1995 240sx : oil & coolant loss

[Justin_K]

I searched and couldn't find anything like I'm experiencing. I've got a '95 240sx with about 146,000 miles. It has lately started smoking, I can't tell what color it is. One day I was getting ready to make a quick trip to town. I checked the fluids and everything was fine. Ran to town and back home with no problems. Next day I start the car and let it idle for a little bit and I looked over at it and it was smoking heavier than usual. I ran over to the car look inside and the temp. gauge is higher than usual and when I pop the hood I can hear the water in the radiator bubbling out and into the reservoir. I immediately shut it down, later that night once it cooled down I checked the coolant and oil and both were very low. Looking in the radiator you could see no liquid, it took about a half gallon to bring it back to the top. The oil was out of the grid by about half an inch, it took 1 quart to bring it into the middle of the grid. I started it today and let it idle for a while and it wasn't hardly smoking and didn't overheat at all. I checked the oil and it's normal. Anyways, I'm wanting to know what you guys think the problem is. I'm just wondering if this could be a warning sign that the motor is about to die. Also, I did do a compression test and every cylinder was between 175-180. Thanks for any help.

[NotDave]

sounds like coolant is exiting through your exhaust.

i don't know if compression can detect a failed head gasket or cracked head or leaky valves. its bound to be one of them.

[Justin_K]

sounds like coolant is exiting through your exhaust.

i don't know if compression can detect a failed head gasket or cracked head or leaky valves. its bound to be one of them.

I don't know much when it come to the internals but would a failed head gasket explain the oil loss also? I checked the coolant today and it's staying normal as far as I can tell. I've been idling it until it reaches operating temp. to test it and so far it hasn't started the heavy smoking again. Do you think that the heavy smoking could have been caused by the overheating? It just seems weird to me that it would happen one time and then quit. Thanks for the help, I just don't know where to start when it comes to this.

[180fan]

I think you had moisture in the exhaust and it was burning off that water. If the color of smoke was white, and happens when the engine is cold, don't worry about it. Water will result in a gasoline combustion reaction and white smoke is a sign of alot of excess water somewhere, but if the engine was cold, don't worry about it.

[Justin_K]

It didn't start heavily smoking until after it was warmed up. Also, why would my coolant and oil drop so much in that short period of time? I wish you were right, but I've never seen any car smoke that heavily from cold weather. Any other ideas?

[niemczykj]

my car has a blown head gasket and it smokes bad once it warms up also...but after running for a while i can put a bucket under the exhaust pipe and black coolant is just pouring out...i havent let it run long enough to warm up to operating temp, but my oil pressure lights and stuff are off and i dont think im loosing oil...but i ordered all new gaskets and they should be in next week ill let you kno what happens once i replace them

my car has 147k on it