White smoke from the engine bay

[JpZero]

I have a 97 eclipse rs N/T and when i sit idle at a light after running my car for awhile white smoke starts comming out of my hood. I opened the hood and a whole bunch of smoke came out. I searched the forums for something similar and everything has to do with boosted cars and my car is N/T, most were resolved but cause of the turbo, also many had trouble because they blew their head gasket, I just had my HG replaced 20k miles ago so i dont think it could be that. Any ideas?

thanks guys

 

[AlaskanDsm]

well one thing that I know is troubling my car is my radiator has a leak and when it gets hot and stuff gets pushed out it as a tendency to want to smoke everywhere from the antifreeze burning off... but it could also be oil dripping down to somewhere and cooking off your engine. I would check both your coolant and your oil levels. But there isn't toooo much that can be said based on theres a lot of smoke coming from under my hood.... except the fact that you have a fluid evaporating from something hot that is getting leaked on. But like I said I would deff check those levels!!

 

[JpZero]

Thanks for the quick response I will check the levels quickly as I can, I just was really worried This has never happend to me so I kinda freaked out. But i will def check the levels of fluid on my car, in the past i have gone through oil like nothing so I am wondering if it could be the HG

 

[JpZero]

Ok so I checked the oil level in my car today and I had practitclly nothing in it which really disturbes me because i had just filled it with oil about 2 months ago..... I also poped the cap on the radiatior hose and it was white and foamy. Is this contributed the the HG blowing? or is it another problem? can there be anything else other then the HG?

 

[AlaskanDsm]

Well it sounds like a blown HG but it also might not be. Do a compression check and see what the results come back with. And just a quick question but did you happen to re-use the stock headbolts when the headgasket was replaced or did you use new ones? Its highly recommended not to re-use the stock ones at least on a turbo based on the fact that they stretch. I'm not sure for the n/t.

 

[JpZero]

ok I will do that, I really dont know if the stock bolts were used because i had a shop do it for me but ill keep you updated

 

[AlaskanDsm]

If the HG is bad on it and you have to replace it again I would definitely make sure that you get a new set of head bolts or ARP head studs. That way you know that you have fresh bolts that have not been stretched out in the torquing process.

 

[JpZero]

alright thanks for the advice, would it be bad to drive the car? even with a blown gasket?

 

[JpZero]

Ok so I had some time to look over the car and I have found several problems, first off and most major was a leak in the upper radiator hose that had purst because of the heat from my headers, I already fixed the problem and that was the reason for the smoke, as for the HG i saw alot of gunk around the HG and so i still have that problem but it seems to be alright

 

[AlaskanDsm]

Well I would be on the safe side and just give the engine a good ol' compression check just to make sure that you don't have a bad HG. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[JpZero]

very true I am planning on doing the test anyway but I just wanted to let everyone know that that was the quick fix to the night before

 

[Daaan]

not to be a thread theif, but how do you check the compresion? do you have to get a shop to do it?
sorry I have a decent knowlege about cars, but never done a comp test.