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White Smoke


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mybabiesgampaw
New User

May 8, 2007, 2:43 PM

Post #1 of 4 (1900 views)
post icon White Smoke Sign In

I have a 1997 Olds 88- Originally thought we had a blown headgasket, white smoke out tailpipe with an antifreeze odor, no water in the reservoir, but the was some water in the radiator. Car did not run hot. Tore down the top side of the engine to the block, replaced heads with reman heads and came up with new gaskets, did not see anything wrong with original heads or gaskets but we couldn't figure out the white smoke and loss of water. GM mecahnic said the plenum was bad so we bought a new one and sure enough upon closer inspection of the old one, it was shot through with holes around the EGR port. Replaced the gasket on this also. Installed new plugs and filled with 1 1/2 gallons of antifreeze. Cranked and still blew white smoke and took on some water, check engine light also came on. Did not see any leaks anywhere so we shut it down. Ran a compression check and the head near the firewall was 25lbs higher than the one near the radiator. No water in the compression gauge but when we removed two of the front head sparkplugs (which were new) they were clean, one had some soot on it. Tore the front head back off and the gasket on this side was wet with oil and water. Checked for deck warpage and did not detect any on the head or block. Could the seepage have been caused by the head not being torqued right and the white smoke still due to the catalytic converter being full of water and we didn't run it very long at all. Also please note NO water in oil and it did run kinda rough when we cranked it and if we revved the engine and released it would choke itself down. Could this be a bad O2 sensor or could the sensor have picked up the water and due to this sensed the car needed more/less fuel and that might be why it was running rough


DanD
Veteran / Moderator
DanD profile image

May 10, 2007, 5:25 AM

Post #2 of 4 (1892 views)
Re: White Smoke Sign In

Is your white smoke and coolant loss problem now cured?
Yes an O2 sensor can be damaged by the coolant going past it in the exhaust system but whether it will cause a stall I’m not sure; i guess it could anything is possible with electronics.
What code did you get from the ECM after the check engine light came on?

Dan.

Canadian "EH"






mybabiesgampaw
New User

May 11, 2007, 3:36 AM

Post #3 of 4 (1886 views)
post icon Re: White Smoke Sign In

We have not had the chance to work on it yet. This tear down occured last weekend and this weekend we are rebuilding. We did order another O2 sensor and gasket set so we are going to try again, this time letting it run at least 15-20 minutes to see if the white smoke will resolve itself and at the same time watch the temp gauge. I think the main problem we had was we didn't let it run long enough and instead of 1 person doing all the torquing, two of us did it and I'm not sure that was right. Do you happen to know the correct torque for the head bolts just in case, in the manual it says 37 in/lbs and then I think another 130 degrees, could you help to convert this into in/lbs for me? We haven't been able to run a code check yet, we are hoping it will correct itself once we get it back together.


DanD
Veteran / Moderator
DanD profile image

May 13, 2007, 6:40 AM

Post #4 of 4 (1873 views)
Re: White Smoke Sign In

Sorry for the probably too late reply, I’ve been busy opening up my summer trailer and not had time to check posts.
I’m still at my trailer and don’t have access to my repair manuals; but I don’t think there is a direct conversion for an angle torque to Lbs.?
If they want 37in/lbs and then a 130 of degrees of rotation; that’s what they want to stretch the bolts.
A word of warning (if not too late), usually when you see an angle torque spec it means the head bolts are a one time use bolt. They will only stretch once with out breaking.

Dan.

Canadian "EH"










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