Could Bad Plugs Cause White Smoke?

[backwoods lex]

From time to time, since about 90K miles, I have noticed white smoke sometimes coming from the exhaust. It is always a small amount that I have written off either as cold temp vapors or water being in the exhaust tip lip. It is not constant and not often seen. I bought the car with 49K and now have 145K. I had the water pump and timing belt replaced at 90K. I have never changed the plugs, and I don't know if they were changed before I bought it. Could it be bad plugs?

I told my brother in law and he said it is probably the head gasket (I was suprised because I'm religious about changing the synthetic oil, it has never overheated, and it is almost all highway miles).

If it is the headgasket, what life expectancy do you think it may have?

Thanks for any help.

[Toysrme]

no they wouldn't. any unburnt fuel going through a cylinder would burn on the manifold, or as soon as it hit the cat.

probably the head gaskets, or if you're 1% lucky one of the intake manifold gaskets may be leaking into an intake port.

take the plugs out & whichever one<s> are clean. is the offending cylinder. warm the enigne up & do a compression / leak down test to see.

lifespan? well assuming you put coolant in it... until the moisture in the oil burns the bearings up & the engine siezes, or a bearing siezes & a rod tries to throw itself out the block. It's a "fix it quickly before you incurre more damage" deal.

If you do it fast, you have options. Regasket the engine at a big cost. Swap to a JDM engine at a big cost. If you wait you have to rebuild the entire engine top to bottom, or replace it.

[wwest]

"Not often seen..."

Perhaps only as the engine warms up..?

Or....

When you let off the throttle after a fairly hard. HIGH RPM, acceleration...?

In the latter case the HIGH manifold vacuum resulting from closing the throttle butterfly valve with the engine still at high RPM would often result in sucking water into the intake manifold via a leaking head gasket.

But.

A leaking head gasket also typically results in undue pressurization of the engine cooling system resulting in coolant overflow.

[92Lex]

Or, maybe it's not white smoke?? Are you sure that it's not blue/gray? Does it occur all the time, even when you engine is nice and warm?

[hrly68]

my es250 has the same white smoke at warm up . I have been told it is the head gasket . the smoke stop as the engine reaches operating temp . a couple of forum replys on craiglist say i should try a block sealer . i was thinking of trying a k&w block sealer before i have the gasket replaced.

i park the car at night and make sure it idles a little before i turn it off so a high rpm factor would not apply to my white smoke . i start the vehicle in the morning and it smokes until it warms up . but i did notice a little smoke briefly in the afternoon yestaurday .

do you think the block sealer is a good idea ?

"Not often seen..."

Perhaps only as the engine warms up..?

Or....

When you let off the throttle after a fairly hard. HIGH RPM, acceleration...?

In the latter case the HIGH manifold vacuum resulting from closing the throttle butterfly valve with the engine still at high RPM would often result in sucking water into the intake manifold via a leaking head gasket.

But.

A leaking head gasket also typically results in undue pressurization of the engine cooling system resulting in coolant overflow.

[Ray92es]

Whit smoke is normal with cold engines or if you have water in your fuel. A car that has a coolant leak emit white smoke often and you are always loosing coolant. If you coolant is not going down, you are not having a coolant leak and there isn't anything to worry about. If it is, get it fixed.

Change your plugs because they were due at 100,000. If you have a leak in a cyl. that plug will be different from the rest

[92Lex]

No, don't use the block sealing additive. That crap runs through your entire cooling system. Just imagine everything that it's going to coat. Not to mention, chances of clogging your heater core and radiatior passages.

[hrly68]

whoa ! now i am confused ! the people i have talked to so far are sure i should use the block sealer before more serious damage occurs . but now i am not sure ? i know it will coat certain items in the engine block and heater system , but is not that the point so any leaks can be stopped from contaiminating the oil and causing engine contastrophy . right now , i do not have a ton of money to spend on mechanic bills so any easy fix would be welcomed . but i guess starting to throw money at small unnescessory fixes is proberly just stupid too .

but if block sealer is considered a negative application , why do some folks tell me to use it ?

[Toysrme]

If the white smoke goes away it's nothing more than condensation in your exhaust.

and your cooling system is probably near clogged anyways due to a lack of maintenanace. Why would you want to introduce something designed to clog a cooling system into yours?

[hrly68]

well gosh darn , you make a whole lot of sense !

I guess i just need to buck up and take the vehicle to a mechanic . a professional is what this car needs , not a backyard mechanic - like myself .

I am glad this forum is here to stop dummies like me , from making dumb mistakes !

I will keep you posted after i take it to a mechanic .

thanks a ton for your common sense advice and the time you take to help guys , like me , out !!

[Toysrme]

No biggie, the first impulse is lways to grab the $6 bottle of amrid & toss it in there, but that's not normally the best idea.

atleast flush your cooling system out & make sure the radiator isn't even remotely close to having gel in it if you want to try that stuff.

besides, that stuff is honestly for if you crakc a block just a tiny bit & need to drive alittlewhile. Won't stop a head gasket leaking for nuttin! too much temp & stress. You've got coolant being blasted into a jet of steam (both in & out the hole) the gasket uneats letting even more combustion chamber heat/pressure in. the oil supply can be >70psi if you jump on the gas.

it's just sorta a tall order.

but based on what you were saying... I don't think you've got a head gasket leak. Just burning off moisture. Take your plugs out... if you've got a chamber with coolant in it, you'll have a spark plug come out INSANELY clean. Like it had been steam cleaned. (Guess why!) while the other plugs will be a grey / charcoal color. maybe brown / black'ish if they're really old / you're burning oil.

[Toysrme]

or do a compression / leakdown test

but i very seriously doubt you'ev got a leaking head-gasket. when a head gasket blows, it will leave no question in your mind as to what happened.

once a HG unseats enough to let coolant start pouring into a chamber in any amount, it'll very, very quickly (within instants) become a full time, large leak. meaning you smoke all the time

and your oil will look like a milkshake. it dumps passed the cylinder rings.

[wwest]

or do a compression / leakdown test

but i very seriously doubt you'ev got a leaking head-gasket. when a head gasket blows, it will leave no question in your mind as to what happened.

once a HG unseats enough to let coolant start pouring into a chamber in any amount, it'll very, very quickly (within instants) become a full time, large leak. meaning you smoke all the time

and your oil will look like a milkshake. it dumps passed the cylinder rings.

No, or little actual expereince..?

Head gas ket leaks come in all kinds of "flavors".

Our son's 92 Aerostar 4.0L developed a head gasket leak and at the time he couldn't afford to have it fixed so we traded him our 94.

Our's wasn't a daily driver so we "drove" his 92 for almost 6 months, only occassionally having to top off the coolant. It was only as winter approached and I didn't wish to waste anti-freeze in this manner did I decide to shell out the $1000 to have it fixed.

On the other hand I have had head gasket leaks that would empty the coolant in 10 miles.

[Toysrme]

They'll leak at any point, but one of the surfaces will warp & start dumping fluids.

[backwoods lex]

Thanks for all of the responses guys. And sorry for the late response--I've been out sick the past few days. Anyway, it is just a trace of smoke every now and then when I start my car up after work. I'm about 85-90% sure it is white (hard to tell because it is so little). I'm losing very little radiator fluid. It has been 55K miles since my TB change and the fluid level is still above the low marker (and my main hose is pretty old and soft). But I have noticed small black specks in the overflow tank for the radiator.

Yeah, I do need plugs but I wasn't sure if they had been replaced before I bought the car. I figured I would wait since all of the other Japanese cars that I have owned were a real PITA to drive when the plugs were going bad.