smoke coming out of exhaust

Hello guys,

can someone please tell me what it means when there's black smoke coming out of the exhaust of a petrol car? On the other hand what does it mean if the smoke is white?

Thanks.

Reply to
Brian Su
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Black is poorly burnt fuel- almost always a result of a too rich mixture- such as an engine on choke when it doesnt need it, or another fuelling fault. Its bad for the engine- the excess fuel results in bore wash.

White smoke is either normal condensation from the exhaust system, or if it persists and the coolant is vanishing- then you have an internal leak into the combustion chamber(s)- be it a failed headgasket, cracked block or head, or similar.

Tim..

Reply to
Tim (Remove NOSPAM. Registry corupted, reformated HD and l

Thanks alot Tim.

what's the result of poor compression eg: leaking valve? would it be black or white?

My car produces black smoke when engine is revved at high rpm.

Thanks.

Reply to
Brian Su

Are you sure its not just residual soot in the exhaust system that is being blown out when the gas speed is high- i.e. high revs?

Poor compression due to bore wear / oil control problems will be sky blue or dark blue in coloour. Poor compression caused by poor valve sealing will just give poor engine performance- not smoke.

Tim..

Reply to
Tim (Remove NOSPAM. Registry corupted, reformated HD and l

Well you could be right. My mechanic could be wanting to cheat my money. How do I tell whether it's because of black soot or not?

but I think my mechanic feels it's due to poor valve sealing because the guy took out the air filter and looked into the carb.. there seemed to be fuel residue coz the intake valve doesn't close properly I think.

anyway what's the process to fix valve sealing problems?

Thanks.

Reply to
Brian Su

White smoke is usually steam and usually means that coolant is getting into the combustion chamber, more often than not this is a blown head gasket.

Black smoke is more likely to be carbon compounds which can derive from petrol or oil, if it's continually coming out it's most likely burnt oil.

A note here, when we had unleaded petrol, the exhaust pipe used to be black and sooty when the engine was running overly rich, and would be a nice grey colour when the engine was running properly. The grey was actually lead oxide, and with unleaded fuel you won't be getting much of that so expect black sooty exhausts regardless.

A corollary to that, any smoke coming out of the engine is likely to be black for that reason if for no other, but it's more often mixed with steam (as you get water as a byproduct of combustion) and is a thin, grey colour when all is well.

I reckon I'd need to know a bit more about the engine, e.g. type and has it started doing this recently. It might be that the cat has broken up and is blocking the exhaust pipe making things run sooty and rich.

But there's a lot of reasons, broken ring, worn guides, etc, etc.

Reply to
antispam

How the hell did he see the unclosed valve on an escort through the carb?

Reply to
MeatballTurbo

White smoke is steam and usually means the head gasket is letting coolant in. You get some white smoke as water is a by product of petrol combustion, but it's usually mixed with black smoke resulting in grey and the odd drip from the exhaust pipe.

As to how easy it is to fix the valves, that depends a lot on the engine but you almost certainly have to remove the head(s) which is a fairly major job costing quite a lot, resulting in new gaskets for the heads, removing the exhaust and inlet manifold(s) meaning new gaskets for them too, and various other work which includes keeping the chains in place or having to reset the timing if it is overhead cam (which it probably is).

There are two methods. The above, and then grind / replace the valves cutting new seats as necessary (the expensive, full repair). This probably sees you no change from a grand, depending on engine, work needed, rates and so on.

The second method assumes the problem is gunk or dirt in between the valve and the seat, so you spritz injection cleaner down the manifold / intake in the hope that it will dissolve / wash the debris away and sort the problem. You can do with having the engine running for this to work best. This is cheap and DIY but won't sort out things like damaged seats or valve heads so you try this and then invest hundreds in having the heads off and reconditioned.

Some engines are old and you can get heads for them for next to nothing, if the engine normally outlives the car body. You can then grind the valves before having the heads swapped, usually a relatively quick job compared to having the valves done on your existing heads. If the engine is fairly new, this won't be an option.

