White smoke only after idling for about 10 minutes.

tommiman · Jul 4, 2006

My car spews white smoke only after idling for about 10 minutes after reaching operating temperature. It was embarrassed this past weekend sitting at the border for 3 hours. I searched through the archives and did find about 15 threads related to this problem but could not find a concrete answer.

Once I drive it the smoke clears after about 15 seconds and everything is fine until I idle it again for about 10 minutes or more.

Compression is 170ish across the board. Im not losing any coolant or oil. The car runs as it always has. Turbo has no shaft play nor is there any traces of oil in the lower intercooler pipe. Idles fine at around 800 RPM.

I know a lot of people here say that this is normal but it wasnt doing that a year ago. The car wasnt doing this last summer.

Defiant · Jul 5, 2006

White smoke is water. A head gasket leak doesn't always show in a compression test, and it doesn't take very much to create steam.

tommiman · Jul 5, 2006

Defiant said:
White smoke is water. A head gasket leak doesn't always show in a compression test, and it doesn't take very much to create steam.

Welcome back Defiant. I heard you were gone for awhile.

I do agree it must be the water but is there any possibility that it might be getting into the combustion chambers from somewhere else?

I don't want to rip off the head and then find out it was because of a smaller problem.

TimG · Jul 5, 2006

tommiman said:
Welcome back Defiant. I heard you were gone for awhile.

I do agree it must be the water but is there any possibility that it might be getting into the combustion chambers from somewhere else?

I don't want to rip off the head and then find out it was because of a smaller problem.

Coolant does flow to the throttle body for FIAV. It is possible at higher vacuum levels (idle), it is drawing coolant in through a pinhole leak or crack. This theory isn't likely but it's worth a shot.

Pressure test your coolant tract and find out where you are leaking.

tommiman · Jul 7, 2006

TimG said:
Coolant does flow to the throttle body for FIAV. It is possible at higher vacuum levels (idle), it is drawing coolant in through a pinhole leak or crack. This theory isn't likely but it's worth a shot.

Pressure test your coolant tract and find out where you are leaking.

Any advice on how to locate the leak after pressurizing the system?

Defiant · Jul 8, 2006

tommiman said:
Welcome back Defiant. I heard you were gone for awhile.

Yes, they were trying different amperage levels for the treatments.

I do agree it must be the water but is there any possibility that it might be getting into the combustion chambers from somewhere else?

I don't want to rip off the head and then find out it was because of a smaller problem.

I'd say if you aren't losing visible amounts from the cooling system to just let it ride. If it's serious, you'll need to fix it anyway, and you're aware enough that you won't let it get to a destructive level before you do.

blueman803 · Jul 8, 2006

It's easy to check if its the fiav. Disconnect the throttle body lines and loop them. Let it idle for 10 minutes and see if it still smokes. Mine was leaking and I had the same symptoms.

tommiman · Jul 9, 2006

blueman803 said:
It's easy to check if its the fiav. Disconnect the throttle body lines and loop them. Let it idle for 10 minutes and see if it still smokes. Mine was leaking and I had the same symptoms.

I just bypassed the FIAV and sure enough it started smoking white after 15 minutes at idle. I guess this leaves out the head gasket then???

Let me know if I'm missing anything else.

eclipse4life · Jul 9, 2006

ive had the same symptoms but my engine had good compression but would smoke sitting at idle for about 10-15 min but was fixed with valve stem seal replacement im not sure if they all or some of them was bad but it fixed my problem.

gsxtreme1987 · Jul 9, 2006

i had the same problem plus mine ALSO smoked after i boosted therefore my problem was the shitty T-25 takin a crap.

Check your turbo for shaftplay.

diablos991 · Jul 9, 2006

Does it puff any out at startup? If so, I would suggest valve stem seals.

tommiman · Jul 9, 2006

diablos991 said:
Does it puff any out at startup? If so, I would suggest valve stem seals.

No, it never puffs at startup only when at operating temp. when idling. It's only white. There is no hint of blue. So, I guess that means that the head itself is ok but the head gasket if going.

Let me know what you guys think.

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White smoke only after idling for about 10 minutes.

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