82 rx7, 67000 miles. Son was driving, said ran great , went on the highway, loss power for a short while- went from 80 down to 45, smoke came in through the vents, a lot of smoke out the exhaust, then back to full power. Came into town, smoked a lot at a stoplight. then stopped smoking. hasn't smoked since. full power. smoke is white. any ideas what this is all about?

 

bad intake o-rings? has the car ever been overheated? the white smoke is coolant in combustion chamber most likely.

 

no, the car hasn't been overheated.

 

maybe ou should take off the LIM and check the o-rings, that sems like it could be the problem......other than that im not sure

 

LIM? what is it

 

he means intake manifold..we just have a one piece. LIM for lower intake manifold for like the fuel injected models.

 

Sounds like your car had dropped a rotor for a short time, this can be caused by lots of things, I personally experienced this with my old engine, twas the carb, some blockage. A friend also was on 1 rotor for a week, it would up being the carb as well.

Cheers Sue

 

On the way home from school, he stopped, and checked the engine, smoke, no real smell white, coming from the back of the motor, passenger side, near the firewall. Drove home another 20 miles, nothing at all. The car ran fine he said, no power loss or anything, in fact he said it ran better than it has in a long while. Odd as hell?

 

Uh oh, I hear they run the best right before they die....don't know if that is true though.

 

calvin don't scare him. sue brings up a good point. I had a truck with a completely crappy carb sometime would run good other times ran like crap. never smoked though. lets say for instance you have a bad intake o-ring which causes coolant to leak into combustion chamber. this is essentially the water cleansing that gets carbon out of seals and off rotors. If this is the case it would run better. I would definately try to track it down though. The white smoke doesn't really sound like carb but anythings possible.

 

yes, i meant intake manifold, sorry im used to having a UIM and LIM, i shoulda known!!!! read my sig

 

Alright, I'll be nice.
If the smoke is blue, oil. If the smoke is white, coolant. And if it runs like crap and smells like your gas tank is coming out of your exhaust, your running too rich.
Like bms said, it could very well be your carb, but the smoke could be your o-rings or your coolant seals internally. Just make sure you watch the coolant and fill it up every now and then (don't want it to overheat).

 

hold on a sec i know everyone says that bad o-rings on the intake cause leakages but how exactly... wouldn't the coolant also leak onto the ground. since the water is just leaking past the gasket? i don't see how it enters into the runners....sorry for the confusion

I hate second guessing answers i've given

 

When I changed mine out I was leaking out of the mani just a bit. It depends on how bad they are as to how much they will leak/smoke out of the engine bay. If they are really bad then it will smoke quite a bit from your engine bay, you can't miss it.

 

I Bet it is the O rings, I'll take care of that. Thanks a lot for the info.

 

Let us know what happens.