Smoke From Muffler

[DSMESi98TFJ]

Ok, heres the situation. The weather outside isn't exactly freezing, but I have notice that I have a little excess smoke coming from the muffler and a bit of sputtering. I just changed my oil and oil filter and an air filter, but I also notice that I have burn marks on my block. I'm convinced that its a blown head gasket, but I want to be sure. The smoke isn't blue and a light white color (full tank of gas by the way). I checked the exhaust system for holes and there are none. So I have a huge question mark hanging above my head about what to do. Here are some pics. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[DSMESi98TFJ]

The block

 

[DSMESi98TFJ]

Smoke from the muffler

 

[chaye]

cant really tell from the picture of the block........

uh..lets see...
does the car run fine?
you know what you could do is run a comp test to see if you have a blown headgasket..
also check your coolant to see any sings of bubbling or any oil in it, that and next time you change your oil check for coolant in it...

good luck

BTW the muffler pick, thats gray smoke right?

 

[DSMESi98TFJ]

The smoke is a light grayish/white color. But I'm under the notion that its burning oil. The car runs great and even sounded better after i did the oil change. I'll check to see if the coolant has oil in it today. Those are burn marks on the block, it looks some oil leaked out from the valve cover and it looks like there is a thermostat there as well and it has some burn marks on it too. Thanks for the input, I really appreicate it.

 

[chaye]

i doubt that its oil, cause if it was oil it would be bluish
i wanna say that you may be running rich but thats out of the question cause your N/A....mmmmmmm

weird it be easier if i could see the car

 

[DSMESi98TFJ]

I'm probably gonna just go ahead and replace the head gasket, since thats where a little bit of oil is leaking out.

 

[Sk8er07999]

A cylinder leakage test would be the best way to test the head gasket. Pretty much all your doing is bringing the each piston to tdc on the compression stroke so that you know all the valves are closed and pressurizing the cylinder with air from a compressor. Remove the radiator cap and see if you see bubbles coming out the radiator. Keep in mind the radiator has to be filled to the rim or else you won't see the bubbles. Also make sure that when you pressurize the cylinder that it doesn't push the piston down. Cylinder leakage testers are too expensive and come in handy alot.

 

[2GeNTSi]

i noticed smoke coming from my exhaust as well and it was warm outside around 80 degrees. I just figured it was because I have no cat. I already did a compression test and it was at 165 across the board (didn't drive car, just let it warm up), just put in some more coolant but it's not all the way to the rim, but it's about half full under the cap.

 

[BitAddict]

Added thought: I was having smoke(whitish greyish) comming out my exaust as well. Did a compression check and everything checked out good. Pulled head and found a bad Head Gasket so good compression will not rule out a bad head gasket!!! Double check everything too!

 

[Sk8er07999]

Originally posted by BitAddict
Added thought: I was having smoke(whitish greyish) comming out my exaust as well. Did a compression check and everything checked out good. Pulled head and found a bad Head Gasket so good compression will not rule out a bad head gasket!!! Double check everything too!

EXACTLY! A leak down test is always the best way to pinpoint problems!

 

[2GeNTSi]

well I noticed my smoke on a warm day, also after running my car hard.

 

[DSMESi98TFJ]

Thanks for the suggestion guys, I took of my radiator cap and it wasn't pretty. Its was dirty as hell and it had crust on it!?:thumbdown I cleaned it off and my fluid was not all the way at the top but a compression test is also in the future. I thought of another reason the car could be smoking, could it be from the oil that I used??? I used full synthetic 10w30. I know that recommended for dsm's is the 5w30. Is it just my car isn't used to it and its just burning it up?

 

[chaye]

nah the type of oil you use has nothing to do with it (at least thats what i think, i could be wrong)
On my GS i use 10w-30 and on my GST i use Synthetic mobil 1 10W-30 and i have absolutly no problems at all...

 

[2GeNTSi]

yeah I need to do a coolant flush...you should probably try that out also. My coolant was all orange/brown, I think that's the only fluid I haven't changed yet. Well the important fluids at least.