I tried to search the archives and could not find this specific problem:

My '86 GXL N/A puts out tons of white/blue smoke, but only periodically. It is especially bad when in third gear around 2000 rpm, constant speed. Once I upshift and speed up or downshift and slow down, the smoke dissipates. It does not smell sweet, so I don't think its coolant. It does smell like fuel, however. Could it be running rich? Bad TPS? (I do have the 3800 rpm hesitation) Or is it coolant? Or oil?

Please help--compression is still good on both rotors, with only 108,000 miles.

Other info: I recently flooded the heck out of it, requiring the extreme flooding recovery procedure to get it to start. Could this have contributed?

Thanks in advance.

 

it might be bad, it could be your internal coolant seals...does your coolant level go down a lot? Or have you known of or remember the car ever over heating? if not, it's prolly just oil or something, i don't know.

 

btw, you'd know if it was coolant, it has a real funky smell

 

Thanks mrb: it did overheat once, but only for a short time, and that was several months ago. It does lose some coolant, but that could be due to a known leak in the heater core.

 

no prob

 

White/blue smoke means your engine is burning more oil than normal due to engine age/maintenance. Eventually, you will need a engine rebuild.

 

But if it is only intermittent, and not a lot during startup, what could cause that?

 

My 88 TII (225K miles) emits some white/blue smoke at startup only due to carbon build up on rotor apex and side seals resulting in compression loss at around 150K miles or so. To determine if oil control rings are bad, rev warm engine to 4000 RPM at standstill for 20-30 seconds. If there is smoke, then oil control rings are leaking.

If you only have some smoke at start-up, you can probably defer engine rebuild until compression drops.

 

Bubbles in the filler neck when running is a sure sign of a bad coolant seal, I'm pretty sure. Be careful, don't pull the cap when it's hot.

How did you smell it if it only does it when driving?

I'm hoping against it for you, but an overheat and it's using coolant sounds like a coolant seal let go, hopefully not due to warpage.

Do you go through an unusual amount of oil? Lots of oil smoke in high vacuum situations would indicate rotor oil seal problems.

Best of luck with it.

 

After thoroughly researching same smoke problem with known experts, I confirmed that white/blue smoke means your engine is burning more oil than normal due to engine age/maintenance. It does not mean you have bad water seals.

Eventually, your radiator will develop small leak between plastic top housing and metal raditor long before any engine water seals go bad.

Most people incorrectly diagnois white engine smoke as water rather than oil related. Your engine compression will decrease long before any water seals break due to carbon build up on rotor apex and side seals.

 

There is one other possibility, although it is unlikely. How is you brake fluid level? Have had to top off the reservior often? If the rear seal on the master cyl. starts leaking, it can leak into the vacuum booster. This is accompanied by loss of fluid, no visible leaks, topping off, and some head scratching (where did it go?). After awhile, the booster fills with brake fluid to the point where it is sucked out through the vacuum hose and into the engine. This produces white smoke. With a very distinctive smell. Many times, after replacing a master cyl., no one checks inside the booster. When I was a mechanic (Alfa Romeos), I ran into this problem many times and usually drained a pint or more (had a full quart one time). And the customers would bring their cars in worrying about the cost of rebuilding the engine or a head gasket. Or after having someone else work on their car (telltale sign was master cylinder replacement), thinking the other mechanic/shop screwed up the car.

 

O-rings definitely blow sometimes. My friend has an engine we recently dissasembled, and it had bad o-rings. I just produced white smoke and was hard to start. The o-rings in general looked terrible, and there was actually a section missing. There was even this weird, almost spongy goo in some of the coolant passages.
If it's bluish I'd say oil burn. Too much fuel is brown or black, oil is more bluish.

 

Hmm lots of smoke questions and answers... One of my buddies cars actually lets off white or gray looking smoke that smeels like gas, but it only does it right after he gets on it hard and lets off, or if he shifts. Does this sound like a fuel issue? OMP issue?

 

how about this one, when i first start up my car i get white smoke, smeels sweet, but i never overheat. Smoke goes away once car reaches normal running temp. What's my problem?

 

sounds like coolant smoke. but i guess im wrong. oil/coolant

 

Blue smoke = oil
White smoke (steam) = water
Black/Brown = fuel.

 

my smoke is white, but smells sweet like coolant is in it, but my car never overheats. A couple days ago i had to add coolant. Where could coolant be burning at. Is this the begining of a big problem with my coolant seals?

 

Something like this can happen with the housings as well...

:redxhahahhaa:

 

In very cold weather, the Sub-Zero starting fluid can cause you to burn some smoke initially on startup but it does not last long at all.

Be wary of the white smoke problem. I had the same problem with intermittant white smoke. Lots of smoke on startup, goes away at idle when car was warm, but smoked intermittant when driving.

The engine has just been re-built. What they found was: Apex seals actually fused into the rotors so they could not be removed. The rotors had to be replaced.

Get it checked out before it becomes more expensive than it needs to be.