Missing AND smoking

Mattys5Oh · Sep 27, 2004

Well I did an oil change yesterday (9/26) and a spark plug change. Car ran BEAUTIFULLY last night.

Well today I'm runnin some errands and I was rolling to a stop and heard the car start to idle weird. You know how you can hear the missing through the exhaust.

Last time the car ran like this, I had a boot on a header so I was like "OK, it's probably the same thing.....no biggie." I get home and inspect all the wires and they are all fine. So then I go and check each plus one by one to make sure they are secured in the block and all the plugs are nice and tight.

Then while I'm letting it run, I start to notice smoke coming from the exhaust.....and quite a bit and it smells like fuel. It's a whiteish color but it's NOT coolant smoke.....smells nothing like it nor does it have the same consistancy.

So I'm at a loss...The plugs are all tight and the wires all check out OK. The cap n rotor are less then a month or 2 old....

Any ideas???

Matt

87'GTstang · Sep 27, 2004

Mattys5Oh said:
Well I did an oil change yesterday (9/26) and a spark plug change. Car ran BEAUTIFULLY last night.

Well today I'm runnin some errands and I was rolling to a stop and heard the car start to idle weird. You know how you can hear the missing through the exhaust.

Last time the car ran like this, I had a boot on a header so I was like "OK, it's probably the same thing.....no biggie." I get home and inspect all the wires and they are all fine. So then I go and check each plus one by one to make sure they are secured in the block and all the plugs are nice and tight.

Then while I'm letting it run, I start to notice smoke coming from the exhaust.....and quite a bit and it smells like fuel. It's a whiteish color but it's NOT coolant smoke.....smells nothing like it nor does it have the same consistancy.

So I'm at a loss...The plugs are all tight and the wires all check out OK. The cap n rotor are less then a month or 2 old....

Any ideas???

Matt

Whitish color is almost going to have to be coolant. Check around your cylinder heads to see anything hanging around that looks suspicious. Out of curiosity look at the color of your oil, level of your coolant, the underside of the distributor as well as all spark plug wire connections, and the manifold area for leaks.

Also, most definitley don't rule out a blown headgasket, good luck with what you find.

*edit - If it without a doubt smells like fuel, then look for a leak somewhere as well and if you can do an injector balance test of some kind - do so to make sure you don't have a faulty injector.

Mattys5Oh · Sep 28, 2004

87'GTstang said:
Whitish color is almost going to have to be coolant. Check around your cylinder heads to see anything hanging around that looks suspicious. Out of curiosity look at the color of your oil, level of your coolant, the underside of the distributor as well as all spark plug wire connections, and the manifold area for leaks.

Also, most definitley don't rule out a blown headgasket, good luck with what you find.

*edit - If it without a doubt smells like fuel, then look for a leak somewhere as well and if you can do an injector balance test of some kind - do so to make sure you don't have a faulty injector.

This is an ignition miss.....I know what that feels and sounds like. I've had it before. And it's definitely fuel coming from the exhaust.

Mattys5Oh · Sep 28, 2004

Update

Like I said in the first post, the wires looked fine during visual inspection.

So far these are tests and results I have performed.

The smoke is DEFINITELY fuel just to make that clear.

I checked #5-#8 plugs and all checked out OK.

I pulled a boot off each plug one at a time and started/ran the car for a few seconds to see if there was a change. The car seemd to run worse with #5, #6 and #8 disconnected. When I disconnected #7, it didn't seem to run worse so I tried a new plug and a new wire but there was no change.

I then removed #4 plug and it was clean as hell!! It almost looked like it hadn't been fired i the 2 days it had been in the block. It was wet and smelled like fuel. I replaced the plug and wire and same results...car was still missing bad.

I then tried a new cap with the same results.

I will hopefully have some time today to take a look at #1-#3. But regardless.....#4 isn't firing and I can't figure out why.

Please help.....This car has sssooo many gremlins!

Matt

GoldenEye · Sep 28, 2004

I had the same thing happen. Sounds like it could be either Fuel pressure regulator (pull the vacume line off and see if gas comes out) or the salt & pepper shakers - 10 Pin connectors (check to make sure they are connected good, with no shorts.)

