white smoke from exhaust

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tunerboy

Junior Member
I have a 95 integra ls with the stock engine with headers, and no intake, I just did a port poloish on the head along with a new head gasket but the problem below started before the port polish.
The problem is that I keep getting white smoke from the tailpipe when i rev the engine past about 5k. I looked at the spark plugs and discovered that there was brown sut on the electrodes and even the white part(I dont know what its called). To me i think this is an indication of the engine running rich and I may be wrong but if that is the case, where do you guys think the fault in the fuel system is coming from. i also did a compression test and got the following numbers. 1-173, 2-173, 3-175, 4-179.
 
sounds like you are running rich to me. but that isnt' causing the smoke.

if you changed the headgasket, you might have a head leak. white smoke is usually burning coolant. i would retorque the head.

did you have head problems before you changed the gasket? if you blew the old headgasket you could have a warped head unless you got it milled before reinstall.
 
Yes I had the problem before I changed the gasket and I did not change it because it was blown. i just figured that I ought to use a new gasket since the old one has already been compressed.
 
if the engine is running rich you would be pumping black smoke, unless it is REALLY dumping fuel, then the white smoke would be the unburnt fuel burning when it hits the header, also your header would be bright red if it were running that rich and you would have like no gas mileage.

If the smoke is greyish bluish, then it is oil and that could be rings, valve seals/valve guides, or even a bad PCV valve

Other than that, white smoke is generally coolant burnoff like get_nick said, cracked cylinder, crack in the head, warped head or bad heagasket, it could also be a bad thermo valve or IAC, (I've seen it) in which case your coolant was too acidic and ate through the valve.

Do a leakdown test and see what you get
https://hondaswap.com/general-tech-articles/how-leak-down-compression-tests-29104/
 
Ok we all agree that it is not running rich, at least not enough to smoke. Now I ran the engine again and it smoked worse when I went past about 6k rpm. Before 5k there is really no smoke. Does that mean anything.

When I removed the head, I observed no crack however, I did not check for warpage (in hindesight, that was a mistake). I changed the head and intake manifold gaskets. that leaves the possibilities of a cracked cylinder, fast idle thermo valve, and intake air control valve (iac).

I will check those but my question is, are there any tell tale signs of those valves going bad such overheating or coolant loss. thanks for your replies.
 
Remove the head and have it checked for warpage, deck if needed.

My Subaru kept blowing head gaskets, eventually the block and head warped so bad that it couldnt be fixed anymore.
 
When you remove the cylinder head, you should always have it milled. It is aluminum. Have it pressure tested while you're at it.
 
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