S13 SR20DET Idling problem and white smoke! Please help!
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airlu
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:02 pm
- Car: '90 240sx S13 SR20DET hatchback w/ S15 Silvia front conversion
S13 SR20DET Idling problem and white smoke! Please help!
This just happened today. When I started up my car this morning, there was some white smoke coming from my exhaust and after a while, the idle dropped down to about 500-600 rpm, which feel like the car was about to die. When I drove it, the car is not boosting as strong as it should at 7psi. When I come to a stop, the idle drop down to about 500 rpm and I just have to give it a bit of gas just to avoid it dying on my in the middle of the road. Any suggestion to what to look for or what to check? Anyone else experience similar problem before? Please help.
Re: S13 SR20DET Idling problem and white smoke! Please help! (airlu)
two words: boost leak
check over all your couplings and make sure they are all tight and nothing has come loose.
check over all your couplings and make sure they are all tight and nothing has come loose.
Re: S13 SR20DET Idling problem and white smoke! Please help! (240dk)
if you start your car and you get a puff of white smoke, that's probably just your valve stem seals starting to go bad. Oil pools around them in the head and when you first start it it gets sucked in and burned off.
If it's smoking while you're driving, then it's either burning an excessive amount of oil or its burning antifreeze, and if it's burning antifreeze then you've got a problem with your head gasket, which could also be the source of why it's not running properly.
But hopefully you just have a leak in your chargepipes somewhere and the smoke is coincidence.
If it's smoking while you're driving, then it's either burning an excessive amount of oil or its burning antifreeze, and if it's burning antifreeze then you've got a problem with your head gasket, which could also be the source of why it's not running properly.
But hopefully you just have a leak in your chargepipes somewhere and the smoke is coincidence.
Re: S13 SR20DET Idling problem and white smoke! Please help! (Neil)
he lives in NJ so starting his car in the morning could have just been thick vapor. Chances are he did not get a blown head gasket from startup...
OP. was the smoke a thick white smoke and did it smoke while you were driving it. Also, with boost leaks you will notice sputtering as your turbo starts to spool
OP. was the smoke a thick white smoke and did it smoke while you were driving it. Also, with boost leaks you will notice sputtering as your turbo starts to spool
Re: S13 SR20DET Idling problem and white smoke! Please help! (nzmoman)
What does being in new jersey have to do with anything?
If you're suggesting because of its northern geographic location that the temperatures in the summer time are cold enough to promote tailpipe steam in the mornings, then that's kind of silly. I live in CT, and last I checked that was even farther north than New Jersey.. and my car's tailpipe doesn't emit steam in the mornings until well into October.
and no, obviously merely starting the car won't blow a head gasket. They go bad over time. Being a "worst scenario" kind of guy, I'm suggesting that it isn't unreasonable to think that one of his last trips out that a bit of head gasket may have finally deteriorated enough and that while parked the pressurized cooling system forced a bit of antifreeze into one of the cylinders, which is causing the smoke and is now lending itself as a path for combustion gasses to go which may drop psi on one cylinder to cause the rough drivability.
but like i said, I'm not specifically an optimist.
Modified by Neil at 12:51 AM 8/14/2008
If you're suggesting because of its northern geographic location that the temperatures in the summer time are cold enough to promote tailpipe steam in the mornings, then that's kind of silly. I live in CT, and last I checked that was even farther north than New Jersey.. and my car's tailpipe doesn't emit steam in the mornings until well into October.
and no, obviously merely starting the car won't blow a head gasket. They go bad over time. Being a "worst scenario" kind of guy, I'm suggesting that it isn't unreasonable to think that one of his last trips out that a bit of head gasket may have finally deteriorated enough and that while parked the pressurized cooling system forced a bit of antifreeze into one of the cylinders, which is causing the smoke and is now lending itself as a path for combustion gasses to go which may drop psi on one cylinder to cause the rough drivability.
but like i said, I'm not specifically an optimist.
Modified by Neil at 12:51 AM 8/14/2008
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airlu
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:02 pm
- Car: '90 240sx S13 SR20DET hatchback w/ S15 Silvia front conversion
Re: S13 SR20DET Idling problem and white smoke! Please help! (airlu)
Thank you for all your feedbacks!When I started up this morning, no white smoke, but it just doesn't idle as good as before. The odd thing is that it's not boosting as well as before. I checked all the couplings and vaccum hoses, but everything looks fine. I don't think its the turbo since I upgrade it last year and probably only put about at most 5,000 miles on it. I changed the spark plugs today and sprayed carb cleaner in IACV. Do you think I can use Seafoam or any of the engine cleaning chemicals to clean my motor? I don't want to damage the turbo seals? Any suggestion?
Re: S13 SR20DET Idling problem and white smoke! Please help! (airlu)
do a compression check..
Autozone or Pepboys or someplace may be able to rent you the gauge and adapter. Let the motor warm up, then pull out all the plugs and check each cyl one by one. I'm not positive what the #'s are supposed to be but rule of thumb is all 4 cylinders shouldn't have more than like 15% variation between them.
so say for example if compression is supposed to be 145psi, if you get like 134, 130, 107, 138, then obviously cylinder 3 would be having troubles. also the color of the spark plugs themselves can tell you a bit about what's going on.
Autozone or Pepboys or someplace may be able to rent you the gauge and adapter. Let the motor warm up, then pull out all the plugs and check each cyl one by one. I'm not positive what the #'s are supposed to be but rule of thumb is all 4 cylinders shouldn't have more than like 15% variation between them.
so say for example if compression is supposed to be 145psi, if you get like 134, 130, 107, 138, then obviously cylinder 3 would be having troubles. also the color of the spark plugs themselves can tell you a bit about what's going on.