White Smoke and New Seats
 

I just bought a used '94 FD and it is highly modified. It doesn't have a cat and the air pump was removed. I am seeing a lot of white smoke coming from the exhaust during idle and revving. What is the cause of this? Is it burning too much oil?

Also, on a side note, I am looking for new racing seats. Any suggestions on which brands/models fit the best. I hear that the Sparco Evo's don't fit that well.

Thanks,
Lloyd

White smoke is coolant getting into the engine..oil is usually blue smoke..and that is really bad..

You should get the white smoke mostly during initial starting for a few seconds and then no more, if it is constant, the water/coolant seals might be going..a rebuild of the engine is most probably in the future..

Does the white smog smell sweet? If so, you're burning coolant which can be a new in the near future.

There is a group buy on seats going on now. Search on seats in the for sale/group buy section.

It sounds like you are mistaking white smoke for blue smoke, since an o-ring leak serious enough to cause smoke also tends to make the coolant buzzer go off as well as other symptoms. I take it the smoke is the only strange occurance? Is the car burning coolant? Is it hard to start? Or is it burning oil? The most common cause of blue smoke is blown turbos, but I would start by monitering your fluid levels to identify what you are losing, if its oil, its probably turbos (could be oil control rings or a faulty metering pump, but turbos are most likely) and you'll need to rebuild them or get new ones. If its coolant, then you'll need to rebuild the engine for sure. Good luck.

white smoke can also be your turbos leaking oil which means time for a rebuild...in any case white smoke blowing from your exhaust is bad.

Whoops i meant it sounds like you are mistaking blue smoke for white smoke, so basically I'm saying the same thing as mazdaspeed :)

but wait a minute. is there coolent line goes into FD's HT-12s?
There's one for HT18 for FC, and I remember that I forgot the cap that hole and spill the collent all around when I add them from the top.
And my point is, if the coolent is losing, is it possible that it is leaking inside the turbo?

this sounds bad
 

Well guys,
Thanks for the input. My coolant light is on, which I probably should have mentioned. Which means a rebuild is probably coming in the near future. That sucks. Am I doing damage driving it? Or is it just a matter of making sure I don't run out of coolant? Thanks.
Lloyd

in the near future? try now. if you keep adding coolant you may get by, but you may not. if you get stuck in traffic and the car overheats to a point where the rotors or housings are damaged, then you have to shell out the $$$ for those parts and they add up quickly. Or the heat can cause detonation and zing an apex seal through your turbos...

i agree that you should do the rebuild as soon as possible. the problem can only get worse. at this point, if it is still drivable, the internal damage will obviously be minimal. if you keep overheating it, who knows?

but look on the bright side. now you can build a ported engine with 3mm seals.

Hehe 3mm seals? No no stick with the 2mm (you might want to search for some threads on the best REMAN/ported engine w/options)...

as far as the seats go, take a look at the sparco roadster.

have fun with the rebuild!