it's blow air out.
Also, check your oil for water, and even check the coolant to see if it's blow air out.
The neighbors kept starring so I had to stop with the fume huffing.
Well, this morning after the car had sat for over 12 hours I had my girl watch the tips while I started it. She said it did not smoke one bit. I then gave it a couple of 4000+ revs and again no smoke. I had her hop in and take it up to about 3000 a few times and then slowly let out and nothing still. Finally, I had her follow in her car and went to a deserted street and gave it hell all the way to about 90. She said there was no smoke just a bad burning rubber smell
.
I really don't know what to think. I have never smelled anything strange at all. I've sat there with the door open and reved it MANY times in my driveway and have never once smell anything unusual or seen any smoke.
Right now I am pretty confident that it's not a piston ring or even oil at all. I really think it's the head gasket. I'm pretty sure the original owner that I bought the car from had pulled the heads before. Maybe he used a crap gasket. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's something so simple. I'm taking the car to my guy to have him look it over and see what he thinks.
Thanks for all the replys fellas!
Well, this morning after the car had sat for over 12 hours I had my girl watch the tips while I started it. She said it did not smoke one bit. I then gave it a couple of 4000+ revs and again no smoke. I had her hop in and take it up to about 3000 a few times and then slowly let out and nothing still. Finally, I had her follow in her car and went to a deserted street and gave it hell all the way to about 90. She said there was no smoke just a bad burning rubber smell
.I really don't know what to think. I have never smelled anything strange at all. I've sat there with the door open and reved it MANY times in my driveway and have never once smell anything unusual or seen any smoke.
Right now I am pretty confident that it's not a piston ring or even oil at all. I really think it's the head gasket. I'm pretty sure the original owner that I bought the car from had pulled the heads before. Maybe he used a crap gasket. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's something so simple. I'm taking the car to my guy to have him look it over and see what he thinks.
Thanks for all the replys fellas!
If you and your friend were just out tooling around for a while and then got on it you were likely just blowing out some buildup in the cylinders and the exhaust. If you get on it twice, does it do it the second time?
white smoke, in a billowy kind of way= eating antifreeze
Blueish white = eating oil
darker smoke, with a dinstint "burnt oil, hot metal" smell= your car eating itself in some way. usually accompanied by a near-in-the-future clunk.
Blueish white = eating oil
darker smoke, with a dinstint "burnt oil, hot metal" smell= your car eating itself in some way. usually accompanied by a near-in-the-future clunk.
So when you say 'buildup in the cylinders and exhaust' what do you think it might be? Anyones opinion is welcomed!
dude if it white smoke it coolant. sounds like you need ah head job, have you ever done one. if not take the time to do it and throw some up grades in it if you need some new heads i got ah buddy with some ported ls6 head for 350.
I know I will get some stuff from the exhaust if I am running around normal driving and then get on it. If I get on it hard a few times I don't see the exhaust any more. You may just be blowing out some soot. If you were burning coolant, it would show up all the time and your coolant level would be going down. Your initial post made it sound really bad, but your friend came in a couple of posts later and said it was dissipating before it reached the top of the car.
Well, I had the car up on the dyno and had a few pulls made. There was no smoke whatsoever, no knock whatsoever, no funny smells, no nothing. Everything was in tip top shape. The car actually made 12 more peak horsepower than the last time it was dynoed (I'm guessing that's just the difference in dynos, weather, etc...since the last time the car was dynoed it was in northern California and I'm in flat *** Oklahoma). All temps and oil pressure were perfect.
Afterwards I was talking to the dyno guy (who has a bad *** C5 'Vette and I consider very knowledgable about LS1s) and asked what his thoughts were. And without me telling him any of my thoughts, he said it was probably just some carbon build up that was released from going WOT. When I raced my buddy that was the first time in a long time that I actually had my foot to the floorpan! My car sees it's fair share of 'spirited' driving but rarely is floored.
Since everything seems to be running well and the car acts stong I'm ready to close the book on this one and just chalk it up to build up in the motor. It was evident from the dyno pulls that my car is running a little rich so that may be part of it.
Thank you all so much for your input and thoughts!
Afterwards I was talking to the dyno guy (who has a bad *** C5 'Vette and I consider very knowledgable about LS1s) and asked what his thoughts were. And without me telling him any of my thoughts, he said it was probably just some carbon build up that was released from going WOT. When I raced my buddy that was the first time in a long time that I actually had my foot to the floorpan! My car sees it's fair share of 'spirited' driving but rarely is floored.
Since everything seems to be running well and the car acts stong I'm ready to close the book on this one and just chalk it up to build up in the motor. It was evident from the dyno pulls that my car is running a little rich so that may be part of it.
Thank you all so much for your input and thoughts!