88 Turbo II won't hot start?
 

Hello,

Just bought an 88 Turbo II for real cheap! I think it may have engine problems. It will start right up cold, but white smokes badly. When it is hot it won't start at all. Smoke smells like fuel, not oil. Car has been setting for about a year and has about 120k miles on it. :confused:

Sounds like your car has low-compression, so it's time for a rebuild.

don't let someone like ^ that get you discouraged. If it was a rich mixture, fuel would be black smoke, white smoke could possibly be condensation on the exhaust pipes. blue smoke is oil. sounds good, that smoke could be a lot of things, cold start but no hot start could be leaking injectors, possibly low compression engine.

I don't mean to discourage you, but I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass either...

Dollars to Donuts your water seals have taken a crap and the engine is pulling water into it (white smoke... won't start after its been running) Also, let it warm up and then shut it off.... look/listen for bubbles in the overflow tank or in the radiator....

Does the smoke smell a bit sweet...... heat up a piece of metal and stick it in a cup of antifreeze..... its a smell you'll remember..... does the exhaust smell faintly like that?

now then..... another thing to check is the water temp sensor... if its bad, the ECU will run the car dog rich..... but... cold rotarys run rich anyway...

BUT.... if you got the car for less than a grand and its in good shape.... don't get too depressed.... a rebuild will cost you around 1500 bucks.....

If the motor was sitting for a year, and is a high mileage motor to begin with... it needs a rebuild.

Chances are that if it runs smoothly, the internals are still good on the motor and it just needs freshened up....

My advice is to park the car, yank the motor and have it rebuilt.... it needs it anyway.... you'll be happier in the long run. if you can't afford/ are not able or do not want to do this.. I suggest selling the car to someone who can/will, you will have much less stress in your life!!!!!!!!

Take it or leave it.... free advice is free advice!

i wonder if the leaking injectors is the problem with my 88 turboII. motor only has 104,xxx on it . same problem of not starting after its hot. it also runs really rich. standing behind it, my eyes gets watering quick.

years of decay tells it straight - white smoke = burning coolant
just guessing here but if you bought the TII "real cheap"
then it probably needs a rebuild - not saying there aren't any "good and inexpensive" TII but statistics paint a very clear picture on that issue
ie. you pay for what you get

Thanks All,

I did buy it real cheap $700.00 It has a good body and good interior white/blue interior and all the electronics seem to work except sunroof. They were asking $3k, but when I saw that it wouldn't hot start I came back the next morning (16 degrees) and it fired right up but white smoked until I decided to just cut it off. It ran about 10 minutes and the entire neighborhood was blanketed with white smoke! I bought it with the intention of making it a street project car or a V8 swap?

Damn, it's kind of discouraging to read this. I've had to push-start my car twice when the engine was warm, and it starts up fine when it's cooled down. It spews out some white smoke, but the smoke quickly disappears, and it only happens on cold mornings. Also, a hell of a lot of water comes out of the exhaust tips when I start it up in the mornings.

The thing is, when I have trouble starting the car, I smell gasoline, which leads me to believe that it could be leaky primary injectors? I dunno, I didn't want to start a thread about it, seeing as how this is a pretty common topic, but I'm not sure what to make of this.