Re: White Smoke

Posted by Adam On 2008/11/4 9:22:27

The picture shows a block with serious corrosion in the water jacket. It may have been run for a number of years with no antifreeze (and therefore no corrosion inhibitor). Whilst that looks eminently repairable, other areas of the water jacket may be thin as well.

In this case, the white smoke would have come from water leaking into the hot exhaust port and evaporating. But the original question was about white smoke on the overun only. This could be a leaking headgasket, or even a cracked head.

Compression pressure is higher than water jacket pressure so any leak is usually into the water jacket (unless the gasket has blown away completely). Therefore the radiator header tank is the place to check for compression gases or oily residue. The ideal test is a cylinder leakage test, which tests the stationary engine by charging the cylinder with compressed air, but you may not have the kit for this.

My advice would be to run the car locally and keep an eye on it. If it clears up then fine, if it is a head gasket, it will get worse, so the problem and water consumption will get worse. At this stage, act quickly to avoid damage to pistons and bores from water ingress.

Hope this helps
Adam..