Tons of White Smoke on Rebuilt Engine. Great compression. Need Help

[BA250Mav]

We rebuilt my 7mGTE. We tried starting it up a few days ago. We got it to start, but there is tons of white smoke coming out the back. It smells sweet like coolant. We are pretty sure it is burning anti-freeze. We checked the spark plugs and they are clean. All the cylinders have around 185 compression.

We think the turbo is blown. We are going to take apart the turbo this weekend and take a look at it. Has anyone else had this problem?

It is smoking exactly like it was before we blew the headgasket. We have a Commetic Head Gasket and it was torqued to 104 ft lbs (I think. Lubed with oil). The head was prepped and resurfaced. The block was cleaned.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Cody

[SacoMan]

Dead turbo usually is Blue oil smoke, but maybe the cooling lines are ruptured there ?

[DeanMarcum]

We rebuilt my 7mGTE. We tried starting it up a few days ago. We got it to start, but there is tons of white smoke coming out the back. It smells sweet like coolant. We are pretty sure it is burning anti-freeze. We checked the spark plugs and they are clean. All the cylinders have around 185 compression.

We think the turbo is blown. We are going to take apart the turbo this weekend and take a look at it. Has anyone else had this problem?

It is smoking exactly like it was before we blew the headgasket. We have a Commetic Head Gasket and it was torqued to 104 ft lbs (I think. Lubed with oil). The head was prepped and resurfaced. The block was cleaned.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Cody

Why did you need to do the rebuild?

The head gasket may be leaking or the head may have a crack in it. Check to see if the coolant level is falling in the radiator. If it is, pressurize the cooling system with a compressor (use the overflow nipple on the radiator and attach the compressor there. Pressurize the system to 15psi or so then look for the leaks. Pull the plugs out and see if there is a cylinder that is filling up.

[BA250Mav]

We blew a headgasket and put a foot long crack in the radiator while driving on the highway.

Maybe when the radiator blew, coolant blew all over the place, and the turbo didn't cool down properly? What should we look for when inspecting the turbo?

The head was checked by a local machine shop and he said it was fine.

I'll try pressurizing the cooling system like you said.

Thanks

[chriso]

Sounds like a cracked head when you blew the headgasket. Sounds like extremely abnormal pressure in order to blow apart the radiator. I wouldn't disassemble the turbo unless you have a way to balance it after reassembly.

[p5150]

are you sure you didnt hook a coolant line up to a PCV line?

[VanSupra]

Check for a brass rivit squashed between the block and head near the passenger side front of the engine. There was a thread about this awhile back and a few guys have been plagued with this issue from the Cometic head gasket. Poor design. hth.

[joliroger4]

Whenever a head gasket goes, theres still usually coolant in the exhaust that needs to be burned out from driving. Drive the car for a half hour, see if it clears up, that would be the first step. The material inside the exhaust is like a sponge and thoroughly absorbs moisture. The compression is good so its probably not a head gasket or head issue.

[BA250Mav]

I haven't been able to check it out again, but the turbo does have some in and out shaft play. It spins just fine though (when I use my finger). Would that mean anything? When we got it started, the turbo didn't sound like it was doing anything.

I'm really hoping we just hooked up a wrong line or it is just burning old coolant. I'm going to take a look at it in a few hours when my friend gets off work.

I just thought of something else. We got a Blitz EBC and we partially hooked it up. I'll try just putting a straight piece of hose for now like in the picture.

[IMG]turbopic.gif[/IMG]

[NJsupraA70]

104 ft/lb is pretty extreme. I was always told that you shouldnt torque an aluminum head over 100 ft/lb

[FrankT]

Whenever a head gasket goes, theres still usually coolant in the exhaust that needs to be burned out from driving. Drive the car for a half hour, see if it clears up, that would be the first step. The material inside the exhaust is like a sponge and thoroughly absorbs moisture. The compression is good so its probably not a head gasket or head issue.

I agree 100%
I JUST ABOUT SHIT when it happened to me. Coolant and steam coming out the tail pipe....called the machine shop and planning for a tear down, they just told me to dive it 20 miles or so. T hey were right it took about 15 miles for it to clear up.

[BA250Mav]

Well, I worked on it a few hours today. It was still smoking. Then the wierdest thing happened. Coincidence maybe?

I got an aftermarket boost gauge and air/fuel gauge, so we had messed with some of the wires under the dash. We forgot to plug in 2 fuses. After we plugged those in, the smoking stopped, the tach worked, the oil pressure gauge worked, and a few other stuff started working.

Maybe it just finished smoking off the old coolant right when we plugged the fuses in, or maybe the fuses did something.

The tach is still a little sluggish, but that will probably get fixed when we adjust the Cam Positioning Sensor some more. We arent getting much boost either. I don't think the turbo is totally messed up, but I'll just have to play around with it some more and see.