[Shop-talk] smoking 1993 El Dorado

[David Scheidt]

On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 1:07 PM, Frank Vantacich
<rustymetal at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Temperature appears normal, no milkyness in the oil.  I will keep my eye on
> the radiator overflow container for loss of fluid and bubbles.  I have never
> found the actual radiator cap, just the overflow container.
>
> One other thing I failed to mention earlier is the the white smoke has a sweet
> smell to it.
>
> Thanks for the help.
>

Sweet smell is coolant.  It's very hard for coolant to get into the
oil in the Northstar engine (it's a design feature.), so it's not
likely you'd be able to see it.  Northstar engines, particularly the
early ones, leak coolant.  There were also head gasket problems with
the first few years of production.

pressure test the cooling system, and get someone to test the coolant
for combusion gases.  If you replace the head gasket(s), also replace
the intake gaskets, and be aware that GM revised the bolts and the
torque procedure.  (It's a torque to this, then add so many degrees
thing now.  I don't know it, though.)  There's also a manditory
coolant leak sealer, as well.

-- 
David Scheidt
dmscheidt at gmail.com