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tons of white smoke

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Old 12-03-2005, 01:08 PM
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i had my car sitting for about 4 days. when i go to start it today so much white smoke comes out of the exhaust it almost fills my entire street. car starts pretty normal, idles pretty normal. when i took it out driving after that it ran fine, and the smoke clears up soon as the car heated up. any ideas why so much white smoke? my only guess is an internal coolant leak. any clues on what i could check out to find the source of this problem? has anyone had this problem before and figured out how to fix it? how much was the fix?
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Old 12-03-2005, 01:15 PM
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anytime my car sits longer than a few days and i start it up it smokes like the dickens and goes away once its warmed up.. course i got a second gen tho...
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Old 12-03-2005, 01:21 PM
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coolant seals could be a issue here, basically the seals could be leaking, allowing antifreeze to leak into the combustion chamber, causing smoke at startup until warm. Once the car warms up, the seals expand due to the heat and the smoking stops.



Fix = new motor though
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Old 12-03-2005, 03:11 PM
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coolent seals, might be a O-ring break......meaning eventual engine falure. I'd think about getting a compression test if you havent done so allready, but you are going to have to let it sit overnight to see if there is a drop in compression. If the smoke smells sweet, its coolent and you need to think about getting a new/rebuilt engine.



What might be happening here is, when the engine is turned off the engine is no linger pressurised while the coolent system is - The high pressure coolant is forced into the low pressure combustion chamber through the break in the O-ring.....and presto white smoke at startup.



NOTE: if you live in a cold wet climate such as I do, white smoke will happen on most every startup it is the moisture in the exhaust, but should NOT smell sweet.



I dont mean to scare you but an O-ring break can kill an engine quick, Its not something you want to brush off.
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Old 12-03-2005, 06:07 PM
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crap thats what i was hoping not to hear. well i guess its time to rebuild the engine... anybody know of a good place? roughly how much are we talkin? i live in cali. near los angeles. i was going to rebuild the engine but i wasnt planning on it being 2 weeks after i bought it, haha. oh well i guess those kind of things come with the car.





rx-7s are like women. theyre beautiful on the outside, bitches on the inside. and the only way to make them happy, is to give them all your money. at least they cant talk
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Old 12-03-2005, 09:24 PM
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Definately sounds like a coolant leak. Does it smell sweet?
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Old 12-04-2005, 01:28 AM
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Coolant seals.



$3 bottle of dye in the coolant and a blacklight at the exhast tip and youll know for sure. Any shop can do it for ya.
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Old 12-04-2005, 10:39 AM
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Hold on. Before you go and diognose your car from someones internet post do yourself a favor and find out for yourself. If you suspect that your coolant seals are broken you need to pressure test the coolant system.



It could be a number of things that cause it to smoke when you start it up.
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Old 12-04-2005, 10:51 AM
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EXACTLY! also, alot more info about the car would be helpful to us. I'd had the same situation that you described numerous times... been cracked turbo housings each time.
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Old 12-04-2005, 11:29 AM
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exucise my arrgoance, but how do you pressure test the coolant system?
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