Help!
My 88 rx7 has been acting fine, but suddenly out of the blue it starts barreling out white smoke from the exhaust, and the it sputters. We checked the fluid levels and they're fine. I've got no other car to drive. What should i do? Any help we be appreciated

 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds like you've lost a coolant seal. That means rebuild time.
Is the car especially hard to start first thing in the morning? Also, take radiator cap off (when car is cold!), then crank. If coolant spews out, that's a sure sign.

 

Ok,
something i was hoping not to hear, but if the coolant seal is broken would there be a leak? Because this motor was just rebuilt and only has 41,000 miles on it.

 

I hope i'm not adding to misinformation on the internet. But, I gather if your coolant seal done, the leak would be in the engine itself, thus creating a cloud of white smoke in your exhuast. Check your coolant level and do the thing mwpayne said.

 

Alright, I'll give it a try and get back to u. Thanks

 

What causes a coolant seal to break?

 

From my understanding (and I'm no expert by any stretch, but I have learned lots in the last couple of years) the coolant seals usually just deteriorate with age and stresses of engine temperatures. 40K plus miles is really early for that to happen..in fact, I'd say apex seal failures are far more common than coolant seals.
In case you're new, Kevin landers (www.rotaryresurrection.com) is a real pro engine rebuilder on the forum. He can answer any questions you have, don't hesitate to email him. He may have a theory on why yours failed prematurely.
Question: Did you at any time overheat the engine..even for a short time? That's the #1 killer of coolant seals.

 

I've only had the car for a few months, and so far overheating hasn't been a problem. The owner before me might have tho. I have redlined it before. Could that be a problem?

 

Um.. since when does coolant burn blue?

Oil burns blueish white.

Coolant has a noticeable sweet smell and is greyish.

I'd bet on either a malfunctioning OMP (if you're lucky, easy fix: go premix, unless you're s5 and your omp fried-- ecu needs to knwo the omp is there, hence studdering.)

Or an oil seal.

Thats just me though.

And I redline OFTEN, so I don't think that will do much, but it will cause extra stress on the seals. Still.. before you do something like rebuild your engine, completely check your OMP to see that its not just pouring oil into the intake.

On a side note: My old auto tranny before teh 5spd swap woudl overheat because of the slipping bands. It would overheat the tranny oil, until it began to pressureize the tranny and coolant lines, eventually leaking out of the tranny pan, blown onto the exhaust... now that is barelling smoke, I've never seen anything quite like tranny smoke coming off the back of the car on the interstate..

 

title edited to actually have the problem in it.

 

Lots of us are color blind.

Anything white can be either oil or coolant.

SMELL IT.

If it's oil, it's going to burn your eyes and nose.
If it's coolant, it'll smell sweet and smell like coolant.

WHICH IS IT?

Figure this out first then report back to us.

In case you're wondering, BOTH are bad and require a rebuild.



-Ted

 

could still just be a stuck omp :P

 

No it can't.
Even at the maximum setting on OMP, it cannot inject enough oil to trigger "clouds" of smoke out the exhaust.
We've done that with track cars with (mechanical) OMP, and we wire-tied the lever to the highest setting.


-Ted

 

Either way, 40K is probably about what you're gonna get out of a rebuild if old housings were used anyway. Anyone get more than 50K out of a "used housings" rebuild?

 

damn... well, it could still be stuck :P

 

I'm told Landers rebuilds get as much as 100K. I can't speak from experience, I've only got about 3K on mine.

 

i have 80k on mine and im still going strong knock on my wood.lol

 

the strange thing is, it neither burned my eyes or smelled sweet. Actually i've never smelled anything like it. You could only withstand the smell for a few seconds b4 u gasped for breath, but it might just be becuz i have asthma. My guess is its an oil seal. After high revs i smell the oil leak. After long runs i smell the tranny leak. Then this. Kinda confused. For the past few days there haven't been any signs of it acting up again, and i was racing it yesterday. hmm.
Thanks for the help tho

 

If it doesn't burn, it cannot be oil or gasoline.
It's most likely coolant.


-Ted