smoke from engine

[Sexymeatball]

well it seems this car is a never ending problem. Just finished the valve stem seals a little over a week ago (dont ever want to do that again) and everything seemed fine until 2 days. As i was driving to my girls house i pull up and notice a large amount of whitish smoke coming from my engine. s*%t. I shut off the engine and discover a pin hole leak in the upper radiator hose. Ok thats not too bad. I drive it home with the pressure cap relieved, get a new hose and install it. Well, its been a day now and the smoke has not cleared. The leak is fixed but every time i drive the car and then stop the smoke appears in increasingly smaller ammounts yet it is still there. It smells like coolant maybe? It doesnt appear when i start it up and let it idle until it get to normal temperature. It only appears after driving for more than 5 minutes and the smoke is becoming less and less the more i drive. spilled coolant should not take a day to burn off correct? The only other thing i could think of is that on sunday i doused the exhuast manifold studs in PB blaster 4 times within 2 hours in an attempt to make things easier when i replace the y-pipe. But that still wouldnt be burning off right? Please help. Smoke is scary!

 

[shojuan]

You can always try renting a cooling system pressure tester from autozone. You want to rule out coolant leaks. Could be you have another cooling hose on its way out. Also investigate the weep holes on your water pump. Water pump might be on its way out. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if that's where your problem was.

 

[K-Dawg]

Sexymeatball:
The only other thing i could think of is that on sunday i doused the exhuast manifold studs in PB blaster 4 times within 2 hours in an attempt to make things easier when i replace the y-pipe.

That could very well be your culprit. I once got a little PB Blaster overspray on one of the cats and it produced quite a bit of white smoke.

But you say you still have a coolant smell, so don't rule out a coolant leak. As, SHOjuan said, pressure check the system.

<small>[ August 12, 2003, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: K-Dawg ]</small>

 

[Sexymeatball]

well, luckily it does appear to be nothing more than stuff still burning off the cats. It cant be my water pump cause thats brand new with less than 1k miles on it. I plan on replacing the lower hose but thats special order. Like i said the, smoke does become less and less as time goes on so i think its just burnoff...i hope. Ill update as i drive around today. Thanks for everyones continual help. this forum is great.

 

[K-Dawg]

If you had one hose blow out, you should go ahead and replace all of them since rubber deteriorates at the same rate. The rest are probably on the edge of blowing

 

[Sexymeatball]

Well...in a most unusual display of cooperation my car decided to fix itself and not ask for more money. Not that it was really a problem i think. The smoke is now gone. My guess is that it was the PB blaster (i really doused those studs). I was probably overreacting but smoke from the engine is not something i like to see. Thanks everyone.