After my car warms up and is driving for a while a slight steady mist of white smoke comes fromt he tailpipes, you can barely see it unless your paying attention. Then if I drive hard or hit the gas hard I can see a BIG cloud of smoke in my rearveiw mirror and when I slow down the smoke is still thick and coming out alot, but after about 30secs or so the smoke gets thinner but instead of it being a light mist you can really see it. The car runs and drives great w/ the exception of that and when the engine starts to idle very low and surge (that only happens when the engine is warm). The car never overheated, as a matter of fact, the car has never ran hot, and it runs fine so Im guessing the head gaskets are good. Could it be because I dont have any oxygen sensors hooked up?
Heavy white smoke on hard acceleration
- Thread starter Fastcat
- Start date
MahFiVeOh
Founding Member
If its white fluffy smoke its prob a head gasket like Js5ohLX said. Mine did the same, i think the smoke kind of smelled sweet too 
i may be wrong 
i may be wrong I believe you guys are right. I started the car, revved the engine till I seen white smoke and then smelt it... It had a sweet smell to it... It kinda made my mouth water! I took the rad. cap off and seen that I was kind of low on coolant. So I revved it up and down slightly from under the hood looking at the coolant. After about 10min of running, I seen a slight white foam in the fluid. I stop revving the engine, then theT-stat opened and bubbles started to come from the coolant and the white smoke started to come out of the tailpipes noticeablly w/o me revving the engine.
So since my HG or blown or leaking, why doesnt the car overheat? Since the smoke isnt fluffy, could that because I have mostly water in my radiator?
So since my HG or blown or leaking, why doesnt the car overheat? Since the smoke isnt fluffy, could that because I have mostly water in my radiator?
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
Keep driving it that way -- it will overheat for you shortly. If you smell the antifreeze and you've got vapor behind the car, you shouldn't drive it anymore til you can get it fixed -- you're just asking to hurt it worse. It could be a head gasket; it could also be a cracked component. If you run a cranking compression test or leak down tests, that may tell you exactly where the problem is.
OK guys, I changed the HGs (havent put the car completely back together yet though. I took off the old gaskets and didnt see any points where it could be leaking or blown. Could it be so small I cant see it, or is this normal for a leaking HG?
Oh yea, Im not putting the original heads back on, I have a set of good stock heads sitting in my garage. So changing the HGs and heads SHOULD fix my problem fit?
Oh yea, Im not putting the original heads back on, I have a set of good stock heads sitting in my garage. So changing the HGs and heads SHOULD fix my problem fit?
IndyBlk5.0
New Member
Was any part of the cylinder wall or head white?
My block ended up needing to be decked when my car blew the head gaskets. I hope this isnt your case.
My block ended up needing to be decked when my car blew the head gaskets. I hope this isnt your case.
Nothing was white. All of my pistons had a black carbon build up BUT 1. That piston had NO carbon on it at all and was shiny looking (well not shinny but very clean compared tot he othes). And all my spark plus looked new execpt for that cylinder with the "shiny" piston... and the plug was black on the end.
Gearbanger, I checked for bubbles in the radiator (and I had some) but I wasnt doing a leak test though.
Gearbanger, I checked for bubbles in the radiator (and I had some) but I wasnt doing a leak test though.
dvs bullet
New Member
You may want to have your heads milled slightly before putting them back on (.010) just to ensure they're square. You can do it while they're still assembled. While you've got them off the car, it wouldn't hurt to relap the valves and install new valve seals too. It's inexpensive and can only help.
It could be fuel. Pull the dipstick and smell the oil. Does it smell like fuel? If so, check the injector that was near that shiny cylinder, and also oull the hose off your FPR and see if gas is in there. Also, check and see if you have any shorts in the 10 pin connector. I had a wiring fault behind the intake that was causing the car to run very, very rich. It was so rich I had condensation coming out of the tail pipes, along with white smoke.
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
I was gonna suggest checking a/f ratio -slightly rich often looks whitish/gray. The richer it gets however, the blacker the smoke becomes.
Is it smoke or vapor? White vapor is clearly coolant getting into the combustion chamber somehow -- your buddy can usually smell the antifreeze (sweet smell) if someone drives behind you.
Is it smoke or vapor? White vapor is clearly coolant getting into the combustion chamber somehow -- your buddy can usually smell the antifreeze (sweet smell) if someone drives behind you.
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