White smoke on acceleration

[Anonymous]

So I have been battling the little things that remain on the Mustang now for a while and I have one thing I am concerned about...

White Smoke... coming out right after I shift and when I give it gas...
The problem is worse after sitting at a light for any period of time...
the engine gets warm at the lights and when I take off, white smoke...

now it was not there all the time, it is somewhat intermitent, but at one point there was quite a bit of smoke.

I only have about 60 miles on the rebuilt engine. I have had people tell me not to worry about it yet, since it is a new engine it is likely to smoke and smell funny? Not sure about that...

I did check the valves, and they are fine, adjusted properly, not too tight... I even had a mechanic go over it for me to double check? he said they were fine.

So what else could be going on here.... it is a little embarrasing I bathed a BMW in a white cloud earlier today?

 

[BIGREDRASA]

The standard wisdom is: Black smoke=rich mixture; bllue smoke=oil; and white smoke water/coolant.l Somehow water needs to get into the cylinders to get you the white smoke. Is there a water passage in your intake manifold? You may have some kind of a gasket leak, otherwise it would be a cracked block, head, or manifold. Take the radiator cap off, and rev the engine. If coolant bubbles up, you need to pull the head and check for leaks or cracks.

 

[Anonymous]

There is a passage through the manifold, under the carb... but it does not go into the intake and there is no gasket? I am running through there now, but I could pull that connection I am not sure I need it anyway.

Could it be blue and I am mistaking it for white? how can I be sure? there is some black residue on the tailpipes, but that could be normal...

there was no sign of coolant in the oil?
I will do that test tomorrow to check for bubbling....

but I have been tweaking the car a lot with the cap off and I have not seen anything unusual in there? it flows really well when the therm opens, and stays still when it is closed.

However on a different note, if I had a crack and it was leaking not only coolant but vacume, that could explain a lot of other things going on....?

 

[BIGREDRASA]

It could. If you're getting water into one of your combustion chambers, that plug would look cleaner/whiter than the others. Try pulling the plugs, and see if they all look about the same. It's the old good news/bad news story. If you have coolant going into the combustion chamber, it will be super clean when you pull the head.
The fact that it smokes under higher vacuum, that is at idle; then also on acceleration with low vacuum, would tell me it's not vacuum sucking in fluid. You might try seeing if it smokes with the radiator cap off.

 

[strat1960s]

Let me toss a few thoughts out there.
If you are using the water passage on the intake, by-pass it with a fitting and look for the white smoke. It could be that there is a hair-line crack and it is being sucked into the motor throught there. I am not even going to hook mine up.
One other item to check would be your head gasket. It can be checked the same by pulling your radiator cap.
I certainly hope it is something harmless. You and I both have a great deal of time and money wrapped up in out motors. I'll be thinking of you when I fire mine up tomorrow to break in the cam and time and tune it. Wish me luck.

Ted

 

[Anonymous]

If you got oil, or anything else on the block, then the smoke/smell could just be that burning off. Also, about 200 miles after my rebuild, my car started to run a lot cooler. I think it was just that everything was fitting tighter so it created more friction. New engines definately do weird things.

 

[FastRonald]

8) I have to agree....it's water getting in some where. Either a poor gasket seal or a crack in the head/block.

 

[CobraSix]

Something Mike and I have run into with the Aussie head build up. Did you install enlarged valves? The exhaust valve on #1 when you enlarge it gets really close to the water jacket wall in the head. If it wasn't cut right, it may have gotten to close and may be leaking some. Just an outside idea.

Slade

 

[Anonymous]

OK guys... a lot to respond to.

RED
All of the plugs are fouled evenly.... black and oily. (That was their condition after breakin, I will pull them again in the morning now that is has run a while.

strat1960s
Best of luck, I am sooo close. I will try and bypass that and see what happens.
There was a hairline crack in the intake, but it was fixed... might be possible that the coolant line is leaking internally though, I will bypass that and see if it makes a difference.

cobrasix
Yes we installed larger valves... 1.75 intake, and 1.55 exhaust... stainless.
I am not sure about the seal on the gasket. There are no signs of leaks externally... I had a leak in the therm cover, and fixed that, I now have a new leak in the water pump and have to pull that and put a new seal on it... it was not there last weekend, but has appeared since...?


