head gasket or exhust leak?

itschrome · #1 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 09:52 AM

so i've gotten all the bugs worked out of the old girl, or so i thought i had any ways. i decieded to run some seafoam through my gas yesterday. filler her up and hit the high way to go home. no problems cars running good as usual, execpt i get off the high way and i have white smoke pouring out of my engine bay. of course i had forget about the seafoam and get really jittery about the white smoke, but as soon as i got over the smoke being from the seafoam i then had to ask why the hell is it coming out of my engine bay?

well of course i went right to the head gasket and looked all over this site for the signs. heres what i found:

1: no oil in my coolant or coolant in my oil.
2: no over heating or loss of coolant
3: no noticeable change in cars power.
4: i really should have waited to chang and no gotten oil all over my white dress pants.

i dunno guys, i am hoping for an exhuast manifold leak or some thing else. what do you all think? ticking time bomb or what.

if it is the head gasket i think i'm going to just put one of those engines i've seen for sale on here in, from jake i believe. any thoughts on this?

thanks guys

submariner409 · #2 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 10:31 AM

No loss of coolant, so the "white smoke" was not steam. What did it smell like: Oil, coolant, exhaust ?? Did you burn up a serpentine belt or water pump drive belt ?

Did you check your DTC's ?

Unless the "smoke" was actually steam from the surge tank or a blown hose, head gaskets don't blow smoke into the engine room.

itschrome · #3 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by submariner409

No loss of coolant, so the "white smoke" was not steam. What did it smell like: Oil, coolant, exhaust ?? Did you burn up a serpentine belt or water pump drive belt ?

Did you check your DTC's ?

Unless the "smoke" was actually steam from the surge tank or a blown hose, head gaskets don't blow smoke into the engine room.

it smelled like really high octane gas. like the exhaust from a car running race fuel with a slightest essence of oil in it. i should note the smoking went away since last night. my exhaust still smells like the smoke though. Also traffic was really bad so i was sitting in a lot of stop and go traffic when this happen. but i wasn't over heating.

edit: and no i haven't checked my DTC yet, will check on lunch. no warnings or check engine light has come on.

edit edit: also the smoke was coming as best as i could tell from the right back side of the engine, in front of the driver.

submariner409 · #4 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 10:48 AM

Right rear side of engine.......that's down where the braided s/s exhaust flex line is - the connector at the manifold/crossover pipe Y that leads into the cat. If you ran a batch of Seafoam (

) through the engine, that may show an exhaust leak.

For cleaning the fuel/injector/valves/EGR system, use TECHRON.

itschrome · #5 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 11:15 AM

so seafoam is a no no. my bad. i looked here yesterday and didn't see anything saying one way or another about it so i figured it was ok. so lets say hypothetically it is an exhaust leak, shouldn't my car be really really loud? i would say on a scale of 1 to 10 ten being the loudest i'd give my car a 5 1/2 to 6.

**Ranger** · #6 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 12:41 PM

Why Oh Why does everyone feel the need to dump all this snake oil in their engines and then wonder why they are having problems. PLEASE. LEAVE THE SNAKE OIL ON THE SHELF!

submariner409 · #7 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 01:19 PM

Exhaust leaks are best localized with the car and an assistant up on a 4-point lift...........and an exhaust pipe or coupler leak will have a "putter" or "flappy" sound as opposed to a muffler rumble.

itschrome · #8 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ranger

Why Oh Why does everyone feel the need to dump all this snake oil in their engines and then wonder why they are having problems. PLEASE. LEAVE THE SNAKE OIL ON THE SHELF!

I dunno.. it was on sale and people at work were... yeah theres no excuse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by submariner409

Exhaust leaks are best localized with the car and an assistant up on a 4-point lift...........and an exhaust pipe or coupler leak will have a "putter" or "flappy" sound as opposed to a muffler rumble.

I get a bit of a "putter" but again not every loud at all. I have a guy who's gonna check it for me tomorrow. It hasn't been smoking at all today, running just as normal. cept on lunch i kept hearing a thud when i accelerated, but looking into i found my bowling ball had come out of its bag in the trunk.

eXile · #9 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 03:06 PM

I seem to have some what of a similar annoyance if you will, as its not really a problem. (At least I hope not)

When I WOT, I get a lot of 'nasties' that fly out of my tailpipes and the carbon smell is VERY prominent. I have been doing weekly WOT's as suggested via the Technical Archive at the top of the page, yet every time I drive it hard I get a carbon smell. This car does have 156,000 miles on it and I don't think it has ever had WOT's until me.

