My friend's Camry blew a head gasket, and the poor sap couldn't afford to pay someone to fix it, so I ended up doing it.
Before head gasket replacement; the car was missing and barely running, there was clearly evident water in the oil, green water out the tail pipe, and you could smell the distinct odor of antifreeze in the white smoke coming from the tail pipe.
So, I bought head gasket set and bolts and replaced them all. Everything seemed to go fine, it fired right up. Doesn't miss or run poorly, seems to have all the pep in the world, but it's blowing a white smoke now that it didn't do before. This smoke doesn't seem to be antifreeze. This smoke has a very harsh, irritating, chemical-like odor to it.. almost like you would associate with burning rubber or plastic. It doesn't smell like antifreeze or oil. This is very caustic. I expected it to smoke a bit upon first starting, but we've ran it a good 15 miles now and it's still smoking like that. It's not nearly as bad as when we first started it, but it's still not right.
Any ideas? Think it will clear up on its own? Or did I screw something up?
Before head gasket replacement; the car was missing and barely running, there was clearly evident water in the oil, green water out the tail pipe, and you could smell the distinct odor of antifreeze in the white smoke coming from the tail pipe.
So, I bought head gasket set and bolts and replaced them all. Everything seemed to go fine, it fired right up. Doesn't miss or run poorly, seems to have all the pep in the world, but it's blowing a white smoke now that it didn't do before. This smoke doesn't seem to be antifreeze. This smoke has a very harsh, irritating, chemical-like odor to it.. almost like you would associate with burning rubber or plastic. It doesn't smell like antifreeze or oil. This is very caustic. I expected it to smoke a bit upon first starting, but we've ran it a good 15 miles now and it's still smoking like that. It's not nearly as bad as when we first started it, but it's still not right.
Any ideas? Think it will clear up on its own? Or did I screw something up?
Nov 30, 2009 at 3:42 AM