Alright, I have a j-spec engine I just bought and did the install on. the setup has been smoking a bit but I attributed it to not zeroing the timing at the time. I then zeroed the timing and the car is still making smoke/steam. My problem with just writing it off as a blown water seal is that it lingers for a pretty healthy distance and from the impression I had, it usually disipates in the air fairly rapidly. The car is running a haltech and premix with no emissions installed. Can anyone think of another possibility as to what could cause this?

 

I dont know..seems like white smoke would be coolant.. nice mods list...

 

it's better when the engine doesn't smoke :-P

 

anyone have a similar experience only a water jacket not set right at the LIM? I would expect it to seap out of the lower intake manifold and probably cause a vac leak but I'm open to suggestions. As is the engine is pulling a 50-60 kpa vac.

 

do you mean smoke is coming from the tailpipe, or is it coming from the engine bay?
does it smoke all the time or just when its cold or what? what does it smell like?

I'd pull the LIM and check 0-rings and gasket. then I'd check for HC in the coolant. then I'd pressure test cooling system. check spark plugs too.

 

I got the UIM off right now and I'm going to tackle the lower mani tomorrow and see how the rings look. Both the rings and the gasket were new going in so it's either set wrong or not the problem. The smoke comes from the tail pipes. We've been floating around the same temp every day here (80ish) and it seems to be independent of this. When I start it up, I don't really see any steam/smoke and then it picks up shortly after. I had the car with about 130ish F coolant temp and started it up and it wasn't smoking and after letting it idle for about 30 seconds I reved it up to about 2.5kish and it smoked at that point and started at idle once again. Ever since the thing got put in it has been doing this. The exhaust doesn't smell like gas so much as unfiltered exhaust (no emissions) and the gas just kind of sticks around for a little while before going away.

 

Could be running overly rich...my first haltech install, I had rich smoke so bad that you thought some damn tear gas went off. IF you have a rough idle and breaking up as you rev, this is likely the case.

 

The injection time is set to about 3-4 ms or so at idle right now as I recall. It doesn't smell very much like gas and I haven't tried to rev it up too much yet. I'm going to take the intake off tomorrow and make sure that my water jacket seals are set right (UIM is already off) but after zeroing the timing and having the injector times at about the right range, I shouldn't be having a problem. The coolant level looks like it dropped a little bit too as there is air in the system. The only real spot I can see it getting in from outside of internal seals is the water jackets so I'll check them first. Any other ideas?

 

If it's a coolant/water issue then you'll see the level dropping over time.

 

start the car with the radiator cap off and see if it bubbles.

 

In order to do this do I need to bleed the whole coolant system for air? I am guessing it will stop bubbling if it has air in the tube and keep going if the water seals have gone out?