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Hey everyone, so I've been re-stationed in Japan and the masochist in me decided it would be a great idea to buy another rx-7, this time I went for a 1998 FD. Picked it up relatively cheap and have been fixing things as I find them as the PO really didn't take care of the car. Last week I was jumping a friends car and noticed a fair amount of white smoke coming from under the hood after I had gotten his car started. Killed the car to investigate and couldn't find a leak so I waited for the car to cool off, started it again and once it was at operating temp, more smoke. I waited for the weekend to get the car on a lift and still couldn't find anything aside from a cracked downpipe, replaced with an HKS unit, and now the car smokes almost immediately upon start-up. Any ideas what it could be? I pulled the intake piping as well as the UIM to check already. If it helps as the car sits right now I've got; knightsport V-mount, pod filter and cat back, Pettit racing catless midpipe, an HKS downpipe and an FEED tuned PFC. Hopefully the picture size isn't massive but this is the general area that I see it coming from (also not my picture... I wish my engine bay looked this good LOL) , any help is GREATLY appreciated.
Can you smell what the smoke is? I don't know if you've been around cars enough to know the different smells - I can tell if a car is burning oil, coolant, whatever from smell.
I'm hoping it's not an electrical short or something from jumping that car off. But a short that will make smoke would be much more obvious.
You may need to remove some of the intake plumbing and get a strong flashlight and see if you can spot exactly where it's coming from. That's just not enough to go by.
Theres nothing in that area that would cause so much smoke. Are your brakes working properly? Could be something on the downpipe burning off. Make sure there isn't anything under the car melted on to the downpipe or anything else.
But as Dale said, just take all the intake piping off and start it up. It will be obvious
I pulled everything down to the Y pipe off as well as the UIM checking for leaks yesterday, and I'm not quite sure how to describe the smell, closer to a burning rubber but I couldn't see anything touching the turbos.
Theres nothing in that area that would cause so much smoke. Are your brakes working properly? Could be something on the downpipe burning off. Make sure there isn't anything under the car melted on to the downpipe or anything else.
But as Dale said, just take all the intake piping off and start it up. It will be obvious
the turbo water pipe and oil feed is back there....
I waited for the weekend to get the car on a lift and still couldn't find anything aside from a cracked downpipe, replaced with an HKS unit, and now the car smokes almost immediately upon start-up.
Given your location and the mention of waiting for a hoist, suggests a workshop has done the swap. Do you know if they used anti seize on the fasteners? Typically that will smoke shortly after light off.
A smoke test might be instructive otherwise if it's exhaust related.
A new downpipe (really any exhaust component) will smoke and stink for 10-15 minutes after install. It's burning off dirty hand prints, penetrating oil, shipping oil, etc. All totally normal.
Quite possible that's all it is, your new downpipe burning off crap.
An oil or coolant leak you would see it dripping on the ground. A gas leak you will smell gas STRONGLY, even with a tiny leak.
Start it up, let it idle, and let it burn off. Be ready to shut it off if something looks funny but I think that's all it is. Probably also worth making sure a hose or wiring harness isn't sitting on the new downpipe, that's REALLY hard to do, but that would lead to a lot of smoke obviously.
01-16-22, 10:55 AM
- I can tell if a car is burning oil, coolant, whatever from smell.
