n00b question about white smoke from the exhaust...

my car has been smoking alot lately.. it mainly started after i did a little "backyard" tune-up (changed plugs, wires, changed oil, etc..).. i havent had the car long and i'm thinking that i overserviced the oil (the level is a little over the "fill" line on the dipstick)...

i'm just trying to confirm whether or not an engine with slightly overserviced oil will smoke pretty badly.. its white smoke btw...

i'll probably just drain some oil out of the engine, but i was just curious to know if there are any other things that will usually cause an engine to smoke like that.. and also, if i was to just let the oil "burn off" instead of draining it, would it cause any lasting damage to the engine or performance... (like damage to the piston rings or something..)....

thanks in advance for any responces...

i have a '92 Dogde Stealth R/T Twin Turbo btw...

If you only overfilled it a little, it should be fine. Usually overfilling the oil will cause it to run a little hotter than normal, but if you are only 1/2qt over full, it shouldn't cause anything catastrophic to happen, any more than that, you should drain a little out.

White smoke can be caused by a few things. Valve guide seals, valve seating, piston rings. Usually the smoke will go away once the car has been ran. With the valves after you shut off the motor some oil from the valvetrain will leak onto the piston as it sits, once the car is started it burns the oil off. If the rings or cylider wall are worn, oil will come up from the crankcase and cause some smoke. This normally happens under a load.
I am not real familiar with turbos, but I believe that if the turbo oil seal start going bad will cause smoke as well. I am just speculating about that though.
White smoke can also be caused by a blown headgasket. Check your oil for foaming (it will be white and foamy on your dipstick).

yo, thx for the responce..

i was hoping that maybe it was the slight overservicing of the oil but i still felt i could be something more.. i'll be putting it in the shop in a week or so for a full inspection anyway.. they should be able to tell me more hopefully...

that smoke was just bugging me tho...

Maybe a problem with the PCV as well.

Hopefully you trust the shop you are taking it too. I also hope they have some experience with these cars.

Are you sure it's white smoke? Oil usually has a blue tint to it when it's burned, so you'd see a light but noticeable blue color. White smoke is caused by water evaporation, and the common cause of that is a bad cylinder head gasket. Double check and make sure what color it is. They're are a lot of shops that don't even know what a twin-turbo rt is, your best bet may be to find a preformance based shop and have them check it out. Hope it's not too serious though, that's a nice car.

quote:

ORIGINAL: SpyderGS

Are you sure it's white smoke? Oil usually has a blue tint to it when it's burned, so you'd see a light but noticeable blue color. White smoke is caused by water evaporation, and the common cause of that is a bad cylinder head gasket. Double check and make sure what color it is. They're are a lot of shops that don't even know what a twin-turbo rt is, your best bet may be to find a preformance based shop and have them check it out. Hope it's not too serious though, that's a nice car.

quote:

ORIGINAL: thestealth
White smoke can also be caused by a blown headgasket. Check your oil for foaming (it will be white and foamy on your dipstick).

Good luck.

My bad, i must have skipped over that last piece. I must have been too pre-emptive when i was reading your response, like the first few sentences were about oil burning and i was thinking about "white smoke". Man i must be really off today, you've corrected me twice so far! Hey, how'd you like to be a mod? It doesn't pay much, and the benefits suck, but it's a job

Before I posted the 1st response I thought I should have moved that sentance to the first paragraph. In my experience a headgasket leak is accompanied by the sickly sweet smell of anti-freeze.

My car burns off some oil from leaky valve seals and it is so light bluish that it looks white.

When my spyder's head gasket was leaking, i only saw the white smoke under load. Like when the radiator fan kicked on, you would see a very small bit of white smoke. My spyder had a very small leak though, not even noticeable if the car was moving or if you weren't looking for it. I had mine in the garage when i was changing oil, fired it up when it was done and revved it slowly for a few seconds. After i shut it off, just like you, i could smell the antifreeze. All i did was hold a piece of black paper against the tail pipe to make sure i was burning it from inside the engine rather than somewhere on the engine. Hey stealth, you have a non-turbo right? Do you have dual mufflers? Well actually i mean to say; are they both functional? I was driving behind a 3000GT base model and thought i saw only like one muffler emitting smoke(normal winter water evaporation). The other one was just like a prop or something. Even though this is irrelevant, i was also behind a newer generation Monte Carlo(like 2000+), and i could see right through right side muffler cut-out on the bumper. Like right through to the tire....I thought that was pretty cheesy...It's just an imitation pipe on the left side i guess. But i was wondering if the NA 3s had functional mufflers on both sides.

Only the TT stealths have the dual exhaust. Mine only has the exhaust exiting the driver side and only one cutout in the bumper. The 3KGT have single in dual out muffler. The exhaust goes in the muffler and back out (front of the muffler) and loops around to the passenger side. I believe the TT and VR-4 does the same thing. More steam (on a cold day) will exit out the driver side because of this (more flow). All of them (stock) only have one main muffler. It does have a resonator between the cat. and muffler to keep it from "droning". Does that make sense??

For the most part, it makes sense. Seems a bit complicated though, and seems very restrictive. I had no idea they had a single muffler though, i thought mitsu would atleast put 2 mufflers behind the cut-outs. I'd imagine the aftermarket systems fall into my idea rather than the single muffler system.

I made a quick paint drawing, maybe it will help. Don't laugh at my mad paint skills.

From left to right: downpipe to cat to resonator to muffler




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well, i can say that at this point i know this much: there's no foam on the dipstick.. and the smoke is definitely white (no blue tint that i can tell).. the oil is alittle on the high-side but it shouldnt cause a problem..

other info need to add is that i dont drive the car right now.. it needs a new clutch... (i just put a SPEC Stage II clutch and a Fidanza lightweight flywheel on order).. so basically, i just go and crank it once a week or so.. from this i would expect a little smoke on the initial start but sometimes its billowing smoke out of the exhaust..

so confused..

once i get the clutch and flywheel installed i'm gonna get the timing belt and water pump changed.. while its a the mitsubishi dealership i plan on getting a full inspection, but i'm just trying to get some ideas of the problem before hand...

another clue is that the "check engine" light is on at idle but goes out when the gas pedal is pressed.. well, hopefully its a clue to this problem instead of being an indication of an entirely new problem.. lol..

any more suggestions?..

Diagnostic codes
Pin locals
stealth316

These links will show you how to pull codes from you ECU.
You should be able to determine what the CEL is on for from this.
The only catch is you must have a analog volt meter. As far as your smoking problem??? I don't know. Does it go away when it is warmed up???