ol' Smokey

[freestiva]

Well i bought my car to do a motor swap, but i was playing with the old 1.3 it smokes like a freight train. The thing that kills me is that the spark plugs are dry! Also if i pull the valve cover after it has run it smokes from the oil return holes they look like smoke stacks, smokes flying out of them. The thing that really gets me is that it has 155-165 lbs of compression on all cylinders. OK well i guess my long winded question is... Would you assume that this is a problem with the oil rings, emissions maybe like a cat stopped up and recirculating the exhaust i know its not valve seals because it runs for a second then smokes... Any clue what do you think? 88 festiva lx carbed with a manual

[jglutz]

If the smoke is white....no to the rings.....most likely a head gasket failure between the water ports and oil ports (drains). When the engine heats up water push into the oil drain(s), boils off, and makes it way into the intake manifold. Best way to prove this, is to disconnect the PVC from the valve cover and runn the engine. If this is the case, the white smoke will flume out of the valve cover and the white smoke out of the tail pipe will cease. I would also don't it is the rings, unless you are out of oil, i would not suspect flumes of smoke coming up from the drain ports.

WARNING: If you want to keep this engine, or atleast want to salvage it, do not run it long or drive it. Water in the oil/over heating can create havov.

Question, How is the coolant level in the rad holding up?

[freestiva]

The smoke it not white its grey tho... ive had a blown head before. this is like a grey/ black smoke. and im not loseing colant and the temp is normal.

[jglutz]

Hmmm....gray/black....engine running rich...high fuel to air ratio...or...incomplete ignition/burning.
I'm not familiar enough with the aspirated models...thou, I would check out the ignotion system to make sure all of the cylinders are firing well. No bad plugs or wires...ect.
However, this does not explain the smoke coming up when the valve cover was removed.

[freestiva]

well at least im not crazy, my garage is often times a side show for my friends and neighbors, i often have people around and we all tried things (all four of us had a few ideas) and we found nothing wrong the only thing that made any diference was when it ran at high rpm for a few seconds then it would clear out. i didnt pull any exhaust loose but if i pulled the two egr valve lines loose it was smokeing and yall i dont mean a lil smoke i could be a crop duster this is so weird!

[Festiva_tunner]

you may be gettin oil into your intake lines - check them for residue - also make sure your PCV valve or EGR valve are oppereating correctly

we used to drop some ATF into the carb to make a smoke screen

[geezerstiva]

yeah that would do it. :lol:
one of my friends has a rx7 that got flooded (rx7 notorious apparently) and he was trying to get it started again. well he squirted ATF in the cylinders (?) and eventually got it running again. he said he couldnt see anything for a good while after it was running it smoked so bad. :lol:
sorry, didnt mean to thread jack. ops:

[freestiva]

Im just lost it started this all of a sudden and its not instant its only after it has been running for a few seconds and once it runs at normal rpm it wont smoke at all and pcv is clean the guy came off an exit ramp and it started smokeing on deceleration then it smoke out really bad and cut off

[skeeters_keeper]

have you ran a vac test? see the sticky, that can give you a lot of info.
does it smell like its running rich? (when i had a bad FPR mine smoked quite a bit, grayish, but you could smell that it was rich).

are you loosing oil? you said your plugs are dry, are they nice and tan? or white/black?
Once you find out whats burning it'll be a lot easier to find out why!

your about two hours from me (i'm in Lynchburg), let me know if you ever need help! You said your planing on doing a swap, what kind? I have a b3 laying here but it needs a re-build, but i have lines on another B3 with 30 some thousand... practically brand new!

[freestiva]

Thanks Nate! i havent checked the vac yet ive gotta work today so i will know more tommorow the plugs have a lil bit of brown on them but are mostly white the smoke smells a little oily but it smells funky almost like a burt hamburger just plain funk im planning on doing the escort 1.8 swap a guy down the street has one he wants outa his way so thats what im looking at. i will try the vac test im waiting on a title so im not going head over heals yet but i did sell my old truck yesterday som im getting excited