My question is this, should I use Chevron Techron in my car or not? I know Ranger's opinion seems to be LEAVE IT ON THE SHELF, and submariener's opinion is to only use Techron...

Will the Techron help to clean out my exhaust? If I run my fingers in the tail pipes they come out pitch black. And after every WOT run I have to clean off the part of the exhaust tips that is closest to the actual exhaust openings. As they are full of carbon.

This seemed like a good thread to ask this question, I have no intention of 'hi-jacking' this thread, but the Techron came up again and I would really like an answer to this.

Thanks guys,

~X

itschrome · #10 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 04:05 PM

Exile: yeah my exhaust sounds just like yours does. its all carbon covered. which makes me believe my engine needed a good clean up too. i dont feel the sea foam did any harm though, and as for any good. hard to say. i haven't done a WOT since i put it in and have only used 2 gal out of 18 thus far. I am nervous about doing any WOt runs after the smoke showed yesterday. Until i find out WTF is going on with her i'm just gonna be gentle. a couple guys i work with took a look at her on lunch and they agreed there is no coolant/oil mixing.

back to techron what make this anyless of a snake oil than say seafoam?

STSS · #11 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 04:29 PM

GM recommends it.... do a google search on techron and top tier gasoline

submariner409 · #12 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 06:10 PM

It is not my intent to act as Ranger but I believe that we are, for the most part, on the same page with TECHRON. We both diss the "Buy this and get magic engine power and mileage" advertising. Too much of my stupid time and money spent over a lot of motoring years is loaded in the database.........

Google "chevron techron" and "top tier gasoline" and do some homework so we'll ALL be on the same page.

GM specifically recommends Top Tier fuels for their detergency, and therefore they recommend TECHRON by definition. (TECHRON is the additive that creates a top tier fuel.) GM specifically cautions against using aftermarket oil and fuel additives in their cars. There are several TSB's on the subjects, and those TSB's have been posted and linked at least a half dozen times in the past 2 years - both in here and in Northstar Performance. The Owner's Manuals also make mention of additives. Yes, every car manufacturer has their shelf full of recommended additives, polishes, and cleaners. That's probably no more than a benign cash cow.

Here's another way to look at the additive thing: I tell you to pour in a pint of "Detergent Pixie Dust" and you say "Wow !! Ol' Sub gets lotsa horsepower out of the stuff!" You buy a jug, pour it in, do a WOT and blow the engine. Where does that leave me ?? I can spit out advice, but you don't have to follow it.

Necrosan · #13 (**permalink**) 07-10-09, 06:12 PM

I seafoamed my 94 ETC.
1/3 of the can in the gas, 1/3 in the oil and sucked 1/3 through the PCV line.
DIC reported gains of 3-4 MPG in the next few weeks.
Did nothing else to improve my MPG, so you guys be the judge.
YMMV.

**Ranger** · #14 (**permalink**) 07-11-09, 01:27 AM

Chevron Techron is the only additive recommended by GM and is probably one of the few additives that I would not consider snake oil.

SPreston2001 · #15 (**permalink**) 07-11-09, 02:26 AM

Seafoam is definetely not "Snake Oil". It does exactly what it says it does and works great. Its not gonna cure any mechanical problems but it does clean out alot of gunk. I have used it only many previous cars with fantastic results. Its petroleum based so it wont do any harm. But to answer your question it sounds like you have an exhaust leak. The fun part of using Seafoam is watching the huge cloud of white smoke pour out your exhaust. A buddy of mine a few years ago used Seafoam to track down his exhaust leak.

And by the way I use Shell in my car, but i've heard that the so called detergents that are in top tier gasolines are pretty much the same detergents found in all other types of gas. Ive also heard that gas stations that claim to have exclusive detergents (shell nitrogen enriched, etc) only contain a small amount of this mystery detergent per truck load so you only end up with a squirt of mystery formula per fill up. I saw a study of different fuels used (both big name stations and local) and after the chemical breakdown they were pratically identical and no one fuel offered any benefits over the other. So bottom line is, I use Shell for a peace of mind but im probably not getting any added benefits. Plus I think all fuels must meet strict standards.