An interesting factoid... Check last post.

[bwanac]

Hey guys,

This Sat I replaced my timing belt and waterpump. Not a bad job, considering we had our first warm day since october! Belt went on OK as did pump. Got everything back together, and filled the car with coolant. Cringed a little when starting it up, but it started right up. Timing seemed to be good, and everything sounded fine(except the valves which I need to adjust!).

However, if I let the car run for say 3 minutes, white smoke/steam starts to appear. It is coming from the exhaust header it seems, right where it meets up with the top of the cat. At first I thought it was just some coolant boiling off, which had spilled there. However, iit happens everytime I let the car run for a while. No worries I have not been driving my car since Sat.

The smoke/steam smells pretty sweet so I assume it is coolant. However, I do not know where it seems to be coming from. The only thing I can think of is that the coolant plug in the block is not entirely leak proof and somehow some coolant is being sprayed onto the exhaust.

Anyone have ideas? Don't tell me it is something more serious, like a head gasket. That would suck! But a good excuse to kinda rebuild my engine!

[bwanac]

Ok, I have been thinking that the smoke is coming from where the exhaust headers meet the cat, but it is not. It seems to be coming from lower down on the cat. The other thing I noticed when I traced the smoke, there is water drip-drip-dripping from the exhaust! Sounds like headgasket, but how can I be sure? The coolant is perfectly fresh and clean, and so is the oil! What is going on?

[AndrewBird]

Is it possibly that you just spilled some oil/coolant on your exhaust pipes and it is burning off?

Andrew

[bwanac]

Nope happens everytime I run the engine. I have washed the pipes off of everything with water, and it still will do it. The more it happens the more I think it probably is the headgasket.

Any sure fire ways to check it? Thanks

[MR 325]

Check your dipstick..... If the oil has a milky consistancy, well, you need a headgasket.

[bwanac]

Oil, and coolant are both clean.

Any other methods to check? Maybe I should just drive down to my mechanic. Is it ok to drive about 10 miles with a bad headgasket?

[bwanac]

Wa-La! The answer has been found. From someone on Roadfly! :D

So when I drained the coolant from the engine block it shot out all over the place. The thing is, the coolant sprayed into the insulation on the cat. converter. The converter is covered with this insulation and when the coolant got in there it acted like a sponge soaking up as much as it could. Now when ever the exhaust got hot enough the coolant would boil off, of course this only happens when the coolant reaches it boiling point. So to burn it all off, I had to run my ETA at about 3k-3.5k for every five minutes or so.

Now, no more smoke. Also fixed my brakes, and now I can drive again with a new TB! :D