Annette,
A white exhaust is likely caused by water, maybe a head gasket problem
(hopefully) or a crack in the block (hopefully not). Have you checked to
see if your water level is down? Does your oil have water in it, or vice
versa? A number of us have experienced head gasket water leaks (mine
literally looked like huge billowing white clouds coming out of the tail
pipe), and as a result a lot has been written in the past about diagnosing
problems from the color of the exhaust and what to do when bad things happen
to good head gaskets, if that turns out to be your problem. The list is
archived at www.listquest.com .
Steve Landuyt
San Diego
SRL 311 11566 ('69)
-----Original Message-----
From: Annette <squishfish@home.com>
To: Roadster list <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Date: Thursday, April 05, 2001 8:26 AM
Subject: Smoke and plug wires
>Hey all,
>
>I had a friend over last night to show him the new Roadster, I started it
up
>for him and asked him how many cylinders he thought it was running on (the
>previous owner told me he thought it was only running on two) he agreed
that
>it sounded like it was running on all cylinders but SOMETHING was wrong.
He
>went and inspected the plug wires and decided that they were in the wrong
>order. He switched the #1 and #2 wires, we started the car again, it
starts
>RIGHT up, no more backfires, and it sounds ALOT smoother, no more
shuddering
>and shaking, so I am pretty sure he did the right thing. HOWEVER, now that
>those are switched the car is smoking from the tailpipe like there is no
>tomorrow!! We were sniffing and evaluating the colour of the smoke, trying
to
>determine if the car was just burning off all the bad gunk it wasnt getting
>the power to burn off before, but the smoke continued even after about 10
>minutes total of running. The odd thing is that when the car is first
>started there is just a tiny bit of smoke, looks like residual stuff coming
>out, but after it's been running about a minute or two the smoke starts
coming
>out alot worse. The smoke is mostly white with just a slight blue tint to
it
>and it smells like a lawnmower, which usually indicates that I'm burning
oil,
>but the smoke isnt the right colour!
>
>Now we're thinking that the previous owner switched the wires on purpose so
I
>would not see the smoke. *sigh* that's getting to be a theme with this
car!
>
>I know this is more general car related rather than roadster specific but I
>would really appreciate it if someone could give me a place to start with
this
>problem!!
>
>Thanks a ton,
>
>Annette
>Vancouver, WA
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