Black smoke from engine compartment
 

If someone could help me out that'd be great, here's the story... I was driving my car (87 non turbo) and the heater core hose blew out, I drove 2 miles home, got a new hose and figured while I was in there I would change the spark plugs and put in a k&n. When I started the car it thumped like a lumpy cammed v8, I figured it was misfiring so I pulled the plugs and they were all fine. I drove the car a block, no power, real choppy... I got the car back to the house checked some stuff, tried to start the car again...HERE'S WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING... when I went to start the car BLACK SMOKE started coming out of the engine compartent somewhere near the exhaust manifold. Anyone have any ideas?

Your engine is blown.

elaborate?

You drove your car 2 miles without any coolant at all. Therefore, your engine is blown.

The lumping sound you're hearing is one rotor spinning but not firing. If you do a compression check you'll realize that one of the rotors isn't working.

any ideas on the black smoke?

And the black smoke is the gas that's not burning in the combustion chamber igniting in the exhaust/cat, and leaking out of the exhaust leak you have.

there's no exhaust leak, everything is brand new and welded together, where else would it be leaking from? By the way, thanks for your help

The manifold might be cracked, or the block to manifold gasket could be bad, are those both new?

no, I've replaced all the suspension and exhaust. all the engine stuff is still stock. thanks for your help, I'll compression test it tomarrow and trace the leak (I ran out of daylight today)

Good luck.

So I went outside this morning to move the car into the garage, and it started, fine... so I drove it a little bit and it was like nothing ever happened, the black smoke was gone, some coolant burnt off the block from the heatercore hose but besides that it's like nothing ever happened? I couldnt get my hands on a compression tester today, so that will have to wait. Would the black smoke have come from excess fuel still? maybe it was flooded? I'm royally confused. One day she's dead, the next she's fine.

maybe you dumped something (oil) on your manifold? Black smoke is more usually associated with burning oil. I'd still check compression, just to be sure. There's also the possibility that something was just shorted out from all the coolant, and that's why your car ran like poop before.

I checked compression, 100 in front, 105 in rear. I started her up and she ran fine... I know I'm new to rotories, but honestly... should it do that? lol

Um.

How's that OMP doin?

I'd say check it out...

--Gary

Omp?

you probably have an oil leak near the manifold that you didn't notice until you popped the hood.

as for the original problem, put the plug wires back in their correct spots, don't listen to these goons.

Haha, thumbsup for that call... I didn't think of it... obviously he put them on right this time though. ;P

And the OMP is the Oil Metering Pump.

If one of your lines or cracked, or it's leaking... it's right near the manifold on the front of the engine.

--Gary

thanks guys... and I can put plug wires on... I know some people are complete idiots, I'm not one of them

well i was trying to be optomistic, sounds like you blew a coolant seal then...

Make sure your VAF (airflow meter) is plugged all the way in. Might have jogged it loose when you installed that K&N, and if you do the ECU will do all sorts of crazy things!

running w/o coolant is almost guaranteed to crack a coolant seal. keep an eye out for overheating and lost coolant/overflow tank filling up.

as for the black smoke.. do you ever smell gasoline in your car at all? if you do its bad and im sure someone here will love to explain it to you.
but hopefully its just some oil.

Well since your new, did you hold in the release needle on the tester? Cause it should be 3 bounces of 100psi or higher for good compression on each rotor.