Apparently >Well you could be right. My mechanic could be wanting to cheat my

Reply to
antispam

Hi there thanks so much for your reply guys.

Yeah could it be the cat having problems? Because I once pumped leaded fuel into the car and ran it for a while :( It wasn't that much but I'm afraid it's more than enough to spoil the cat.

As for using injector cleaners, I thought these were for fuel injection engines only and don't apply to carb engines. Are there such things as valve cleaners fuel additives? Also, I've heard the danger that these additives may be corrosive to the engine, how likely is this to be and what are the problems?

Why does the gasket need to be changed when opening the head?

Thanks.

Reply to
Brian Su

You ask a lot of questions on here Brian but I will be more tactful than Mr. Jackson.

A good car maintenance manual will answer 90 percent of your queries and will also have the benefit of not having to wait for us to get from under the car and reply to you!

RTFM

Reply to
Fishman19

No. Cats either work, or dont, or break up and clog the exhaust system. They cant make various colours of smoke. A cat in good condition will actually burn blue smoke caused by oil combustion so you wont see the blue smoke at the tailpipe.

Injector cleaners are aimed more at injection engines, but both are basically a strong flammable detergent, although the "joe public" brands are about as effective as a chocolate fireguard. Dont waste your money using them in an attempt to solve a problem. If you use decent petrol (high detergent) and the engine is in good order they are not needed.

Are there such

Yes, but almost exactly same ingredients as above. The only thing to clean heavily carbonned inlet valves is either redex in excess 'poured' into the inlet til engine stalls then let soak over night, and repeat (be careful doing this) or strip the head and clean the valves manually. Again decent fuel will prevent these problems anyways. r

If used according to the instructions no. Can you imagine a additive company staying in business long if their product caused damage to the engine?! Some additives may damage the a catalytic converter though. Most as cat safe however when used at the recommended doseage.

The head gasket, is usually a compressible composite gasket that squashes up when the head is tightened down onto it and 'absorbes' all the minor irreguarlitys in the head and block as well as sealing the water and oil ways. They are usuable only once.

However you can have sintered stainless and / or copper and various other trick material h/gaskets, usually for forced aspiration engines which are re-usable, but you wont find these on a standard road car.

Tim..

Reply to
Tim (Remove NOSPAM. Registry corupted, reformated HD and l

And its a "modifications" group!

Reply to
Burgerman

PMSL!!!! Dont know what you mean by the other comment though ;)

Reply to
Alex Jackson

Hear, Hear!

Reply to
Alex Jackson

That would only contaminate it, it's not relevant to the question of the black smoke. But if you can hear it tinkling when you shake the pipe about, it could be blocking the pipe and making the engine struggle to breath.

Cleaners are usually just light volatiles. The sort that you put in the tank are designed to come through the injector needle itself, carried by the petrol. I don't mean those, I mean the sort that comes in a tin which you squirt onto the thing you are cleaning. Petrol will do, but it's not ideal, it is of course much cheaper.

Additives are generally a waste of time because fuel comes with a decent mix of detergents and stuff, much like oil additives are best avoided - much better to change the oil than add something to it.

You can squirt injector cleaner into the intake fairly freely - if the engine is running - because it will be sucked into the engine and burned to nowt. It's unwise to do it to an engine that isn't running because it can lead to bore wash. If you're lucky, the cleaner will take any lumps of stuff off the valve seat / head and put the engine back to sorts. It's certainly worth trying because it's cheap and easy. If it doesn't work, you're in the same position as before so worth a bash, no?

You can get away with not doing it, but only when the gasket is still relatively new. The reason you need to replace the gasket is an old one will normally develop a leak if you don't, they will anyway once they're old enough (oil leaks are almost always a duff gasket). Since a gasket is maybe a tenner, say five to 25 and maybe you pay 30 for a complete upper set for an engine, it's much more sensible to change the gasket for a new one when you are paying

250 quid to have the head taken off and put back on. Saves paying 250 again to put a new one in anyway when the old one starts leaking, no?

