Gsmblue Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 I have been out of pocket for a few weeks, but the problems keep coming! So, I will try and keep this short.. I am look for trouble shooting advice yet again! sorry! 1. After I got the fuel pressure valve sorted I have the oil changed out as there was gas in the oil... 2. The oil was the jiffylube high milage 5W-30 so thinner than the 10W-30 I had before. There was no smoke at all for a while. maybe a week. 3. The temps in Bend, OR have dropped to mostly below freezing. 4. Now I am getting white smoke, not straightaway, but after about a min or two of idling. When the engine fully warms up then the white smoke does die down. This is out of both tailpipes.So this is probably not just condensation... 5. I was losing coolant at the inlet to the heater matrix - I just fixed that today. 6. I am not sure if the smoke smells sweet or not... I just have a terrible sense of smell! 7. I will be keeping an eye on the coolant going forward. 8. Could an O2 sensor have an impact? 9. The idle is steady at about 900rpm in park, which seems high.. It drops to a steady 600rpm in drive. never stalls. So my questions: 1. Should I be worried ;) 2. Should I change the oil back to 10W30? I have enough sat on the side so this will not cost a penny. 3. What steps should I take to try and trouble shoot this? I suspect I have a bigger issue waiting to burst through... I suspect the piston rings are shot (118k original miles) but I don't have the equipment to do a compression test and my wallet is empty after the new tires.... If anyone is nearby and would like to help :) Thanks in advance!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PetesPonies Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 First, the most important thing here is the color of the smoke. Oil is not white. It is a whitish blue. Big deal? Well antifreeze is bright white. Excess fuel is black or dark gray. So the color makes a difference. If it truly is white, it is not oil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 First, the most important thing here is the color of the smoke. Oil is not white. It is a whitish blue. Big deal? Well antifreeze is bright white. Excess fuel is black or dark gray. So the color makes a difference. If it truly is white, it is not oil. I say drive it like you stole it! If all you are doing is letting it idle then the system is not getting up to temp to "boil out" the water in the exh system. I bet all is ok once you get the system hot. Drive it for a week and see how it does. Just keep an eye on the radiator level and oil level. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gsmblue Posted December 15, 2017 Author Share Posted December 15, 2017 I say drive it like you stole it! If all you are doing is letting it idle then the system is not getting up to temp to "boil out" the water in the exh system. I bet all is ok once you get the system hot. Drive it for a week and see how it does. Just keep an eye on the radiator level and oil level. Dave ---- My wife said the smoke was a brown color So I took it for a 30 min drive, the smoke does calm down when driven for a while. On restart it puffs up again. I will keep driving her and put a couple of tanks of gas through her. I will video the smoke and stick on you tube this week. The smoke smells kinda gas like... Monitoring the coolant for sure! Thanks for the advice so far, I will update over the weekend... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PetesPonies Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 My wife said the smoke was a brown color So I took it for a 30 min drive, the smoke does calm down when driven for a while. On restart it puffs up again. I will keep driving her and put a couple of tanks of gas through her. I will video the smoke and stick on you tube this week. The smoke smells kinda gas like... Monitoring the coolant for sure! Thanks for the advice so far, I will update over the weekend... Typically a puff of smoke when you start the engine is signs of oil getting past your valve stems. Either worn guides or deteriorated valve seals. Still will be a blueish hue. If it is grayish . .that's over rich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gsmblue Posted December 15, 2017 Author Share Posted December 15, 2017 Typically a puff of smoke when you start the engine is signs of oil getting past your valve stems. Either worn guides or deteriorated valve seals. Still will be a blueish hue. If it is grayish . .that's over rich. Definitely not blue. I think it is more gray... I will post a video tomorrow afternoon and we can discuss, it could be the next blue dress/white dress thing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gsmblue Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 Definitely not blue. I think it is more gray... I will post a video tomorrow afternoon and we can discuss, it could be the next blue dress/white dress thing! Ok, so I have pushed through about 1/2 tank of gas this week and taken photos of the coolant 3 separate days with the engine cold.. The level looks identical to me as per the photo: Engine oil is relatively new and is full on the dipstick. I pulled KOEO codes today and I got 67 and 84. I am going to go through the EGR troubleshooting guide over the next few days, I have a friend in town that can help me :) http://easyautodiagnostics.com/ford/4.6L-5.4L/how-to-test-the-egr-system-1 Any other suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gsmblue Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 Ok, so I have pushed through about 1/2 tank of gas this week and taken photos of the coolant 3 separate days with the engine cold.. The level looks identical to me as per the photo: Engine oil is relatively new and is full on the dipstick. I pulled KOEO codes today and I got 67 and 84. I am going to go through the EGR troubleshooting guide over the next few days, I have a friend in town that can help me :) http://easyautodiagnostics.com/ford/4.6L-5.4L/how-to-test-the-egr-system-1 Any other suggestions? Cleaned out the connector to the EGR vacuum solenoid so now no codes! I also tested it with a vacuum gauge and it held @ 5mHg, engine rough idled then recovered. So leaving that system alone for now. So what I know: No coolant being consumed. No engine oil being consumed. No codes on the KOEO Coolant temp sensor reads ok on the multimeter (I forget the values but they were in range). White smoke still coming out of the exhaust. looks grey to me, smells kinda sweet and maybe gas like. The drivers side exhaust is much worse than the passenger side. I have long suspected the #8cyl injector of being faulty as I have previously had issue with that cylinder flooding. After passing through some injector cleaner (seafoam) it was mostly behaving. Could this be something to look at? Any help appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 Cleaned out the connector to the EGR vacuum solenoid so now no codes! I also tested it with a vacuum gauge and it held @ 5mHg, engine rough idled then recovered. So leaving that system alone for now. So what I know: No coolant being consumed. No engine oil being consumed. No codes on the KOEO Coolant temp sensor reads ok on the multimeter (I forget the values but they were in range). White smoke still coming out of the exhaust. looks grey to me, smells kinda sweet and maybe gas like. The drivers side exhaust is much worse than the passenger side. I have long suspected the #8cyl injector of being faulty as I have previously had issue with that cylinder flooding. After passing through some injector cleaner (seafoam) it was mostly behaving. Could this be something to look at? Any help appreciated. I'm not an EFI expert - nor an expert on anything for that matter. But, I'm having a hard time believing that you could have an injector slobbering and not have codes. Surely the O2 sensor would detect that? And, I wouldn't expect a rich condition to smell sweet. In fact, I think a rich condition causes the exhaust to stink. But, you aren't losing any coolant, which is what I would have expected to cause white or gray smoke (steam actually). But it doesn't take much coolant to cause a bit of steam. I'm at a loss. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gsmblue Posted December 22, 2017 Author Share Posted December 22, 2017 I'm not an EFI expert - nor an expert on anything for that matter. But, I'm having a hard time believing that you could have an injector slobbering and not have codes. Surely the O2 sensor would detect that? And, I wouldn't expect a rich condition to smell sweet. In fact, I think a rich condition causes the exhaust to stink. But, you aren't losing any coolant, which is what I would have expected to cause white or gray smoke (steam actually). But it doesn't take much coolant to cause a bit of steam. I'm at a loss. Sorry. Thanks Gary! It is a mystery. I know far, far less than you about this stuff. It is my first go around.. An interesting point about the O2 sensor, I believe it is on the passenger side exhaust. The smoke issue is mainly on the drivers side. The suspect injector is on the driver side too. Doesn’t really help anything but it is an interesting observation.. I will keep muddling through, anything I note I will post here incase someone reads it and can help 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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