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Old Sep 8, 2016 | 10:09 PM
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Default White smoke

Alright headed to my local shop saturday but wanted everyones theories first. After a cam install it seems to push quite a bit of white smoke when floored. Coolant and oil are both clean. The oil is slowly dissappearing but it looks like I have a bad valve cover gasket because its oozing onto the driver header mount. Any thoughts as to the white smoke?
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Old Sep 8, 2016 | 10:27 PM
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White smoke almost always mean you are burning water. Not a good sign. Need to find out where. Looks like you are on the right track with looking at the head gasket. Good luck
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Old Sep 8, 2016 | 10:34 PM
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But if it was a head gasket wouldn't the coolant be contaminated from the oil?
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Old Sep 8, 2016 | 10:50 PM
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Originally Posted by Tyler Collette
But if it was a head gasket wouldn't the coolant be contaminated from the oil?
The water jackets very seldom coincide with oil galleys, or go into the lifter valley the white smoke is combustion burning the anti freeze.
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Old Sep 8, 2016 | 11:42 PM
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do a leakdown test, if there's a problem you will find it that way... was the car tuned after the cam install and do you know what the afr was?... just curious if the smoke could be excess fuel due to a rich tune or just being rich because it hasn't been tuned
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Old Sep 9, 2016 | 07:29 PM
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Originally Posted by 8VETTE7


Have seen a couple of threads here on the Forum where "white" smoke turned out to be a very rich mixture. I'm used to a rich mixture being BLACK but apparently it CAN be white.......
Never seen anything but black smoke with a rich mixture. Anyway, put nose to exhaust and sniff - you will quickly smell it if it is gas.

Alternately just use a cigarette lighter, LOL.
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Old Sep 9, 2016 | 08:08 PM
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my afr dips into the 10's under full tilt and it sometimes puffs a little smoke depending how high it's revved... I never noticed it in the car but I saw it when I had the car dynoed and just at the end of the run is when I noticed it... it was a white/gray looking smoke, not a lot but I did see it... the car has to be under load for the op to notice it so I don't think he would be able to sniff it or try to ignite it
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Old Sep 11, 2016 | 09:57 AM
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Originally Posted by neutron82
my afr dips into the 10's under full tilt and it sometimes puffs a little smoke depending how high it's revved... I never noticed it in the car but I saw it when I had the car dynoed and just at the end of the run is when I noticed it... it was a white/gray looking smoke, not a lot but I did see it... the car has to be under load for the op to notice it so I don't think he would be able to sniff it or try to ignite it
That is way to rich you need to get a new tuner 10s is enough to wash your rings and burn your engine. Stop driving your car immediately until fixed.
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Old Sep 11, 2016 | 10:03 AM
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it's done that way to be safe, if my meth pump stops working for whatever reason the motor will probably still be fine... my setup is quite a bit different than most of the people in this section though... just to clarify this is at full boost in the upper rpm band and not all the time, at idle and cruising it's in the 14's

Last edited by StingrayRebel; Sep 11, 2016 at 10:07 AM.
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Old Sep 11, 2016 | 10:30 AM
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10s at any time in the rpm range is to rich and will wash the oil off the cup walls and rings causing excessive friction and will cause low compression at first and with continued use it will cause contamination of your oil system and much more damage. Your tuner is going to destroy your engine for the sake of being safe.
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Old Sep 11, 2016 | 09:26 PM
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my tuner is very knowledgeable and one of the best around, I'm fully confident in his capabilities and if there was anything in question it would have been addressed... my target afr on pump gas is 11.4 and meth starts spraying at 5psi so that's what causes it to go richer... you also have to keep in mind that methanol has a different stoich than 93 pump gas so that is another part of the equation... I was just trying to help the op out who has not responded yet and not trying to derail his thread
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Old Sep 12, 2016 | 02:26 AM
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Originally Posted by neutron82
my tuner is very knowledgeable and one of the best around, I'm fully confident in his capabilities and if there was anything in question it would have been addressed... my target afr on pump gas is 11.4 and meth starts spraying at 5psi so that's what causes it to go richer... you also have to keep in mind that methanol has a different stoich than 93 pump gas so that is another part of the equation... I was just trying to help the op out who has not responded yet and not trying to derail his thread
10.5 -11.0 is about where u want to be on a meth dependant tune.....lots of truth in hurting motor if your in the 9's
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