Blowing white smoke

Tiny
POCAHONTAS
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  • 1991 HOLDEN BARINA
  • 4 CYL
  • FWD
  • MANUAL
Hi im having major problems with my car. I drive a holden barina hath 1991 year 4cyl carby and its manual. My car blows white smoke here and there even on hot days. Also when im driving on the freeway and I put it into 5th gear it struggles alot. Im not sure if my gasket is cracked or something or its just something inside the engine that needs to be cleaned. Im paranoid about this problem because my car has already done 290,000ks and I get told alot it means my engine is going to die and I need to rebuild it any ideas
Friday, November 26th, 2010 AT 5:34 AM

10 Replies

Tiny
MHPAUTOS
  • MECHANIC
  • 31,937 POSTS
White smoke is normally coolant being burnt, are you using any coolant? You can get a head check done, this is a simple and quick chemical test to check for exhaust gasses in the cooling system, if so you will have a head problem.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Friday, November 26th, 2010 AT 5:44 AM
Tiny
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Thank you for your answer. I did take it to the mechanic and he said that I need a whole engine rebuild. But he said if I like I could open the head of the engine and change the rings that might make a diffrence but he thinks it could cost me between 500 to 1000 dollars so do u think this is worth doing?.I am yes using coolent and I have noticed that its on very low so I assume that would need to be full?
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Friday, November 26th, 2010 AT 8:15 AM
Tiny
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You may only need to do a head gasket and have the head pressure & crack tested, get a comp test done first if the comps are ok there is no reason to do the rings.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Friday, November 26th, 2010 AT 8:21 AM
Tiny
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Ohhhhhh thank you very much. I also need to ask you somethhing els im not sure if this is normal but sometimes when I stick my car into reverse I hear big crunch of like my gears grinding, it dosnt happen all the time but happens sometimes is this also bad?
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Friday, November 26th, 2010 AT 8:25 AM
Tiny
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This will be a clutch adjustment problem, if your car has a hydraulic clutch, and I thing it does the clutch may be due for replacement, as there is no adjustment, cable clutches can be adjusted, also if the idle is set to high this can cause it to clash into reverse.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Friday, November 26th, 2010 AT 8:34 AM
Tiny
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Yes my car does idle very high at times and I notice thats when I get the crunch I keep thinking that maby my whole gear box is stuffed and I needed that replaced but thank you very much
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Friday, November 26th, 2010 AT 8:36 AM
Tiny
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Also to mention I have just baught myself stop smoke oil and throttle body & carby cleaner if I use these 2 things would this help with the white smoke issue?
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Friday, November 26th, 2010 AT 8:40 AM
Tiny
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No it will not, you will have to get the head of and inspected for a blown gasket or cracked head.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Friday, November 26th, 2010 AT 8:46 AM
Tiny
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Hi again. Today when I drove my car once I parked it my engine started to sizzle. I looked under the hood and there was a leak comming from my engine bay. I also checked underneath my car and there was coolent dripping like puddles of coolent and it was very very bad that it would stop dripping. Why did this happen? Is there a crack or leak somewhere?
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Monday, December 6th, 2010 AT 5:31 AM
Tiny
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You may have blown a coolant hose, you will do serious damage if you drive it, time to get it towed in and sorted out.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Monday, December 6th, 2010 AT 12:39 PM

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