White smoke in vtec

[Free Ranj Egg]

Right gents.

Spoke to Matt at Red R, the car is going on 2 December to be pressure tested and for him to have a look at it. So far there are no signs of mayo on the oil cap, or oil in the coolant. The coolant is a bit rusty in color and is greasy but Matt says that's normal. the exhaust and decat were fitted earlier this year so I hardly used the heating.

I guess we will find out what the problem is when the car gets compression tested.

I really do hope its not a head gasket failure or water getting into the cylinders. Id like to keep my car for as long as I can, because they are getting rare. I don't really want to part with the prelude, or be spending more money on it than required.

[craig_jdm]

I had a similar problem on my impreza i would only get a tiny touch of white smoke no power loss but the head gasket was slightly broken just allowing exhaust gases into the coolant and pressurizing it pushing it into the overflow. No overheating no power loss no mixing oil and coolant i drove it for two weeks looking for a leak and using a tiny amount of coolant it wasnt till i took it to the track and turned it on kill (23psi of boost) that it blew it out completely and pushed all the coolant out

[arif_manji]

Right gents.

Spoke to Matt at Red R, the car is going on 2 December to be pressure tested and for him to have a look at it. So far there are no signs of mayo on the oil cap, or oil in the coolant. The coolant is a bit rusty in color and is greasy but Matt says that's normal. the exhaust and decat were fitted earlier this year so I hardly used the heating.

I guess we will find out what the problem is when the car gets compression tested.

I really do hope its not a head gasket failure or water getting into the cylinders. Id like to keep my car for as long as I can, because they are getting rare. I don't really want to part with the prelude, or be spending more money on it than required.

Matt @ Red-R Performance will find the issue mate and repair it at a resonable price mate!

[Free Ranj Egg]

@arif_manji

Yes I know mate - I was his first customer at Red R and surprisingly I will be returning on the same day the following year. Its freaky!! lol

[wurlycorner]

Perfectly planned repair/good business sense... Last repair lasts until 1 day after the 1 year warranty expires



(I'm not actually suggesting that's true BTW...)

[vanzep]

you can also get a slight coolant leak at the heater matrix pipes where they come into the cabin - check for damp carpet behind the centre bit of the dash up in the footwell/firewall - worth mentioning as you say you can smell exhaust gas when using the heating so there might be a connection....bit of a pain to fix by some account

[Free Ranj Egg]

Cheers Vanzep. I am really hoping its not a head gasket. With Xmas coming up, my insurance due in Dec and my Cuba booked for Feb, I might need to start standing on street corners and demand a hefty price

[Free Ranj Egg]

Gents

An update to the weekend shenanigans...

So the car went into Matt and Red R and the compression is fine if not a little high. Matt says its the carbon build up considering the engine has almost ran 190k. Radiator is fine no leaks and there seems to be no signs of any thing major.

The car does still smoke in vtec but overall runs a lot better with an oil change and flush. So it seems like all is good in the hood.

So it brings me back to the white/grey smoke, why does this happen? Is it due to the age and carbon build up in the engine?

[thusee]

any white smoke is related to head gasket, that is the only way it'll burn white and not any other color. In general everyone gets Black smoke in VTEC which is somewhat normal as it burns the oil seeping past the valve seals and piston rings lol.

It might be a pinhole leak in the head gasket where it doesn't leak under normal pressure but when you add vtec it forces coolant through.

How much white smoke is it very noticeable?

You also mentioned there is slightly higher coolant usage than normal. Coolant doesn't just evaporate there should be ZERO loss in coolant. If the coolant level goes down slightly that means there is a leak somewhere.

As long as the Level is high in the radiator your car won't over heat until the coolant level drops significantly which is why you haven't over heated.

If you don't care too much about the car/repairs then you can try a bottle of coolant stop leak although i dont recommend it as it will create a build up in crucial area's but for a beater it might help seal any minor leaks.

White smoke out the exhaust only leads to headgasket nothing else.

[thusee]

Also what was the compression numbers on all 4 cylinders?