bgbfflochp

I was driving to work today in stop and go traffic and I notice a little bit of white smoke coming out of my exhaust. I'm about a half a mile away from my building and then all of a sudden my A/F jumps up and fluctuates between 17-23. The white smoke significantly increases. Of course the tone of the car changes and sputters, so I pull it on over and left it in someone else's parking lot.


The white smoke is obviously telling me the same thing the wideband was telling me. Anyone have any idea what is going on here...and what my damages might be? Let me know if there's anything I might be able to add to try and narrow the problem down if possible.

Nothing has been done to the car in close to a year.
It's got a comptech SC and smaller pulley, comptech aftercooler.
AEM EMS...and some bigger injectors.

Thanks,
Dave

shivers

Blue smoke typically is from oil being burned up in the combustion chambers. White smoke is typically from coolant being burned up in the combustion chambers. Did you notice any coolant leaks or sweet smells? How much boost are you pushing? My first guess would be a blown headgasket, but it's hard to diagnose without being able to see the car. Good luck.

bgbfflochp

My nose isn't really trained enough I don't think, but in my opinion it didn't smell sweet at all. It just smelled like dirty exhaust, like when you're behind an 18 wheeler when it shoots all that black smoke out.

I didn't notice in leaks. It's pushing 9lbs of boost, although I haven't even gone past 6k rpms in at least a month or so (and that was just because I was going 80 on the interstate. I can't even remember the last time I've ever pushed the car). I rarely even get it much past 4k on the drive to work due to the traffic.

Thanks for the response,
Dave

dut

Blowby. Headgasket. Uh oh.

xviper

Moving to Forced Induction where there may be people who can better help you.

bgbfflochp

fair enough, thanks xviper.

I guess another question is, what exactly do I need to look for when I get off work and can make it back to my car. Maybe I can get a better idea if I can give some specific yes or no's.

Thanks again guys,
Dave

Elistan

This probably isn't something you can do yourself easily, but my understanding is a good diagnostic for something like this it to remove a spark plug and put a borescope into the combustion chamber to look around. (Much cheaper than taking the engine apart to look at it directly.) If coolant is leaking into the cylinders, it might be visible.

Elistan

Oh, or would a low coolant resevoir be a good indicator? I don't know how much coolant gets sucked in when a headgasket goes.

PWRMKR

Problem with the EMS, interface, connections?

l8brakr

Pull the dipstick and make sure the oil isn't "milky" looking. This would be the result of coolant getting into the oil which means some internal issues. It could also be your aftercooler has sprung a leak and is putting some coolant into the intake so I would take a screw driver to pull the clamp & tube off and peer into the aftercooler for any signs of this. I would probably just call a tow truck and get it to a shop or your home where you have tools to check things out before trying to start again. Good luck!!