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White smoke


thomas.pelley.pe

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I have an 86 b2 with the 2.9. When I bought it it needed a clutch. Changed all the clutch components then changed all the brake parts. Now I need help. My area does not require emissions on such an old vehicle so if like to eliminate that but main issue right now is white smoke from the exhaust. Coolant disappears but I'm not seeing water in the oil or oil in the water. Flushed the system when I changed the radiator, thermostat and cap and it after running it turns to a nice lovely brown color, seems like rust getting picked up somewhere. Could this be a bad intake gasket? I'd really like to get her driving. Any help is greatly welcomed and appreciated

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James H

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The white smoke means your burning coolant. You can go to Napa and get some block test to confirm. It will find exhaust gasses in t he coolant. Or you can pull the spark plugs and pressurize the cooling system and see which cylinder fills up. Is the truck over heating at all? They are known for cracking heads from over heating, and blowing head gaskets is fairly common.

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thomas.pelley.pe

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The white smoke means your burning coolant. You can go to Napa and get some block test to confirm. It will find exhaust gasses in t he coolant. Or you can pull the spark plugs and pressurize the cooling system and see which cylinder fills up. Is the truck over heating at all? They are known for cracking heads from over heating, and blowing head gaskets is fairly common.

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Sitting in the driveway it'll run cool to norm for a long while at like before the coolant drops and temp goes up. Of course this happens faster when tooling around the neighborhood on test runs

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James H

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Are you talking about the thermostat opening? Driving around, will to over heat? What I'm hearing just sounds like getting the engine up to temp. And that much would be normal.

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thomas.pelley.pe

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Are you talking about the thermostat opening? Driving around, will to over heat? What I'm hearing just sounds like getting the engine up to temp. And that much would be normal.

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It's alot of smoke even after the thermostat opens. More than normal. It is running rich but it's still way to much smoke even for that

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James H

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Running too rich will be black smoke. Put you hand over the exhaust for a few seconds and see if it smells sweet. If it dose that's coolant in the combustion chamber burning. When dose it start to smoke? At start up? Or after it gets warm. And with colder temperatures, you might see some more white in the exhaust from the water condensing before it gets to the tail pipe. What's the temp where you are?

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thomas.pelley.pe

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Running too rich will be black smoke. Put you hand over the exhaust for a few seconds and see if it smells sweet. If it dose that's coolant in the combustion chamber burning. When dose it start to smoke? At start up? Or after it gets warm. And with colder temperatures, you might see some more white in the exhaust from the water condensing before it gets to the tail pipe. What's the temp where you are?

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Smells a little sweet. Starts as soon as it starts. The thing is that I'm not seeing oil and water mixed on either the radiator or on the dipstick and I know those are classic signs of cracks and/or head gaskets. That makes me think possibly the intake gasket leaking around a water port (?). I'm just sure if this engine has coolant going through the intake.

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thomas.pelley.pe

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Smells a little sweet. Starts as soon as it starts. The thing is that I'm not seeing oil and water mixed on either the radiator or on the dipstick and I know those are classic signs of cracks and/or head gaskets. That makes me think possibly the intake gasket leaking around a water port (?). I'm just sure if this engine has coolant going through the intake.

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I'm in Georgia so winter is normally short. It's been between 40 and 60 the past few days

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James H

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I don't think there is water I the intake. But, the signs depend on where the failure is in the gasket. It can fail between the water jacket and cylinder and cause the smoke but not put coolant in the oil because it's not crossing over under the gasket, and the coolant is burning off with combustion, so it won't get past the rings. Find a coolant pressure tester and pull you spark plugs, and see whitck cylinder fills up. You might get "lucky" and be able to just pull plugs and see coolant in the cylinder. But from what your saying, I'd put money on cracked head or bad gasket, as both are common on this engine, and the symptoms.

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wildbill23c

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A very small head gasket leak you'll never find oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil as its such a small amount it get burned. Eventually it'll get bad enough you'll start getting the above issues.

Also, unless you are driving longer distances you'll find that you'll have some condensation in the engine continuously as you have to get the vehicle up to temperature and run it at highway speeds for quite a while to get all that condensation boiled out of the system. My 88 Bronco 2 has quite a bit of condensation and you'll see snot on the oil cap when you remove it.

Another test you can do is taking a latex glove and putting it over your radiator opening, start the vehicle and if the glove starts to inflate and dance around that's a very good sign you have combustion gasses getting into your cooling system and vice versa.
 

thomas.pelley.pe

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A very small head gasket leak you'll never find oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil as its such a small amount it get burned. Eventually it'll get bad enough you'll start getting the above issues.

Also, unless you are driving longer distances you'll find that you'll have some condensation in the engine continuously as you have to get the vehicle up to temperature and run it at highway speeds for quite a while to get all that condensation boiled out of the system. My 88 Bronco 2 has quite a bit of condensation and you'll see snot on the oil cap when you remove it.

Another test you can do is taking a latex glove and putting it over your radiator opening, start the vehicle and if the glove starts to inflate and dance around that's a very good sign you have combustion gasses getting into your cooling system and vice versa.
Even a small leak should show up on a compression gauge shouldn't it? I'm going to try to get a gauge next week

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James H

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Leak down. Probably will. Compression test, may not if it's small enough, or the rest of the cooling system is alright, it can lie or hide it.

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thomas.pelley.pe

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Still haven't gotten a gauge but I decided to try old school test. Removed all the spark plugs. Put in one and turned it over. Removed and went to next cylinder. Never got the water surge it should have with a blown head gasket. Still have chocolate milk colored liquid in radiator. No oil sheen though. Have a little snot on the bottom of the 710 cap but not much.. when it's running the water is still disappearing. Frustrated but I like my truck and want to get to drive it at some point. Any ideas guys?

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James H

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I dont know what that will tell you... pulling the spark pllugs and pressuring the radiator will tell you more. Just cranking the engine wont make enough pressure in the cooling system.

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thomas.pelley.pe

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I dont know what that will tell you... pulling the spark pllugs and pressuring the radiator will tell you more. Just cranking the engine wont make enough pressure in the cooling system.

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Was looking at testing methods without special tools on "why did I watch that tube" . Guy did it on a honda and when it got to the cylinders with the blow by on gasket water shot out of the radiator. Figured it was a long shot anyway but I got off early today and figured WTH I'll try it. Decided I'm just gonna eat the $35 ish and just go buy/rent a compression/ leak down kit

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