I have a couple of questions about my engine.

Well any smoke is never a good sign however if oil was burning its generally blue in color, i believe white means you are running the motor too lean and have most likley blown it up, sorry. Brett B

You said that the car had little or no motor oil. If true that would be a very good reason for the engine to stop completely. White smoke may actually be steam or water vapor that could indicate a cooling system problem. The engine may not have had any coolant either.

Next time check the fluids before starting the engine.

White smoke is coolant being burned. (water vapor)

My guess is that you had coolant leaking into the engine and the noise that you heard before shut-down was the piston coming up and hammering into it. Since a liquid (coolant) can't be compressed, the noise was likely the piston coming up and trying to compress it, causing a hammering effect on the piston, wrist pin, rod bearing/journal and main bearing/ journal at the crankshaft. All of that coolant was under tremendous pressure trying to escape past the little gaps at the piston rings, and through the head gasket (even the intake manifold passage). The "click" noise at re-start was the poor little starter motor trying it's best to turn-over the engine, but NO starter motor can spin an engine with a cylinder full of fluid.

Wait for the engine to get stone-cold... and by "stone-cold", I mean that you can stick your tongue to the exhaust manifold. Pull-out the oil dip-stick and check for a chocolate milk color, which indicates a water into oil problem. Next, remove each spark plug and inspect it's condition and it's cylinder location (an old egg carton works great for tracking small parts). Note if one of the spark plugs has a wet look or damaged (or even very small gap) ground-to-electrode. Next, and with all plugs removed, try to start (crank) the engine... It may have water shooting out of the spark plug holes, so be careful.

Best wishes, David

Or had a leaky head gasket, hydrolocked it, and blew a rod.

nate

White smoke is not oil, it is water from the radiator.

Well, the first thing you can do is check the radiator fluid and oil levels. If one of them is empty.... well, you found your culprit.

Pull the head.

--scott

Thanks for all the help, what I reffered to as white smoke did not come out of the engine, but out of the exhaust. Also, the coolant levels in the engine are fine, so I'm still concerned as to what the white smoke coming out of the engine might be. Im at school atm so as soon as I arrive home I'll try what DaddyMonkey suggested.

I'll keep you posted.

Regards,

Z

Thanks for all the help. What I referred to as "white smoke" did not come out of the engine, but of the exhaust. Also, I checked the coolant levels and they are fine; so I'm still concerned as to what the smoke coming out before the failure was. I'm going to try what DaddyMonkey suggested, just to be safe. Im not sure if its an electrical problem, as I said all you can hear when trying to re-start the engine is a single "click". Couldn't this be a problem with the alternator/starter engine?

I'll keep you posted.

regards,

Z

It was probabably coolant getting into the cylinder, causing steam to come out the tailpipe, as we said.

I'm going to try what

Could be. If it's a manual, you can pushstart it and see. Could also be that the entire engine has melted down into slag inside and is seized. Do the lights dim when you move the switch to start?

--scott

White smoke out the exhaust is normally coolant.

Coolant can fill a cylinder and cause the engine to seize or hydrolock.

You 'really' need to turn the engine over by hand to see if it is physically seized up or hydrolocked.

If hydrolocked, you have to remove the sparkplugs to turn it over or you will likely blow the engine to pieces.

A single click can just be a bad connection on one of the main battery cables 'or' a seized engine. If you give it a few clicks and then carefully feel the battery cable ends, a bad connection will sometimes be hot, very hot even.

If the whole cable gets hot, check for seizure.

Good luck!

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

Yeah well I gave it a few "clicks" and touched the cable from the battery to the starter engine and it got hot not only on the end but throughout the cable. Does this mean that it's seized?

If so, what do you recommend me to do?

-Z

That means either the starter or the engine is seized.

I recommend using a breaker bar and socket on the crankshaft bolt to try and turn the engine over by hand. You might be able to turn it buy grabbing onto a belt and pulling too. If it doesn't want to turn the right way, try turning it backward. If it budges backward, pull the plugs, then try the key to see if one cylinder is full of water.

Giving the starter a whack with a hammer is also a valid option to see if a brush is just stuck.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

I tried moving the belt (since I dont have a breaker bar available) but it doesn't budge either way. I guess the engine is seized. I'm gonna remove the spark plugs and see if the engine had any water in it.

I'll keep posting.

-Z

A socket wrench on the bolt will work also, just a breaker bar has a longer handle for easier movement.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

Remove the F-ING spark plugs? DUH? Go figure!

After an almost f-ing week of posting your BS online. Do you think that your lazy azz could pull the f-ing s.plugs? We have better things to do, and we have been tellin your LAZY azz to pull the f-ing plugs now for almost a f-ing week! Get YOUR SH!T together, boy... PULL the g-dang PLUGS!!!

"I can't spin the engine by the belts, this/that cabel is hot".... No F-ING SH!T AZZ-HOLE... your engine is FUC-ED!

If you want advice from TRUE automotve technicians, and truly want our advice, then listen to us, and post here... we will be glad to help. But it you want your mommie, or daddy to fix your F-ing locked-up Ford... ask them!

Buy another f-ing granada, and leave us the hell alone!

I suspect, given the symptoms, that you are already blown.

--scott

hahaha that actually made me laugh

oh, and I just pulled the plugs out and dumped some coke in each cylinder. 10 mins passed and I tried to do it and the motor appears to be un-seizing. Im gonna leave it a little more time with the coke and see what happens.