Car pouring white smoke

[Elminsster]

Hello everyone,

So I have a 1990 300zx TT. My ECU got fried the other day and my brother had a jwt ecu lying around so I ordered an eprom from Z1 with my specs. Put the ecu in today and drove it for maybe 10 miles. The car started to pour white smoke out of the exhaust, heavier when hitting the gas. Smells like fuel. Any ideas? could it be running really rich?

[twinturbozxtacy]

fuel is black
oil is blue
and coolant is... white smoke.


are you sure its white smoke?

[Elminsster]

That's what I thought for the colors. Yes its white. But it smells like pure fuel though for some reason. At first I thought maybe it was running rich but didn't think that would produce white smoke...thanks for the reply btw

[twinturbozxtacy]

possible head gasket went when ecu fried? did it run lean for a while or overheat?

[Elminsster]

Well when the ecu went, the car just died. Then put the new ecu in and it started up. I don't know how it could've ran lean, when it was running before the ecu fried it ran just fine on 9psi. No it did over heat but I only drove it for a short time really.

[ThisIsSparTTa]

Did you have the car jacked up at the front for a while? Mine will put out a little white smoke, even now that I've done a rebuild with new head gaskets,etc if its been jacked up for a few days. This won't last long though, and I wouldn't consider it pouring.

[t.mcginley.jr]

Rent a leak down tester, it will tell you exactly whats going on. All you need is an air compressor. Most auto parts stores rent the tester.

10% or less leakage in a cylinder is healthy. Above 10% is not healthy, but still OK. Above 15-20% and something (headgasket/piston rings) is shot.

[t.mcginley.jr]

Oh, the other possibility is that your turbo seals are blown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... mf0XziRQHU

[Elminsster]

My turbos up until this point smoked a little bit of blue, but never white. Is that possible for it to just switch to white like that?

[Ace2cool]

Have you swapped from dino oil to synthetic? Cause synthetic burns white more than blue.

[Ace2cool]

At this point, it depends on what it smells like. If it's coolant, it will smell sweet. If it's oil, well, you probably know what burnt oil smells like.

[Elminsster]

It smells like fuel for some reason

[t.mcginley.jr]

It's possible the fuel smell is just overpowering the smell of coolant burning off. You could be burning coolant AND running rich

[nissanfreak12]

You sure Z1 gave you the right tune or chip? Did you install it correctly, assuming you installed the chip in the ECU?

[Elminsster]

I'm pretty sure they gave me the right chip. Yes installed it and its in right.

[twinturbozxtacy]

not the turbo seals as the coolant going to them is a closed loop there are no seals or anything for coolant to leak from minus the two coolant hoses... unless it is oil then then bad seals are a very real possibility.

do you have the cats and everything still? i know my car always smells like fuel, no smoke, but i have no cats and a straight through exhaust system.

are you loosing coolant?
are you loosing oil?

[Elminsster]

No cats at all. Aftermarket downpipes and test pipes. Losing some oil but I already knew my turbo seals aren't in the best shape. Haven't noticed any loss in coolant.

[Anthony.G.]

I just had the same problem, my Z started dumping white smoke it was caused from an injector dumping so much fuel that it couldn't burn it all and the gas got down into the block and ate my head gasket... now its dumping white smoke with a "gassy" smell... hope yours did do the same.

[Elminsster]

Took it to a mechanic. Turns out it was missing and for some reason that caused it to smoke white

[Anthony.G.]

what was missing?

[Elminsster]

Cylinder 2 apparently