White Smoke - Left Exhaust - Intake Problem?

[my427]

I was driving through the back roads of Alabama/Georgia with 22 other cobras a couple of weeks ago, when all of a sudden the engine in the car started to miss and lose power. I looked in the rear view mirror and clouds of white fog was coming out of my left exhaust. After a 90 mile tow back to the trailer and another 300 mile trailer ride back to home, I pulled the intake and the left side front water jacket at the intake had blown through to the intake of the #5 cylinder. It looked like it had just disintegrated.

Now, the motor is a Ford Racing crate engine with GT40 aluminum heads. I have never had any problems with it before this. I went ahead and replaced the intake gasket with a Fel-Pro 1250, did all the silicone setup, letting it cure for over 30 hours before starting the engine. Within minutes, the white smoke started to come out the left side again.

This time, I went ahead and took the heads off; sent the them and the intake to an engine machine shop where they pressure checked the heads, made sure nothing was warped, and cleaned it all up.

I replaced the head bolts with ARP studs, and after torquing to 80lbs, Per ARP, I reinstalled the intake using Edelbrock #7220 gaskets this time.

The engine started up perfectly! Well, the engine ran good, but I STILL have white/grey colored fog coming out of the left exhaust. I went ahead and ran the engine up to temp, but the fog was still noticable. I don't think it is oil because it dissapears the minute it comes out the exhaust.

Does anyone have any ideas of where to go from here? Help!!

[CHANMADD]

How big did you bore the block?? You may have a porous cylinder, which would suck!!

[Keithc8]

I saw this on another Ford racing engine and it surprised me that it had cracked a cylinder. This was one of the engines done with the Sportmam block also and I could not believe it had a crack. you might want to check that as well.

Good luck

[FOMOCONUT]

So, would the crack be from water being in the cylinder? Jerry

[PANAVIA]

I had this same problem on a pair of world products iron heads with pourus castings,

-- only consumed coolant (puffo-del smoko') -- when heat-soaked.

Steve

[Caprimaniac]

Only oprions left is, as stated, cracked/ leaking cylinder walls. Or it might be a warped deck- surface. Anyway it has to be water. Since heads & inlet are ruled out....

You might try to pressurize the colling system with compressed air and with the plugs removed, you might find what cylinder is involved and if you're lucky (specially if you have a micro- camera) find where the leak is?

RuneS

[blykins]

Another thing is if there was a lot of coolant dumped into the sidepipes, then it may take a bit to burn it all out. You may see traces of smoke for a bit until it's all cleaned out.

[RICK LAKE]

my427 Lets slow down for a couple of minutes. First off, it will take 3-4 days of driving to stop the smoke from coming out the side pipes.
Lets get back to BASICS, is the motor overheating??? Is the coolant level still falling?? Is the motor running on all cylinders? If your exhaust is like most side pipes there is a glass pack inside the muffler case. The inlet is smaller and the coolant could have filled the bottom of the pipe. If your pipes are easy to remove, remove the pipe and see if and fluid comes out. If not, drive the car for a couple of days going 20-30 miles. Watch the gauges and tell us IF any changes have happened to the motor. Coolant level, temp of the motor running. You could install a pressure tester and check the pressure with the car running on the highway. ( you will need some help with this ) Hig pressure means a leak internally of either head gasket or poris head. The smoke will go away after Some miles.
A side note we used to do to new techs in the shop, after they did some motor work, some one would pour a 1/2 of ATF down the intake. It didn't hurt the car but fog out the shop bad. It took 2-3 days for this to clear out.

I hope you changed the oil and filter of the motor after your repair. Good luck. If the problem continues, call Fla. bug control, They need foggers to kill off the bugs of spring. Sorry, that's an old one.

[my427]

Boy, I'd hate to think that I have a cracked block. The engine has about 7,000 miles on it and until now, has never been worked on. When the problem started, it had been running about 1 hour at cruising speed with normal water temp.

When I took it to the machine shop, they pressure checked the heads and also checked the intake manifold for warpage. Nothing found.

Since it seems to be isolated to the #5 cylinder, would a cylinder compression check show anything of value regarding water?

The oil just shows a little water in the pan, but is still somewhat clear. Wouldn't a cracked block have more water going into the block, mixing more in the oil, and not out the exhaust? The head gaskets looked good when I pulled them.

Do I need to look at the intake manifold? The machine shop tested for warpage already. Has anyone had one go bad?

Since I put everything back together, it idles and runs better than ever!

[BlueRooster]

I had the exact thing happen. White smoke, driver side. Scared the crap out of me. I thought it was the head gasket...turned out to be the intake manifold gasket..whew! R&R & all was back to normal.

If water was getting into #5 it would not idle better than ever. Or run better than ever. You would feel it every time water breached the cylinder. So I would also run it at temp for that 20/30 miles to burn any residual out and see where it takes you.

[Clois Harlan]

Ditto, on the running it awhile to get the moisture out of the side pipes. Took mine a couple of days of driving to clear all the moisture. It sounds as though you have done all the right things.

Clois

[NZCOBRA]

The 1250 gaskets are prone to suck in and crack even if glued , you can get steel reinforced ones now .

[CobraEd]

Originally Posted by Clois Harlan

Ditto, on the running it awhile to get the moisture out of the side pipes. Took mine a couple of days of driving to clear all the moisture. It sounds as though you have done all the right things.

Clois

This is an excellent point. You may have already fixed the problem.

Check the plugs on that side. if they all look the same and one is not clean from steam blasting, then the problem is probably fixed.


.

[Caprimaniac]

Yup. And. Whenever there's a cylinder wall crack or two, the water will end up in the oil, and you'll have the porridge- like grey mass in your oilpan instead of what was intended to be the content in the first place.

I loved this one, Steve....puffo-del smoko'. Makes me think of two comic creatures that are designated Beavis & Butthead.
(puffo-del smoko')(puffo-del smoko')(puffo-del smoko')Yoko-hoko. Ehh.

[my427]

Well, I've put over 500 miles on it already and no more smoke.

You guys were right about just letting all of the antifreeze burn out of the exhaust! Surprising what a bad intake gasket will do.

I'll always be sure to check the intake bolts before a long trip.

Thanks,

[kitcarbp]

That great news to hear you fixed it. To prevent this from happening again, make sure you are using large headed flange bolts or nice thick washers appropriate for AL intakes to help with the torque retention on the bolts. rechecking them periodically is the way to go.

[Tom Wells]

Bruce,

Just to reinforce the intake gasket thing, here's a reference to that very common Fel-Pro problem:

Intake Gasket Trouble

So if you have the non-reinforced Fel Pro intake gaskets, you can expect to have the problem again. Retightening the intake manifold will probably only hasten the recurrence.

If you have the Reinz or the new reinforced Fel Pro gaskets, there should be no need to retighten.

I hope you have the right stuff installed, and no more problems!

Tom