If you are doing it all yourself, that's quite different. You can always spend the next weekend doing the job again if necessary.

Reply to
antispam

Hello,

What do you mean squirt injector cleaner into the intake? How do I get access to the intake manifold? Do you mean squirt it into where the air filter fits on to?

Also just wanted to know what are the causes when an engine's oil level keeps dropping rapidly? Besides a leak, what could be the problem? If it's a leak is it likely that the oil filter wasn't tightened properly?

Thanks once again guys :)

Reply to
Brian Su

What do you call rapid and on what car? If theres no obvious leak then its either an unobvious leak (back of engine maybe) or its being burnt by the engine, perhpas due to aged valve stem seals or piston ring(s). I wouldnt say the oil filter was likely to leak, unless it was fitted by a complete muppet. If it is leaking, then just screw it up tight with your hand, thats all the needed (assuming its not shafted)

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Oil can only go in two places.

1) You have a leak. that should be obvious. Oil filter, a gasket, a seal, oil cooler hose, sump plug, filler cap leaking etc.

2) The engine is burning it. So thats bore wear, broken oil control rings, worn valve guides, worn valve oil seals, cracked block or head, blocked PCV system forcing oil into the intake, excess blow by doing same, too much oil in sump etc. To be loosing alot via this method you'd be driving with a smoke screen behind you.

Tim..

Reply to
Tim (Remove NOSPAM. Registry corupted, reformated HD and l

Yeah. Remove the air filter element, squirt it into the air going into the engine, there ought to be a significant suction to help there, be sure that you won't be dropping rings / bits of dirt / plastic tubes from the cleaner aerosol into the engine, they'll not do nice things to it.

The airflow will pass through the manifold and through the inlet valves, carrying the cleaner with it and with any luck washing the dirt off the valve head / seat. If not, you've only wasted five minutes and a few quid on the can of cleaner.

Remember to put the air filter element back on, it stops dust and sand damaging the engine.

Could be, but you can see this fairly easily. Oil on an old engine commonly comes out of lots of minor gaps and leaks, and then drips off the bottom of the sump. This is pretty normal. If it is leaking rapidly, you'll be slipping over in the garage due to pints of oil splashed all over the floor.

Sometimes the leaks are higher up the engine, in which case they'll only tend to leak when the engine is actually running. Putting the car over some light road (newspaper can do) and running the engine will show this up pretty clearly.

If the oil isn't leaking out this way, the engine may well be burning it. Broken pistons or rings let oil into the combustion chamber, although mostly you'll find broken rings charge up the crankcase and cause the oil to be pumped through the breather instead. Valve guides will wear, and allow more oil through than is needed. If your engine is burning oil, the exhaust smoke will tend to be black.

As a rough guide, when the oil smoke intensifies when you are going flat out on the motorway or up a hill, it's going through the breather system. When the smoke intensifies when you lift your foot from the throttle after going flat out, that's more often coming through the valve guides. You will need someone in a car behind you to spot this most easily, it's not obvious from the drivers seat.

You can also have what one of my cars has got. A decently clean breather, but duff rings so the crankcase is always pressurised, especially under acceleration. The oil comes out of the right hand rocker box and gets all over the drivers side of the windscreen, top of the bonnet / wing, and all over the car behind if they're too close. I plan to put new rings and measure the wear in the liners in spring, while rebuilding the engine. Hopefully that will sort out the blowby.

Reply to
antispam

Hi, so what type of injector cleaner do I get and squirt down the air intake? Will the normal petrol additives or injector cleaners do? I mean those which I can get off the shelf like Redex Petrol Injector Treatment.

I believe these products aren't made to be squirt down the intake manifold so can you give me some simple guidelines to follow? as in how much to squirt down at a time? What are the dangers involved? choking the engine? flooding the carb? etc.etc.

Thanks.

Reply to
Brian Su

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