This is all a trial and error method... just have to eliminate one thing at a time...
The head and block were fluxed before they were rebuilt... but it is possible somewhere in the rebuild it might have cracked? if so the machinist is going to take delivery of my car this week.... I need to check the radiator and see if I can find this problem...

also if you look at my other post, you will see I am having issues with the idle on the engine... it is very rough and I am suffering with low vacume... could be a crack or leak that is causing coolant to flow in as well as air? this is going to take some time to sort out. SUCKS! this was not in the plans... and I have a lot of money tied up in this too...

Ahhh! going to sleep now... more tomorrow!

 

[BIGREDRASA]

The more you say, the more I suspect something is amiss with the intake manifold. Did you put a thin film of silicone/RTV on the intake gasket before assembly?

 

[Anonymous]

Yo Jimbo if you are getting coolant into a cyl the plug will show a haze of rust if the mill was run to operating temp, shut off and let set over nite
and is quite noticeable just my .02 Joseph

 

[rbohm]

8) jim, it sounds to me like your rings have not yet seated. did the shop install chrome faced rings? if they did then it will be a while before the rings seat, and you will have to put up with the blue smoke for a while. i say blue smoke because it can look white from inside the car. the oil residue on the plugs is the big clue here. also DONT let the shop pull the boraxo trick to seat the rings faster as all that does is add abrasives to the oil and will damage the bearings.

 

[Kinky6]

Hey, Jim (& Ted),

You can bypass the water fittings in the intake while you're getting things straightened out, and some guys will tell you that they don't bother at all, BUT, that water line is there to provide heat to the manifold so that the gas charge does not condensate and puddle on its way to the cylinder.

Remember; cool carb, warm manifold!



Hope this helps, Kinky6 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Well I just checked the plugs again and all of them are covered in a light coat of oil... there is no rust and nothing is clean or hazy?


Yes I do have Chrome Moly rings.

I am still going to bypass the intake line and see if that makes any difference at all.. I did seal the intake gasket on both sides very well... not lightly but very well with a high tac sealant.

 

[CobraSix]

The plugs don't seem to indicate water in the system.

What I meant by being too close has nothing to do with the gasket. It is actually the water jacket that flows coolant around the head. Our machine shop discovered that enlarging to 1.5" exhaust valves on the #1 cylinder will make the wall to the water jacket too thin. that could cause a water in the cylinder problems, but you'd see that on the plugs.

Slade

 

[addo]

White smoke on acceleration - sure it's not the tyres?

Actually, I suspect rings seating slowly. If it wasn't torque plate honed, this could be a contributing factor. Don't panic - do a leakdown test on all six pots if you want, then repeat 5-800 miles later.

This biz (generally) requires some discussion. We seem to get a lot of slow-bedding bores in readers reports. What is happening? Overfinishing?

Adam.

 

[Anonymous]

I am going to call the machinist in the morning and get his opinion, no panic here, just want to make sure things are as they should be.

 

[strat1960s]

Kinky 6

Actually the reason I a did not hook up my coolant lines to the intake manifold is a space issue. For some odd reasom, my motor with the Aussie head is sitting way to the right (passenger's side). In fact I made some mods to the engine mounts, even shimmed the motor to mount location. I have since been able to move the intake about 3/4's an inch "OFF" the shock tower. I just figured if the motor shfted enough to rub the heater hose, it's just going to be a future leak I have to figure out. Besides, I live Phoenix AZ, I don't really need to worry about my fuel icing up or pooling, and the Mustang will be in the garage at night. Now if I got orders to say, Europe or Alaska, which I am hoping for, I would consider hooking the coolant lines up to the intake.

 

[Falcon62]

Jimbo - Chrome Moly rings, or moly, usually seat very quickly, while chrome faced rings do not. I don't really believe you have chrome faced rings, they just aren't necessary in a daily driver.

Your plug description sounds like either rich idle mix (which based on your other post is probably true) and/or oil. Try and solve one problem at a time. Get your water pump fixed, then continue working on the fuel mixture. It sure sounds like you're running way rich at idle, and with the high idle, you're probably pulling fuel out of the main circuit in addition to your idle circuit.

You should be able to get that cam to idle well under 1krpm. You're missing something, and it will be obvious when you find it. I'd start by plugging every vacuum line you have, and see if that changes your idle. No change, I'd look long and hard at the manifold and carb base.

 

[rbohm]

8) make sure which ring you have as there are chrome rings, and moly rings, but there are NO chrome moly rings. they are two different faces and cannot be applied on the same ring.