White smoke on startup of new motor...Has not diminished. Passes champagne test.
 

OK, I got my car started after building the thing for 7 years. Thanks for all the responses to my thread here:

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/im-trying-get-my-car-start-1st-time-after-7-year-build-i-need-help-906243/

New question:

There was a lot of smoke on start-up as I expected but after 20-25 minutes of running so far, the smoke has not diminished at all. It is totally white smoke as far as I can tell. It smells just like a strong exhaust smell. I can not detect any hint of coolant sweetness. I held a towel in front of the muffler for a while and the towel comes away dry and smelling of exhaust, not wet. The car passes the champagne test, but the coolant buzzer sounds after the car is started. I hoping that is just a wiring or sensor fault because it does not seem to be losing coolant.

So I'm wondering how long a new motor should smoke. It seems that by now the smoke should have at least diminished but it hasn't at all. I think the neighbors are getting upset with me. Again it is thick white smoke that does not smell of coolant.

Any tips?

I have searched through the billions of white smoke threads but have not come upon anything that would explain this.

I did see one guy said that the hosing falling off the FPR caused lots of white smoke so I checked that but I have the hose on there and routed correctly.

Thanks,
James

what kind of assembly lube did you use for the various seals?

I didn't build the "keg", I just built the motor up from the shortblock. The guy who built it was Mike Wiggins who ran a place called RX7 Heaven a very long time ago. He had a long history with rotaries and used to be relatively high-profile in the old days but I don't think he is associated with RX7s anymore and this motor might of been the last one he ever built. It was built 6 years ago.

has it been sitting for 6 years without fluids in it? That could possibly be the problem....Could've dry rotted the water/coolant seals.. Did you check the compression by any chance? Also.. on a cold start......start the car and open your Water filler neck...It shouldn't boil at all or bubble up. Let us know how it goes.

As I said in the original post, it passes the "champagne test." There are no bubbles. Another thing I didn't mention is that it does start really easy just like it should. I had read that cars with coolant seal problems start hard because of compression bleeding off into the cooling system.

I need to do a leakdown test on the cooling system. But so far all signs point to the cooling system being OK. I just can't figure where all the smoke is coming from.

Depending on different materials used in builds it usually takes a good 30-45 minutes to completely clear up of smoke. By the way, coolant smoke dissipates within a couple seconds, oil and fuel smoke will tend to linger and you can watch it drift away. I usually shoot a couple squirts of oil into the housings to help on first startups and it takes away for the exhaust to heat up enough to burn off all the oil. Make sure the coolant system is burped properly and you are most likely fine.

Is the car consuming oil? The oil control rings could have failed from sitting for so long, I've seen that happen once before.

This is what I want to hear! I don't think that I've run the car 30-45 minutes yet....Maybe 25. What about the fact that it is not diminishing? It's just as solid now as when I first started it. I would have let the thing run a lot longer than I have but I've been worried about pissing off the neighbors because it's really a lot of smoke. I think I heard the guy next door coughing.

It is good to know that coolant smoke dissipates quickly, because this smoke just hangs around and around and around and makes a huge smoke screen. It's just weird that it is SO white.

I don't think it has ran long enough to really tell if it's consuming oil. It hasn't even been driven, just ran for about 25 minutes so far, I think. But I will keep this in mind.

I would have put it together a lot faster if I'd had the money!

Any chance the builder loaded the engine up with ATF because he knew it was going to sit?

When I built my motor the smoke went away in 5-10 minutes. But I was very sparing with the assembly lube. Besides oil for the bearings and housings, I only used a small amount of vaseline on the hard seals and a little bit of Crisco to hold the coolant seals in. Some people really like to slather on all sorts of stuff when they build a motor and that can take longer to burn off.

He wouldn't have had any idea it was going to sit. But maybe it was just his practice to do so. I would ask him but he seems to have fallen off the face of the planet.

How long do you think it needs to run before it will be possible to tell if it is using oil by reading the plugs?

James

Not good, the smoke should not remain steady over that long of a period of time. Sounds like Goodfella may be right and the oil control rings may have failed. It definitely sounds like oil smoke if it lingers. After 15 mins the smoke should be really thin and definitely not fogging out the neighborhood.

Well, that sucks. Maybe I will be teaching myself to rebuild the motor.

I'm still hung up on the smoke being totally white. Everyone always says that oil smoke is blue but this is not at all.

Maybe let try starting it again and letting it idle for 25-30 min again... but check the oil levelbefore you start it. And then again after?.....

OK, here are the plugs. Maybe this will help you guys help me.

The left is the #1 leading. The right is #2 leading.

http://www.mcdonaldindustries.com/james/rx7/plugs.jpg

Obviously they are very different. Again this is after only 30 minutes of running at the most, and brand-new plugs. Does this picture tell you guys anything?

thanks,
James

did you happen to do a compression check yet?

What makes you ask that? The car starts great and idles fine. I don't think it's doing anything that would indicate low compression.

I'd let the car run and see what happens.... typically with severe oil control ring problems you'll see oil leaking out the rear exhaust.

Have you tried driving it?

I appreciate everyone's patience with my questions.

There is no oil coming out the tail pipe. Lots of conflicting symptoms huh?

Goodfella, that was my plan. I'm just going to get the car drivable (put fluid in trans, bleed brakes and clutch, "eyeball" alignment) and toodle around the neighborhood in the middle of the night so the smoke doesn't piss anyone off. I'll just see what happens!

thanks

If you want to see if it is your water seals you can do a test my dad taught me a long time ago. Drain all your coolant and run straight water... Reason being coolant burns white but regular water has to visual signs. I would say run the motor for another 20min and see if the white smoke goes away. If not then drain the coolant and run straight water in it. Then run it for another 20-30 min. If the smoke continues you can rule out anything water related.

Chris

I think also that I would drive the car down the street & see what it will do. Get the car good and warm. Burn off all of the goo that could possibly be in the engine & in the exhaust system.

Well I just figured with conflicting symptoms you might as well do a compression check ya know? I mean that'd be one of the first things I checked with a new motor anyways... plus if its good you'll know...and if not.. you'll know haha.

Hang in there.