My problem turned out to be a short in the wiring behind those connectors. Everybody told me head gasket but wrong. you can create lots of white smoke by running a very very rich mixutre. There's so much gas in the cylinders it both creates condensation and frees up oil to burn.

pull the dipstick and smell it, bet it smells like fuel.

Mattys5Oh · Sep 29, 2004

GoldenEye said:
I had the same thing happen. Sounds like it could be either Fuel pressure regulator (pull the vacume line off and see if gas comes out) or the salt & pepper shakers - 10 Pin connectors (check to make sure they are connected good, with no shorts.)

My problem turned out to be a short in the wiring behind those connectors. Everybody told me head gasket but wrong. you can create lots of white smoke by running a very very rich mixutre. There's so much gas in the cylinders it both creates condensation and frees up oil to burn.

pull the dipstick and smell it, bet it smells like fuel.

I understand that and will heck it out just incase but I'm more worried about the severe miss then the smoking. I need to figure out why #4 is not firing first and then that will correct that smoking.

Matt

Mattys5Oh · Sep 29, 2004

More results.....

YES my dipstick does smell like gas.

Well I checked the rest of the plugs and they are OK. They I ran a test to see if #4 spark plus is even getting an spark.......Well to my unhappiness, the #4 spark plug IS getting spark....This leads me to think of 3-4 things.

1. The #4 1.72 rocker came loose. It seems possible since they have never been re-tightend in the 10-12 months they have been on there.

2. #4 rocker stud broke.

3. A bent/bad pushrod that isn't opening the exhaust valve and is causing the cylinder to load with fuel killing the spark and causing the fuel/oil burn out of the exhaust.

4. A cam lobe has gone bye bye causing the same problem as above.

Am I way off or does this sound right? Has anyone else had this happen to them before?

Thanks!
Matt

4.

Mattys5Oh · Sep 29, 2004

Now we had also added a piston ring or something in the head like a valve seal/seat.

Any opinions?

I plan to do a compression test (wet and dry) this weekend so we can narrow it down some more.

Matt

GoldenEye · Sep 29, 2004

Is there any clucking mechanical failure type of noise coming from the upper end around the #4? Seems to me that if something was broke you would hear it moving around in there? Maybe not though. Also, might want to check and see if your injector is stuck open. Do you have a spare one lying around you can put in there? I agree, could be the valve, or seal. Bummer, sorry man it's frustrating. Keep us in the loop and let us know.

GoldenEye · Sep 29, 2004

And... As soon as you get it fixed make sure not to forget to change that oil and plugs out as quick as possible. I changed mine and would swear there was about 1 pint of gas in the crankcase. It actually cleaned a lot of sludge out of the pan, etc. I changed it twice withen a week to make sure I got all the fule out.

Mattys5Oh · Sep 30, 2004

GoldenEye said:
Is there any clucking mechanical failure type of noise coming from the upper end around the #4? Seems to me that if something was broke you would hear it moving around in there? Maybe not though. Also, might want to check and see if your injector is stuck open. Do you have a spare one lying around you can put in there? I agree, could be the valve, or seal. Bummer, sorry man it's frustrating. Keep us in the loop and let us know.

I'm not thinking something broke (and HOPING somethign didn't break) on top of #4 but maybe the rocker screw backed out or a pushrod is bent enough to cause this. I swear I hear a slight ticking noise coming from that area though.

I checked to see if the injector was stuck open, it's not. I was told to remove the plug...start the car for a few seconds and see if anything was coming out of the plug hole. There was nothing there but I could definitely smell the fuel.

If it's a head, I'll either replace it with another E7, find a slightly worked set of E7's or prepare the GT-40's that I have laying around (that I HAD planned to get serious port work done this winter).

Matt

Mattys5Oh · Sep 30, 2004

FIXED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stupid thing! I had time to get the valve cover off today. Come to find out the #4 rocker on the intake side poped off! Damn bastard! It's all set and fixed now!!

Thanks Stangnet!

Matt

GoldenEye · Sep 30, 2004

Now change that oil, and clean that plug! Right on man.

Mattys5Oh · Sep 30, 2004

GoldenEye said:
Now change that oil, and clean that plug! Right on man.

Yeah, I'm gonna run some cheap oil for a couple days then put my normal stuff back in.

Matt

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