White smoke!! Bad day.

[KillrStang]

Well today I went out and the car was driving really well. Boost was coming on quick and felt like a rocket. But I got on the feeder road and got into the throttle and quickly noticed a huge white smoke cloud behind me, got off the gas right away and came to a stop. I let it idle to see if I could hear any metal on metal contact. Non was present but I threw a misfire code for the number 4 cylinder. You could def till it was miss firing and un plugged that coil pack to verify. In my engine bay I noticed quite a bit of oil blow by since I'm only running a breather. So I checked the oil and it seemed a tad low. I also checked my coolant reservoir and it was extremely low. Car wasn't running hot at all and the afr was good when everything happened but slightly rich after it happened tho.

My question is what all should be checked? And if anyone has had a similar experience plz chime in.

I did check the turbo to see if there was any play in the shaft and it seemed normal

 

[muztangman93]

Ive seen a lot do that when a head gasket pops.

 

[Aandf1978]

Drain oil and look for a milkshake (coolant & oil mix). That's what I would do.

 

[KillrStang]

I'm thinking head gasket as well but I thought mls gaskets aren 't known for popping.

 

[KungFuHamster]

Ill say you broke a ring land.

 

[lethe]

X2 on checking for oil/coolant mix. Hopefully it's a headgasket and not something in the motor itself.

 

[BruceH]

You blew a head gasket. The mls don't usually go unless uneven torque application was used on the heads or a lot of boost is being pushed through it. If it's high boost then you might as well o ring the block.

 

[KillrStang]

What's considered high boost Bruce? I'm only running 12 lbs currently. Soon it will be 18-20lbs

 

[BruceH]

What's considered high boost Bruce? I'm only running 12 lbs currently. Soon it will be 18-20lbs

12 isn't high. Were your heads and block checked for flatness prior to assembly? I really hope I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure you blew a headgasket. Did you smell a sweet, humid smell of vaporized coolant?

Every time you get on the gas you should see a fog coming out of the tail pipe from now on.

 

[Aandf1978]

Everything points to the head gasket, just take the 15 mins drain the oil and you will know right away what's up if that's what it is.

 

[lito]

Did you took that plug out?

it looked like coolant spilled out of the reservoir?

 

[KillrStang]

I'm def draining the oil, tomorrow. I'm also going to pull the plugs for piece of mind. Does autozone rent out bore scopes?

Lito I've checked for leaks on all my coolant lines. I think everyone's right about the head gasket. Like I said she still idled fine. I'm praying I didn't pop a ringland

 

[lito]

What I meant is, you said the coolant was low, when this happens the coolant system gets pressurized and coolant blows out of the cap, that is what I asked, if there is signs that the coolant spilled out of the reservoir thru the cap.

edit: some ring issues won't be seen thru the scope. Check the plug and see if you load the cylinder if the coolant bubbles, a leakdown test will show a ring issue.

good luck with this and hopefully is something somehow simple.

 

[KillrStang]

Ah ok then no there were no signs that it came out of the cap.

Thanks lito.

 

[8306gt]

Several things to keep in mind. Water doesn't always go in the oil with a blown head gasket so draining the oil may not tell you anything. There may not be enough water going into the cylinder at idle to notice the burning antifreeze smell however under boost it will likely pressurize the water jacket and push water out of the overflow. I recently blew a head gasket and it never had white smoke from the burning antifreeze nor did water go in the oil. It would push water if any boost was present, and when I shut the engine off it would fill the number 8 cylinder with water because at that point pressure in the cooling system was higher than the cylinder. Best bet is to check the cooling system for exhuast gasses, check compression, and do a leak down to determine what has gone wrong.

 

[KillrStang]

Ok so ill be doing a leak down test sometime this week but I have a slightly different theory since I peaked into the cylinders, and they looked normal for a running engine and not one that has had a headgasket blown ie steam cleaned cylinder walls and pistons...

I currently have a 67 mm comp oil less on my car and my thought is that I blew the turbo not the head gasket.

 

[Makdaddy]

Are you sure the drain for the turbo didnt get blocked? tooo much crankcase pressure? You mentioned a lot of blow by oil in the engine bay.

If the turbo couldnt drain properly it would make it smoke like biatch on boost

My Bad Didnt see that it was an oil less turbo

 

[one eyed willy]

what pistons exactly? how many miles on the pistons?

 

[KillrStang]

well the drain is in the side of the block, so unless the coolant galley in the block has been compramised that shouldnt be an issue.


pistons are cp2618 iirc

1300 miles on this motor and when this happened i was running 10-12 lbs of boost

 

[19COBRA93]

I'm going to guess it's a ringland/piston issue. I've been there many times, 3 times on CP's. It's a hard pill to swallow. I personally would rather run stock pistons than CP's.