CalifaThugz Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 I got a new 1991 240sx KA24DE engine and every time I use the car for about 5 minutes or so white smoke begins to come out. I changed the sparks about to change the oil, but before I did I checked the sparks. The sparks were so black. I checked the sparks that my bros car has with like 1,500 or so miles and its as if they were like new. The car runs great, starts a bit slow. I called auto zone since I don't know anything about smoke they said it might be water mixed with the oil. They recommended changing oil, flush it, head and intake manifold gaskets. Anybody have any suggestions to what might be wrong? After checking the sparks I think it may be running rich but its NA is it possible in any way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexideways Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Where does the smoke comes from? Engine bay? Exhaust??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete84 Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Any water in the oil? Oil in the water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalifaThugz Posted May 30, 2007 Author Share Posted May 30, 2007 The smoke comes out from the exhaust... Last I pulled the little thing to check oil and I did notice a couple of drops of water... The oil filter wasn't even tight not even hand tightened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtmny1999 Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Bad headgasket? did it overheat at any point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjc5500 Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 does the smoke smell sweet? white smoke is usualy steam. im with jtmny, prolly a headgasket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 I'm with everybody else, but its easier to check the intake manifold gasket before checking the head gasket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalifaThugz Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 The car doesn't head up at all but that doesn't mean it didn't overheat before. It runs at just little over the first line. What about the oil filter? It was so loose I could easily move it with my finger. Think that could've been a problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxilary Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 white smoke = coolant/water = possible headgasket failure blue smoke = oil black smoke = running rich however white smoke can also be condensation. How long does it billow white smoke for? You said it happens about 5 min of car running. This is the time it takes for exhaust to heat up and evaporate condensation. Does the white smoke stop eventually? Does it smell sweet like coolant? Are you low on coolant? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalifaThugz Posted June 16, 2007 Author Share Posted June 16, 2007 Sorry for taking so long for answering, but I had a friend that works with KA's all day he said the head gasket is fine. He said its the finest KA he's seen it has no timing chain knocking his is rebuilt 60k miles it is knocking. Well anyways it smokes after a while... It only smokes like 5 minutes after running and then it stops and goes again after a while. Its sort of blueish smoke. The oil is clean everything is good I just don't know what it can be. I'm going to autozone right now to buy an 02 sensor and fuel filter and fuel injector cleaner run with 93 octane gas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxilary Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 where'd you find 93 octane in california? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalifaThugz Posted June 29, 2007 Author Share Posted June 29, 2007 Dang, I always get mixed up with Octanes just yesterday I was arguing with my dad that 89 was the lowest octane. I'm sorry, it is 91 that my car is always going to be running. Also found out what was wrong with it. I drained the oil all of it because it was like 3 inches above the high mark on the dipstick. I guess the oil was going up and going into the cylinders. Changed the 02 sensors idles perfect at 850 rpm, I need to change the sparks again though, because they are all black. Besides that I ran some royal purple, and I wanted to try some octane booster. It was pretty cool, though my car was backfiring a lot don't know why. Also going to do an A/T to M/T swap sometime next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mack510 Posted July 1, 2007 Share Posted July 1, 2007 Sorry for taking so long for answering, but I had a friend that works with KA's all day he said the head gasket is fine. He said its the finest KA he's seen it has no timing chain knocking his is rebuilt 60k miles it is knocking. Well anyways it smokes after a while... It only smokes like 5 minutes after running and then it stops and goes again after a while. Its sort of blueish smoke. The oil is clean everything is good I just don't know what it can be. I'm going to autozone right now to buy an 02 sensor and fuel filter and fuel injector cleaner run with 93 octane gas. So your friend, looked at the outside of the motor and declared it to be good. WOW, He must have x-ray vision, or be all knowing! Stop listening to people who just have an opinion and look at the cold hard facts. Start by pulling out the spark plugs and looking at them. Is the problem only on 1 cylinder or all of them. Are the plugs sooty (dull) black, oily (shiny) black, tan/brown, or have a white coating. Check the plugs after starting the car and running for 1 minute, 5 minutes and a long drive. Take notes or pictures and compare. 