White smoke in vtec

[Free Ranj Egg]

Hello luders,

So I am due an updgrade on tyres soon and figured that I might as well wear the ones I have out quicker, which means a lot of Vtec action (Big smiles!!).

My car has sucked over 4 litres of oil in a month but to be fair there was a lot of vtec use - is this normal.

More importantly, there seems to be a lot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust which I have been informed is a coolant leak.

But I cant seem to see the leak at all, when its parked after a drive I cant hear it, theres no water or coolant on the floor, but it does seem to be using it a bit more than normal.

Is it falling onto the block and then drying up with the heat? Does coolant have a distinctive smell? All the hoses have been checked to the best of my knowledge. I cant seem to figure out the problem.

Its a high mileage engine (185k), so due to the miles will the car just use more coolant?

Any advice is appreciated and thanks in advance...

Ranj

[Sailor]

4 litres of oil in a month's heavy vtec ... you don't say how many miles that represents.

Smell the coolant overflow bottle. If it's a bit like exhaust fumes, you've probably got a head gasket failure. Have you already checked for emulsion in the oil?

[vanzep]

coolant can leak from a tiny pin hole and only show up under load - best way to check is for tell tale signs on the underside of the bonnet - i found a leak from the hose out the side of the head under the distributor/vtec solenoid this way - the other one thats worth checking is the lower coolant hose where it joins at the bottom of the rad - quite difficult to see a leak there as the front crossmember is in the way so check by hand.

the lude shouldnt really use any coolant but plenty of them use a lot of oil. I think Honda said up to a litre per 1000miles was acceptable. My BB4 uses more when its driven at continuous high rpm

[NafemanNathan]

Hey Ranj. White smoke normally indicates burning coolant, so it's not dripping on to the floor, it's actually getting into the engine. Possibly headgasket failure. The white smoke will also have a sweet smell if it's coolant.

Blue smoke for burning oil. 4 litres a month is certainly a crazy amount of oil to be burning, even with a lot of VTEC action, although I don't know how many miles you're doing. This could be a number of possible perished seals, if not the head gasket.

Is there any mayonaise in the radiator filler neck?

[Free Ranj Egg]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the repsonses. It may well be a head gasket failure to be fair, I don't think it has been done in a while.

As for the oil use it was cheap oil as WIlkos ran out of Castrol so I used their own brand and to be fair it wasn't the best move but I had to drive the car and the oil was low.

I will check the radiator cap for Mayonaise. I have checked the oil as normal on the dipstick and it doesn't show of any emulsion.

Saying that though, recently the car has an exhaust type smell coming into the cabin when the heating is on, so there is a good chance it may well be a head gasket failure.

So the next question is, is it an expensive fix, and should I be driving the car with that sort of problem? Will it cause more issues if it is continually driven?

Cheers gain gents

[Jackson Bondy]

Head gasket failure will ruin your engine, I wouldn't advise driving the car at all as if overheating doesn't do enough damage then the sludge won't lubricate the engine properly.

Expense depends on if you do it yourself as with all things and the extent of the issue. The mayo is a bugger to clean out and takes forever. Combine that with the cost of replacing the head gasket and it gets very expensive very quickly sadly.

[Free Ranj Egg]

Ok just did a quick search and can confirm the following. the exhaust has been blowing white smoke for quite a few months now to be fair and I just assumed it was normal for a vtec and ignored it.

1.) The coolant usage is not very high, its just slightly higher than normal use.
2.) There are no signs of water leaking from the exhaust.
3.) The engine seems to be not losing any power.

Miles wise there hasn't been much mileage use but it does get drive hard. I have been to London twice in 2 weeks over the last month and I live in Birmingham and the car seemed fine once again.

The biggest tell tale sign is the smell coming into the car which is definitely and exhaust like smell, the car is decatted too.

[sol-lude]

Check for emulsification on the oil cap and dip stick along with the Radiator cap.
As for driving continuously with a blown head gasket may and will cook and warp the head. Expense maybe a couple hundred from a garage max I would imagine.

If you have the head off and not done the timing recently or plan to do it I would try and build doing this in also.

if your showing the signs of white smoke and not steam then this is likely a head gasket along with emulsification in the oil or radiator.
Water leaking from the exhaust could well be burn off water from fuel but not an absolute confirmation of any head gasket symptoms .

[Free Ranj Egg]

Cheers Sol-Lude - the thing is that the car doesn't seem to be heating up more than normal. Everything seems fine its just the coolant is being used a bit more than normal, the exhaust blows white smoke and the cabin smells of exhaust fumes.

Will check the radiator cap tonight when I go home - if there is no signs of mayo, then what else could be the issue?

[wurlycorner]

The coolant usage is not very high, its just slightly higher than normal use

Confused by this statement...
How much coolant do you think it should be using?
(answer is none...)

Head gasket failure doesn't have to mean you will contaminate the oil, depends where and how badly it has blown - it is possible that it just gets burnt, rather than gets mixed with the oil.

You can have the engine pressure tested to confirm, or you can also get the coolant tested to see if it is picking up exhaust gases.


BTW, white smoke can also mean lean mixture...