Lots of white smoke...... Rough idle

[klr650@]

I'm running a 1.9TD in a suzuki sidekick. It was running great around the neighborhood up to around 40 mph. After being very happy with the results I decided to take her for a run on the highway. The first run went great, I drove about a mile or so at 55mph. Temps were good, engine around 200 degrees and egt around 1100 degrees.

The second run is where I ran into problems. Everything was going fine until I hit an incline, not much. She began to lose power and then the engine died. I managed to get her to the side of the highway. I tried to start it up again and it fired up but need some help, I had to give it some fuel. It idled very roughly but smoothed out once it hit higher RPMs. So I pulled it out onto the highway and drove it back home. No problems except a little lose in power and a rough idle.

Now it idles very roughly and blows white smoke, alot of white smoke. I'm thinking I blow a head gasket. I didn't see coolant in the oil. There doesn't appear to be back pressure into the coolant/expansion tank or oil in the coolant.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Dave

[Vincent Waldon]

White smoke that smells like diesel, or white smoke that smells like coolant ??!!

I'd recommend doing a compression test... quickest way to sort out if you have a headgasket issue... it does sound somewhat likely since it went all of a sudden.

Other possibility could be a really loose timing belt that suddenly skipped a tooth or two ??  If so you want to sort it out soon before it skips more and prangs some valves.


Vince

[klr650@]

Smells like diesel to me. If there's coolant in it then I can't smell it which could be possible.

I ordered a cheap compression tester off of fleabay. So hopefully I'll get it soon to run the compression test.

[55mpg06]

If you are not loosing coolent (the white smoke), have you checked the timing? If it skiped one notch on the gear then that would be enough to cause the problem but probably not enough to bend valves (I had that happen before  :oops: ). Other thing is if the tensioner pully slipped and loosened it would cause slack in the timing belt and throw off the timing just enough to perhaps cause what you are discribing. (Also had that happen). Hope you get it running, keep us posted! :wink:

[klr650@]

I tested the engine for low compression. Sure enough #4 had under 100psi. I brought it into a guy who rebuilds vw engines. He took it apart, thankfully while still in the sidekick, and determined the engine overheated. The ring was damaged in #4 causing the low compression and incomplete combustion resulting in all the white smoke. So he pulled the piston, cleaned it up, new ring, honed the cylinder, and reassembled.

He had it running strong for a few minutes but shut it down due to a coolant leak. He's going to work out the kinks today. Should be up and running strong by tomorrow.

He thinks there cooling system failed. Specfically, he doesn't think the sensor on the radiator turned the fans on in time to cool things down resulting in the overheating.

I'm not an expert but I think its because the engine had an oil leak I didn't notice until it was too late.

I'm pretty sure this is a dumb questions, but an engine will overheat with little to no motor oil in it correct?

[jimfoo]

Guess I was lucky. Mine got to 250 going up the hill by Georgetown, then blew the hose off. After fixing, it got to 250+ again, added more coolant, then it was fine all the way to Moab until the return trip up the passes.

[jtanguay]

I tested the engine for low compression. Sure enough #4 had under 100psi. I brought it into a guy who rebuilds vw engines. He took it apart, thankfully while still in the sidekick, and determined the engine overheated. The ring was damaged in #4 causing the low compression and incomplete combustion resulting in all the white smoke. So he pulled the piston, cleaned it up, new ring, honed the cylinder, and reassembled.

He had it running strong for a few minutes but shut it down due to a coolant leak. He's going to work out the kinks today. Should be up and running strong by tomorrow.

He thinks there cooling system failed. Specfically, he doesn't think the sensor on the radiator turned the fans on in time to cool things down resulting in the overheating.

I'm not an expert but I think its because the engine had an oil leak I didn't notice until it was too late.

I'm pretty sure this is a dumb questions, but an engine will overheat with little to no motor oil in it correct?

the cooling fan and its wiring are more prone to fail on cars with air conditioning... like mine!  :cry: