TMadlem84

Drove in this morning (30 mins) ran fine. Went to post office at lunch (5 mins there, inside for 5, another 5 mins back), ran fine.

Went to leave & it runs rough, & there is a lot of smoke (white) coming out of the passenger's side of the engine bay & a SHITLOAD coming out of the exhaust. I pre-mix... but it is never anywhere near smoke like this from the exhaust.

I'm waiting for my bro to pick me up... so I've got 15 mins to get advice

GO!

Montego

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a blown coolant seal to me. Idles rough + white smoke = coolant in the combustion chamber.

Let your car idle for +5 minutes until the **** burns off and take it easy on your way home.

TMadlem84

I ended up just leaving it there for the night (in a parking garage... safer than the street I hope...).

So if it's a blow coolant seal... how much work/$$ are we talking to fix?

But it was the damndest thing... my bro showed up & I had him turn it on so I could look in the engine bay... & the car was running fine. Not even smoking. After about 5 minutes the smoke from the exhaust got heavier & there started to be smoke in the engine bay.

I'm planning on towing it home tomorrow (just to play it safe).

But what should I start to look for? A blown coolant seal? Anything else?

& Montego - you said let it idle for 5 mins & let the stuff burn off... so then will that be good to get me home... or did I just get coolant in my combustion chamber & it's okay once the coolant burns off? (I would assume it wouldn't be okay... but just okay to get me home)

TMadlem84

& reading up on a coolant seal...

Sounds bad if that's the case... but if it was a coolant seal, would I be losing coolant in my engine? I changed my coolant last August & it's still full.

& the car is stock with the exception of cold air intake, downpipe, & catback exhaust.

& Someone please post... I'm freaking out that I will have to put the car back in storage as I can't afford an engine rebuild right now... & I JUST got the car out of storage a couple weeks ago!

Kento

The fact that your engine ran fine for a few minutes before belching smoke and reverting back to the problem you encountered sounds more like a coolant seal. BUT...

There is also the outside possibility that since your car was in storage, and you premix, that the some of the dilution settled and was picked up by your fuel pump as you drove.

You are checking the coolant level at the filler neck, and not the overflow tank, right?

katinkid

let it burn off for 5+min, than drive home. there is coolant getting in the combustion chamber somehow. another thing, dont let it sit to long. depending where the leak is you may flood the engine.

this happend to me by the way, **** load of white smoke, but i know how i did it. boosting when ur car isn't warm isn't cool.

anyway yes it can get flooded if you let it sit. if you need a rebuild u might as we'll rebuild the turbos while ur at it, or convert to single. cus there prob gonna go next.

how many miles are on it????

did you do anything, drive it harder than normal. not let it warm up properly, get into it with anyone on the street.

or you could have just worked up a small coolant leak over time, it happens with these rotaries. my friend had a 93 touring that blew white smoke every once in a while like 1 a week, and it also depends on weather. he drove his for 1 year like that, but there is no telling.

btw: hope this isn't ur daily driver!!!

TMadlem84

The car has been running for maybe 2 weeks now. & I checked the levels at the filler neck & at the AST. I did not check the level at the overflow tank (I think the overflow tank is the plastic tank behind the passenger's side headlight).

katinkid

it will be the filler neck, and you might not notice its low, mine would eat it up all of the sudden after a couple of days. i carried coolant with me just in case.

btw, after you shut ur car off, can you hear the engine surging??? like a bubbly sound.

TMadlem84

Not a daily driver. I never go above 3,000rpm when the engine is below the coolant gauge is below the mid-point. & even when it's warmed up I do go above 3500 very often.

Supposedly (no papers to prove it) the engine was rebuilt by previous owner 45,000 miles ago & the turbos around 5000 ago (I at least have the old turbos, so I KNOW they were replaced at some point).

I use it as a daily driver in the summer, but I have the Jeep for backup.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

The thing that gets me is the addition of the white smoke OUT of the engine bay...

When a coolant seal failure occurs, coolant gets burnt off in the combustion chamber. Thus all of the white smoke out of the tail pipe. It's all internal not external unless you have a small exhaust leak.

Find out where that white smoke that is coming from the passenger's side is coming from.

TMadlem84

Would it go downhill that fast though?

@ 12noon it ran great, no smoke, no rough idle. When I left @ 4 it went to hell...

& the smoke out the engine bay happens after the exhaust starts to spit out a lot of smoke (it's start by smoking a little & gets worse quickly). The engine bay doesn't start to smoke until there is a lot of smoke coming out the back... so maybe the smoke just gets backed up in the exhaust & is pushing out a small leak?

Not that this is the ideal scenario... but that's what it's doing...

katinkid

dido, that will be very important also.

not sure, but if there is a gasket in the dp. it could be cracked!!! just a suggestion.

TMadlem84

There are gaskets on both sides of the downpipe... but that would account for the amount of smoke... that could explain some smoke coming out the engine bay... but there still shouldn't be the volume of smoke I am experiencing...