1. Your engine DOES smoke when starting, thats a fact you can see every time to start it up. So what color (you already said its white) 2. As stated before in this thread, white smoke = steam, Blue = oil, Black = rich. So you have water or oil in the combustion chambers when the engine starts. 3. If Your engine is leaking water/coolant into the combustion chambers from the cooling system. It can't leak in from anywhere else, since that's the only water in your car. when driving the car, the radiator is pressurized to about 12 psi (look at your cap), but the combustion chambers get pressurized to about 100-200 psi. The pressure keeps the water out. But when you turn the engine off, the water is still boiling hot and the 12 psi forces a little water into the combustion chambers. Then when you start up the water has to burn off, but the combustion chambers are cold and so it takes a little bit to burn off (heat up). 4. OK, we'll take a flyer and say its not leaking, depending on where you live, there might be some condensation happening inside your intake which is getting sucked in when you start up, but unless its a lot of water, it would burn through pretty fast. 5. If #4 is true, you would never have to top off your radiator, If #3 is true, you will be periodically filling up the radiator or the radiator fill bottle. 6. So if #4 is true, park your car in a dry garage for a few days and see if the problem goes away. Then don't worry about it. If its #3, its either head gasket or intake manifold, or you have a cracked head (not likely as you would see more water loss). 7. If your engine burns oil all the time, you'll be adding oil all the time to keep it at the mark (dipstick). 8. Similarly the oil pressure is about 60 psi and when the engine is running the combustion chamber pressure is greater than the oil pressure and keeps the leak slowed. 9. Most oil burning during running is either due to bad valve guides or bad rings. You can check for bad rings by checking compression on each cylinder. Bad valve guides tend to leak a bit of oil down them, because it gets suck in from the top of the head (by the vacuum in the intake). 1 oily plug out of 4 or 6 would indicate you have a problem in only 1 cylinder and probably have a head leak. Write down what you have and be Sherlock Holmes, listen to the facts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalifaThugz Posted July 2, 2007 Author Share Posted July 2, 2007 He didn't just look at outside the engine. OK, he checked the oil it wasn't milky, clean new oil no water in it. The oil was like 3 inches above the high mark. He checked the radiator it was fine. It was actually dripping a bit from when I took off the cap. I turned the car on, we let it idle for like 15 minutes, no smoke. We took it for a couple spins. We noticed it only smoked during corners. He said "Bring your car over to my pad tomorrow I'll have a look at it. I think I might know whats wrong." In those exact words. I slept, woke up the next morning and took it to his house. We let it sit there for like 30 minutes while we welded his diff on his s14 zenki. OK after the car was cool no heat at all he disconnected a vacuum hose. He noticed there was oil in there. The Vacuum hose was from the valve cover to the intake. OK so he said "Take it to your house let it sit for a while and drain some oil, until its at a normal level. So I did. After I drained it to a normal level we ran it for like an hour or so around the same block with the neighbors yelling at us because my car is open headers for now and it was loud, my exhaust system had a clogged catalytic and a bad muffler so ordered an exhaust system from a guy in the nico forums. Anyways it ran fine no more smoke. It just puffed out a little bit I guess it was burning the oil that was left in it, don't know. Now my dad takes it to work every weekday from Apple Valley California all the way to Chino. =] Car works fine. It was all the plugs that were fouled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxilary Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 oil floats on water, and if it's burning coolant, you won't see any coolant in the oil. however, you will see oil floating in coolant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalifaThugz Posted July 3, 2007 Author Share Posted July 3, 2007 Well, the car is fine now... My dad took it to smog yesterday, it passed no problems... I didn't know they charged so much for smog nowadays. I thought 90$ was a bit too much, but thats just me... Now I'm getting my flywheel and drive shaft. So I can do my A/T to M/T swap. =] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nismo280zEd Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 Welcome to the KA world. There are very few used KA motors running around that don't burn oil. It's the most common thing for that motor. My KA smokes as well if i let it idle for a while then take off from a light i get a ninja smoke screen behind me. It's the valve guide seals in the head that are leaking oil into the combustion chamber to burn. KA valves seals suck, end of story. As long as your compression is good and your don't have timing chaing knock, your fine. -Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalifaThugz Posted July 4, 2007 Author Share Posted July 4, 2007 Yup, no rattle from chain, and valve seals are fine. KA are good motors, it has its up and down sides to it though. =/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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