Ok, the other night i was cruisin in the TA, 95 LT1, when the temp gauge shoots from 180-260 and back to 180 in a matter of 3 secs. I pulled into a gas station and the car started smokin like cheech and chong 2003. White/Grey smoke billowing out the exhaust. I wasnt about to release pressure on the radiator, but i did check the bone dry resevoir, ended up lettin the car sit a few mins, adding 1 entire bottle of coolant to the tank and crankin her back up...she still smoked but not as bad. Drove it all the way home about 20 miles, let it sit overnight. Over the last two days i have been having to add coolant, sometimes it smokes, sometimes it dont....doesnt make much sense if its the head gasket, i woyuld think it would smoke constantly and a lot of it. THere is no oil in the radiator or the water pump, i've checked both, and nothing looks wrong with the oil inside the valve cover. I did notice a little bit, very little actually of whitish residue in the fill stem for the oil. There is no power loss, and i dont see any other coolant leaks, of course that doesnt mean they dont exist...getting a pressure tester soon. Also did a coolant check and its fine inside the radiator. Any ideas? Im trying to avoid taking apart the entire f***ing engine for a head gasket fix that might not be the problem....

 

sounds like it could be the headgasket, obviously your having to dump coolant into the car often, and so something must be wrong. Do you smell coolant through the heater vents at all. Does it smoke just at startup or just all of a sudden at anytime. have you pulled a sparkplug to see if they are clean. If my memory is correct, if you look inside the radiator and there is froathing then it could be the headgasket. I know some condinsation can get into the oil, but not sure how much. Well the bright side to having to fix it, is you can do some hi po upgrades while your at it.

 

I see you posted the same problem and question over here too, not on that other site.

 

Hmm...There is definitly coolant loss, but it doesnt smoke right at crank, just when it wants to, going down the raod if i am coasting and then push the gas, it will send out a puff off smoke....No coolant is coming through the vents, odor wise...no frothing in the radiator....

 

To me it sounds like you may have a blown head gasket. I had one go on me back about 8 mnths ago.

Go to Autozone or where ever you can rent/loan tools. Get the cooling system pressure tester. First ensure you have your system topped off with coolant. Take your rad cap off and hook up the tester(engine off), pump it up to about 17 - 18 psi as per the instructions. If the pressure needle holds than you don't have a cooling system leak,,, if it drops fast you have a bad leak, if it drops slowly you have a small leak. You should make your reading over a few minutes.

Another way to use the pressure tester is to hook it up to your rad, start the engine, if the needle jumps you may be getting compression into your cooling system. I checked mine both ways and had a slow leak. You have to pump up your cooling system first before getting a reading.

WARNING!!!!!!!!

When doing a cooling system pressure test and you see the needle dropping, coolant may be entering the combustion chamber. When you start the car the engine may hydrolock causing further damage. My engine hydrolocked,,,, I inched it over with the key and avoided damage, I was lucky.

ALSO:

Have you checked your oil for foam, murkiness, whitish milk shake appearance. My advice is don't drive the car any more until you either fix it or ensure that your oil doesn't have any coolant in it. Oil floats on water so your oil pump pick up will be getting water first on start up which is not good for your crank bearings.

 

That's what you got, cause that's the same thing that is happen to me right now. Your lossing coolant out the combustion camber. So this is better then lossing it into the crank case. Dont drive it, and repair it fast or you'll damge the heads.

Vinny

 

Well i had the car checked out at an auto repair center. They said its not coolant burning out of the exhaust and its not a head gasket leak. In fact the water pump bit the dust... and i have an exhaust leak where the Y-pipe meets the maniflods. I replaced the water pump last night, one of the hoses on it wasnt that tight either, so thats a good explanation for coolant loss and pressure loss....but why am i smoking? and if its not coolant what the hell is it? I am doing a Header install Fri night, so i will take care of the exhaust leak then....any other suggestions?

 

Did they do a compression check or a leak down test? Or did they just give it the once over and replace the eaisest thing that could get to?? Sounds like a blown head gasket to me if it is still smoking.

 

If its not below freezing where you live I would dump all the coolant and add straight WATER.

If you are getting coolant in the oil you will ruin your main bearings in a hurry and you will be looking at an expensive rebuild. Water is less harmful.

White residue in the oil is coolant.

 

the car still smokes but its not burning coolant....burnt coolant has a pretty distinct smell and this just smells like regular exhaust....any ideas?

 

is this bad??? when it is hot out, i do notice a coolant smell coming from my vents. its most noticable when i turn on my fan switch to high, when sitting in traffic.

 

the smell through the vents is most likely for you a leak somewhere in your cooling system and the smell is finding its way in. I myself had the smell when my waterpump went, then sometime later after it went away, I was rewarded with more smell. So now there is no leaks or smell of coolant in the engine bay but yet in my car, so My problem is probably the heater core. If its just a small leak it may just steam a small amount which burns off leaving no trace of it leaking. My car has the same symptoms as yours. So if I were you I would go over all the hoses and check for leaks. Hopefully its just a loose hose or something simple, at most its only a waterpump or heatercore both of which seem to be common to go on our engines. When I blew a headgasket the smell through the vents was very very strong, and it was always there, and unless you have symptoms of head gasket failure I wouldn't even consider that something to worry about

 

u will also have the smell if u have headers...esp hooker lts, since they are so damn close to the heater box

 

Ok guyz the Headers are in. Jet Hot Hooker LT's. Also did plugs/wires while i was in there. The alternator isnt hooked up correctly cause my voltage is sh*t and its not charging the batt. But im not smoking so i believe it was an exhaust leak mixed with fouled plugs or something, but the car runs good. Thanks for all the help.