rtravis

I have a '89 2nd Gen NA with a fairly recently rebuilt engine. (~1000 miles)

I'm pretty sure it is rebuild time again...

So I was driving the car, when I shifted into neutral and the car died. No smoke, no overheating, just died. Tried to crank it and it wouldn't start for about a minute. I finally was able to crank it and give it gas to get it out of the middle of the road. Then I called AAA and towed it home and went to work.

When I got home, I tried to start it again. The car fired right up and then instantly died. I cranked it again and gave it some gas in case it was a problem with the fuel system. OMG the smoke! I had the car backed into the driveway with the garage open (was listening to tunes). The smoke came from the exhaust into the garage and made it look like my house was on fire.

Now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure this is a bad thing. The smoke didn't smell sweet like burning coolant; it smelled like burning rubber/oil. I couldn't really tell the color of the smoke because it was dark out, but it looked white, maybe grey.

When I get home from work today, I'll do a compression and coolant check, but I don't have high hopes. Any thoughts on what this is?

Thanks,

Rob

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

It could be a number of things. If an oil o-ring failed, it should not make the car hard to start but will make it smoke.

Has the car been sitting? Injectors can often clog up and fail, which will hose fuel into the engine and cause this sort of issue.

rtravis

Just re-read my post and realized I missed a couple specifics.

When I crank it and give it gas, the car stays on as long as I give it gas and keep it around 4k rpm. This is when the massive amount of smoke occurred. If I let off the gas, she quits.

To answer your question, the car did sit for about a month while I was out of town. It started without any (known to me at least) problems when I got back.

I looked at the fuel filter and it looks like it was not changed when the engine was rebuilt, so just because it is cheap, i'm going to go ahead and replace that as well.

cone_crushr

iTrader: (18)

Are you saying the smoke is "blue-gray" rather than white?

rtravis

It looked white, more or less, outside the garage. Inside the garage it was so thick it looked grey, not really blue-grey. I will start it up in the daylight when I get home and see what color it actually is in the light

Go48

iTrader: (7)

Is your check engine light on? If so, read the blink codes to determine the cause. Get a free copy of the factory service manual at:
http://foxed.ca/foxed/index.php?page=rx7manual

Could be something like a failed or disconnected AFM causing the ECU to go into default mode in which case it dumps gobs of fuel into the system. Been there, done that, and the clouds of bluish-white smoke were horrendous.

joshrx788

i had some of the same things as you and it was 2 things my tps and my Water thermo sensor replaced both and car is like new.. the Water thermo sensor is a pain to get to i took off my alternator to get to it. how i found this out is when i tryed to use the test lamp method to tune my tps i found that my car was throwing codes at me the first wont was 3 blinks ( bad Water thermo sensor) the second was 1 long 1 short ( tps ) replaced both and tuned the tps car runs better then i can say. i'm also new to this world but i like to learn so hope this helps!

rtravis

My check engine blink codes are giving me 3: Crank Angle Sensor (G) and 9: water thermosensor.

rtravis

I decided to go ahead and clear the codes before reading them again to clear of any codes that might have been there from the rebuilding/troubleshooting processes. I took the neg terminal off for 30 secs.

After reconnecting and checking the codes, I get just the code 9, which makes sense because I don't think the cable is connected to the water thermo sensor. I tried cranking the car again to see if it would recreate the code 3 and it does not. After blowing a little more smoke, I just have Code 9.

Go48

iTrader: (7)

I believe a code 3 will result in the ECU going into fail-safe mode where the ignition and fuel injection are shut off. I doubt that the 9 code would cause your problems, since the ECU assumes a coolant temp of 176F in fail-safe mode.

rtravis

I installed the new fuel filter today.

I also performed a pressure test and got 3 pulses (~90) on each rotor. When I removed the spark plugs, they were black and smelled like oil. I cleaned them all off and put them back in (they were brand new).

After trying to start the car, I noticed when I opened the oil cap, a small amount of smoke came out. What could cause this to happen? Oil control rings?

iceman_x5

iTrader: (2)

Possibly oil rings. Compression air got into the oil system and oil got into the compression chamber, thus the smoke. Looks like time for a rebuild.

rtravis

Is there a way to test this before I pull the engine out, or are the symptoms conclusive enough?