Smoking!

[1BigBadWedger]

I'm looking for any ideas why my 450SE might be chucking smoke out when I accelerate hard. When I floor the throttle in 2nd or 3rd and once the revs get up a large amount of white smoke starts billowing out the back creating a smoke screen for other cars! I'm puzzled because if I do the same thing of accelerating hard shortly afterwards hardly anything comes out? I've tried 2 doses of engine flush but it still smokes.

Any thoughts would be great........

Cheers
Nick

[Danny Hoffman]

Simple causes could be too much oil or a blocked flame trap/breather pipe.

Altermatively you might be overfueling the car.

More serious could be worn rings etc

[pasogrande]

Nick, I always thought white smoke meant steam and black meant oil/petrol. Sounds like a head gasket to me.

Wilf.

[NTEL]

Symptoms of a blown head gasket......are you experiencing any cooling issues and is your coolant pressurised?

[1BigBadWedger]

Thanks. I should probably say it's more of a grey smoke than white actually. I think it must be oil smoke as you can smell burnt oil when it happens. Also, I'm sure it's not the head gasket as the temperature is fine and the engine runs well. I'll have a look into the blocked breather pipe idea.

Cheers

[ElvisWedgely]

What oil are you using? Yes, I know its's engine oil, but what grade? In my opinion the new oils they make these days are more for modern cars and are too thin. Hence, under hard acceleration passes the piston rings and burns. Use a good quality 20w/50 oil and perhaps a can of 500ml can of STP oil treatment as well. Hopefully, your smoke problems will be over. Don't forget to clean out flame trap and pipe.

Tony. TCB.

[Mr WST]

Ive had the same problem for over a year. Car runs fine, floor it and out with the smoke. Its normally third gear for me!
Im at the opinion now, dont fix what isn't broken....

Like Tony said it could be the oil!

Thack

[honestjohntoo]

1BigBadWedger said:

I should probably say it's more of a grey smoke than white actually. I think it must be oil smoke as you can smell burnt oil when it happens. Also, I'm sure it's not the head gasket as the temperature is fine and the engine runs well.

Not white but grey.

• Grey smoke has similar sources to the initial but transient occurrence of blue smoke, but producing a continuous emission from a hot engine together with an obvious foul smell of burning oil indicates more serious problems such as badly worn piston rings, worn pistons or bores along with continuous consumption of oil requiring frequent top-up.

• Normal compression tests would probably confirm the source of such problems along with clearly visible carbon deposits on the spark plugs such as a formation of whiskers at the electrodes which then leads to constant misfiring due to variable spark intensity.

• Different shades may indicate the above issues combining with simultaneous coolant leaks into the cylinders (lighter) or a simultaneously perverse fuel mixture problem (darker).

Not "50 Shades of Grey", But a choice of 3. Light grey, Grey and Dark grey! Take your pick?

To narrow things down, check compression on all cylinders and likewise the condition of spark plugs.

Spark plug condition should be checked under two circumstances. A period of normal cruising, plus, a period of heavy acceleration. One plug from each bank should be sufficient for further diagnosis.

Much more about the colour of exhaust smoke in my article from here:

http://www.vintagemodelairplane.com/pages/Snippets...

Including Red!

Edited by honestjohntoo on Monday 15th April 00:08