josh_arby

Hey guys. I have an odd problem. About 3 or 4 weeks ago my car overheated and I took it to a mechanic and they replaced the water pump and the crank seal gasket. It was absolutly fine on the way home and it gave me no problems while it was idling for about 30 mins during a radio install. Then when my friend came over about an hour later I took him for a ride. We got to the end of my driveway and I floored it. It had no power. I was baffled until I looked up and saw a huge plume of smoke in my rear view mirror. It looked white to me and did not smell like oil. It smelled sweet. Well I called the mechanic and he said that it might be a blown head gasket. But he was puzzled because it was not overheating even though it was blowing smoke. He said to crank it up for a minute than turn it off, take the spark plugs out and see if any anti-freeze shot out of the cylinders. Well, nothing shot out. I also smelled the dipstick and it did not smell like anti-freeze. Later that day I drove it over and it only smoked for a minute and than stopped.
The mechanic did a pressure check and he said that he couldn't find anything wrong with it. I said okay. As I pulled out onto the road it started smoking again. Than before I could turn around, it stopped. Now I was getting mad. Ever since than it runs fine and does not usually smoke. The only time it starts to smoke is when it idles for a long time. Than I notice a stream of smoke blowing from my tailpipe, and whenever I take off there is a large puff of smoke from my tailpipe.
Okay, I know that was very long, but I thought that you guys should know everything to get a better indication of what could be wrong. I used the search feature but did not really find anything that sounded like my problem. Can any of you guys help me out? Thanks.

Badaxxima

Sounds like maybe (purely guessing here) some anti-freeze got into the cylinders or maybe the intake manifold (instead of through the head gasket). You may have a bad manifold gasket, or coolant somehow got into the crankcase while the front seal was being replaced and made its way up through the PCV system into the intake manifold. Could also be bad fuel injectors. A bad intake manifold gasket would screw up the idle though. Dunno, just thoughts.

josh_arby

Yeah, the idle is kind of odd recently. It stays at about 550 rpms in drive and like 1200 rpms in park. Also when I'm just idling in park at a stoplight or something, the car kind of shakes and bumps every once in a while. Than when I hit the gas to go a puff of smoke exits from my tailpipe. It is kind of bluish and only lasts for a second. If I sit at a really long stoplight or just idle in park for a while than I smoke for the next minute or so. I just bought a pcv valve in case this was the problem. Do you guys think this would fix this problem, or is it something else? Thanks for your input.

Justinkl

Hi, I have somewhat of the same problem, only mine doesnt seem as serious. I have a 92 Se auto and if I let the car idle in park for more than 30 seconds it will blow a small puff of smoke when i touch the gas. It doesnt do it when the car is in anything but park and neutral, and it isnt a huge cloud. The car doesnt idle rough or accelerate poorly (it is actually smoother and quieter than my moms 95 with half the miles) so I dont know what to look for.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

sounds like a blown intake manifold gasket to me. the manifold itself has coolant flowing through it, so it could conceivably cause these problems. the idle problems you're experiencing could also be caused by this, but they seem to be common in nearly every VG I'd driven/ridden in.

the manifold gasket isn't that difficult to change, but it requires a full day of work and may be out of your league if you haven't worked on an engine before or aren't good with tools. If you hook it up to a nissan CONSULT system, it should be able to tell you which cylinder is misfiring, which may be an indicator of where the leak is.

Also, overheating the engine could have caused this, as the parts would get very hot and warp due to the heat. same reason you blow head gaskets when you overheat.
sooo, there's a few things to look at. good luck.


JustinKl, sounds like your problems are just typical engine wear. replace the PCV valve, and it could solve it, may not. it's only a few bucks, so it's not horribly expensive- and should be done on a regular basis anyway.

if that doesn't solve the problem, a compression test is the next step. it could be worn piston rings or valve seals, letting a little oil into the cylinders at idle. then when you take off, it'll burn out of the system and you see the smoke.
also, since it only happens after you've been idling a while, I would suspect it may have something to do with the crankcase ventilation systems (i.e. PCV valve). pull the plastic parts of the intake off and see if they're coated in oil from the two hoses coming off the engine. if so, then it's PCV valve time.