But what do you think about the coolant levels being full? The stories I've read on here make it sound like coolant runs out quickly (needs refill after couple of weeks...) the car was driven in Aug, Sept, maybe part of Oct, & now March... that's 3-4 months without the coolant level going down at all...

katinkid

yes mine smoked for about 4-5 minutes after starting so thick you couldn't see your hand in front of you, and smelled oh so sweet!!! literally

the smoke might not go away until you start driving it!!! once you drive it it usually goes away in a little bit.

TMadlem84

I never had a mechanic inspect this car when I bought it (no lectures please, it was a long story).

I am about an hour away from Banzai Racing, who I have heard is VERY good. Would it be worth my time (and safe for my car) to take it down to them to see if they can figure something out other than to replace the engine? I figure it's a few hours drive both ways... take 2 cars, leave the 7 there if they want... spend a couple hundred bucks & let them look it over top to bottom & find out ANYTHING that is wrong or is going wrong with the car.

Besides... if it's going back in storage until I can afford a new motor... might as well get one last cruise in?

What do you think... should I take it to Banzai? Even if it ends up being something simple... since I never had the car inspected, it wouldn't hurt. Maybe they could find that something else is going bad that I could save money by replacing before it broke...

Montego

iTrader: (1)

yeah but your problem has *just* started. What was at 12 noon today has no bearing on what is now. One thing is for sure you are burning lots of H2O.

I always thought coolant seal failure was a gradual process...

Montego

iTrader: (1)

Most people can drive their Rx-7 with a blown coolant seal because the leak is gradual. As long as they don't overheat they are fine.

Make sure your white smoke actually stops after a few minutes otherwise I wouldn't take it anywhere.

Edit- if one of your coolant seals has actually failed don't even think about doing that temporary fix. As it ***** everything up and in the end you will still need a rebuild.

katinkid

its worth a shot, i would take it around the block first to check it out. than go to bonzai... they are a reputable shop from what i've heard.

watch your temperature gauge, if you see it go up at all. turn on heater, if you see it still go up. pull over shut car off and open hood. "dont take cap off" duh!!!
oh and leave car heater on with car off.

just in case!!! good luck on the trip, i know how you feel!!!

TMadlem84

Right, I mentioned that it ran fine @ noon simply to state that it ran fine 4 hours ago when it was last driven with no smoke... then 4 hours later, rought idle & smoke... I figured it would have been more gradual... like a small amount of smoke... couple of weeks later more smoke... couple more weeks & even more smoke...

Kento

Hang on, let's not jump to foregone conclusions here. Remember, to be pumping out that much coolant smoke like he describes would require a good amount of coolant, even for a start to a blown coolant seal, and according to him, he's not seeing any drop in coolant level.

Have you (TMadlem84) noticed what the smoke actually "smells" like? Is it sort of a sweet smell? (that would indeed indicate burning coolant) Or is it an acrid smell like burning oil?

If it's oil, it could be any number of things. The OP needs to start the car up once more (once it's cooled down, any leakage will show up due to vacuum pulling coolant out of the leaking jacket) and then check the coolant system carefully for any leakage.

TMadlem84

Yeah, I didn't think to smell the coolant the other day. I'm going in to work in around a half hour... so I'll start up the car (& probably **** off a bunch of business people parking for the days work by filling the garage with smoke... but oh well) & smell the exhaust.

Even though there was a lot of smoke the other day... the garage is by a lot of restaurants... so the garage always smells good anyways... but I'll just stick my nose in the exhaust tip today!

Will let you know... hopefully I think it smells like crap instead of good enough to eat!

finnicky7

As far as Banzai Racing they are one of the best around.

TMadlem84

^ That's what I heard. I at least lucked out there... they're 70mins away

TMadlem84

Update:

If someone could confirm this: from what I read, I should be smelling a DISTINCTIVELY sweet smell from my exhaust (if its burning coolant). Guys have made it sound like it's so sweet smelling you can not miss it. (please confirm/deny this)

But I stuck my head right next to my tailpipe (looked I was depressed about the car & trying to off myself glad nobody was in the garage at that time!).

First a disclaimer... I am not usually the best sniffer-outer when it comes to smells... but it from what I've read, a sweet exhaust smell can't be missed.

But anyways, I did it twice, & both times I didn't notice any sweet smell. It smelled like oil; like when you havn't used a mower in a while, & you start it up & it puffs all sorts of smoke until it cleans itself out (that's what the exhaust looks like too).

I would think it's from storage/bad gas, but the tank was filled up a week? ago & is down to a quarter left, so if it was bad gas, I should have had a problem already... & the cars been out of storage for a couple of weeks now.

Any more advice? I'm towing it home today around lunch time (don't want to risk the drive, just to be safe). Hopefully I hear back from Banzai sometime today to see what they could do to diagnose the problem & when they could do it.

Chadwick

iTrader: (12)

Main oil seal in one of the turbo's is my guess. If a coolant seal is leaking, the smoke would be worse at startup and get better as the engine gets warmer.