Hey everyone,

I have a fresh 383 in the car, and its got about 900 miles on it. Once it is warmed up, it will spit little droplets of water out of the exhaust occasionally. It is enough so that if the car idles somewhere for 5 minutes, the ground will be wet, but not puddle. I was told this is normal, as water is the only by-product of stoich combustion. It is definitely not from the cooling system, as the overflow reservior level never moves, and it has 0 smell to it. We have checked the idle AFR with a wideband and it bounces from about 14.1 to 15.1

Is it just coming from the combustion process? Or is there something else that I need to look into?

 

lol. all cars emit water from the exhaust, even more so in car with cats.

 

I thought I had oil shooting out my exhaust after getting my engine back together... discovered it was the black inside the tips attached to water droplets on their way out.. I dont have a cat on the car but it emits a decent amount of condensation. Normal...I hope

 

Gasoline in made up of hydrogen and carbon. The carbon combines with oxygen in the air, and forms carbon dioxide (CO2) and a little carbon monoxide (CO). The hydrogen combines with the oxygen in the air and forms water (H2O). The water leaves the in the exhaust as a vapor. As it cools down in the exhuast system, some of the water condenses, and liquid water drips out of the exhaust. You are starting to notice it now, because the outside air temp is dropping, so the exhaust cools faster, particularly when the car sits idling. Sounds completely normal.

 

I realize that water vapor is considered normal, but this isnt vapor. It is spitting water droplets into the air. You can see the droplets shoot out, and it doesn't always come from the edge of the tip, they will commonly come flying out of the middle as if they had been traveling there for awhile. The car has done this ever since I have gotten it back, and it has been as warm as 75F outside, so it's not just the cold weather.

 

This is nothing to worry about. Does it do it constantly, or just for the few few minutes after startup?

 

I will run it for a bit tonight or tomorrow and see if it still does it after a decent drive, but I believe that it does.

 

I would keep and eye on the coolant level. If it is staying full, the water has gotta be coming form condensation, etc. It the coolant level is getting lower, you have found where it is coming from.

Lloyd Elliott
972-617-5671
NightTrain66@msn.com

 

Yep keep an eye on coolant, if it is noticably low in a short period of time, refill and see if it drops again. Water will puddle in the exhaust in a idling car, and drain out at joints (usually really noticable in a cat equiped car).

If the water is going down regularly one way to find the offending cylender is to add air through the soarkplug hole with a compressor and fitting screwed in with the valvess on that cylender closed (if the motor keeps turning when you add the air, you can loosen the rockers on that cylender) with the rad cap off, let it set for a while and look for bubbles in the radiator. The car needs to be cool enough but warm so ring seal is good.

But I think personnally your condensation problem is pretty well normal.

 

Same here. I have around 600 miles on my 383. I was running with no cats for a while and the exhaust was spraying water like you said. I had a slow leaking heater hose that I was almost afraid to fix because it had the potential to confirm a head gasket problem. So far so good. My headers kept loosening up on the heads. I wonder if that was pulling some "cold air" enhancing the condensation. Anyway, tightened up the headers again, put some cats on and I only noticed it once the other day when I revved it really quick from idle when the motor was still cold. It left a spray pattern on the floor. No smell for me either.