Great minds come together for this one

[bullet87]

Sorry so long, but I need help and I copied for my thread from another area. Hopefully someone here can help.

I have been fighting these issues for a long time with no resolve.
No smoke at startup or idle. Light very faint white smoke if I give it gas. More smoke of course under boost. Not coming up in boost more than a couple of pounds. If I hold the accelerator at 2k, the rpms fluctuate up and down.
I thought that it might be the turbo, so I bought a new one. Thought that it might be the Max Effort, so I swapped for a Turbo Tweak chip. Yeah it does have a small oil leak in the normal spot, but oil pressure and levels have always been fine. New injectors, same size as posted. I have checked the compression before and there is little to no difference between cylinders. New fuel filter in the external fuel system as posted. Going through a divorce and really don’t want to sell if I can help it, but it hasn’t ran right in a long time.
When I say swapped, I mean I bought directly from Turbo Tweak. I have tried a couple different chips in the Max Effort before getting rid of it.
i have had this car for years, but i know how I explain it might be different that someone that knows more than me to see it. Because of the situation, I don’t have a lot of money to waste at shops. Plus, I have heard stories about people taking their GN to shops that say that have worked on them before.
Anyone else have any idea? What is the chance of it being a small intake or head gasket leak? Would that cause a flux in power and smoke only under acceleration?
Ok, the start of a new week. Never did the tear down. I think that i found a vacuum leak on the adj boost controller line, but still have the smoke. Someone told me to pull the valve cover to see if I have a wiped cam. Could that cause the white smoke? Any other suggestions this morning would help me out.
White smoke is coming from exhaust. Maybe just a little at idle, but a lot more on acceleration. I haven’t been able to take it down the road in a long time. So how much coolant would it really use in the carport.
Ok, spark plugs on 3 and 6 look like brand new, all the rest look like the one in the attached photo

 

[bullet87]

Oh yeah, and update. I no longer have the flux in rpm if I hold the accelerator at 2k. There is a slight miss about every 10 seconds or so.

 

[DailyDrifter]

Your coil or module could be burned up.

 

[87buickracer]

Do a leak down test to see if head or intake gasket is leaking.I had a friend with same issue.He put some ceramic block sealer in retorqued head and intake bolts and car is still running today.I think he torqued the bolts 1 or 2 lbs over specs.

 

[GSTOY]

The plug looks like it's running very rich. Can you post some numbers such as fuel pressure, O2 etc? This will help. I would x2 your coil or module having issues. A cheap way would be to visit your local wrecking yard and you can pick these items up cheap...I did because I suspected my ignition module, sure enough...fixed it.

Be patient...everyone is on their way to BG for the week, so you may not get alot of response this week.

Steve

 

[bullet87]

Yeah I thought so. I dont blame them. My FP is around 45 line off. I wish I could post more numbers, but the direct scan that I bought doesnt work. It doesnt bring up anything when I turn on the computer. The program just freezes.

 

[RmvBfrFlght]

Ok, spark plugs on 3 and 6 look like brand new, all the rest look like the one in the attached photo

The plugs shouldn't look like they are brand new. It may be that those two injectors are not providing any fuel. Could be from being clogged, bad wiring, or drivers in ECM are bad.

At idle pull the injector connector off of each one at a time. See if the idle changes. If not, then that cylinder is dead. If the idle changes then see next part.

Check for spark on those two cylinders. They are paired together on one coil. If they aren't firing, they will look like new.

Since you are getting some white smoke, those two cylinders may be the ones getting steam cleaned. Which can be from any number of reasons. And with them being on opposite banks, it may be best to pull the engine and tear it down.

RemoveBeforeFlight

 

[Alky V6]

Use the proper tool to pressure test the cooling system to check for internal leaks.
I know you're avoiding taking your car to a shop, but I hope you have, or will be getting the proper tools to diagnose your problem. In the long run, you may end up spending more time and money trying to diagnose this yourself. You've already spent money on a part that didn't fix anything. And then, all the lost use time with the car not running right for so long.

 

[my1stgn]

Yes, I have to agree with Donnie on this one. The whole time I was thinking coolant (headgasket or something) becuase the smoke issue. Check the smoke coming from the exhuast. You can smell the smoke and if you smell/taste a sweetness to it, then its coolant. Also, if it smokes at idle. Open the radiator cap then start the car. If you see bubbles in the coolant, then you have a bad head gasket (compression gases leaking into coolant passages) or check coolant level also, if low then your losing coolant somewhere. I doubt a chip will make only certain cylinders misfire or cause smoke. And if your burning coolant, the plugs where the coolant is at will look new because the coolant acts as a vapor when the coolant is burned, cleaning ur plugs for you. Are the 2 coolant plugs that look new next to each other? IE cylinder 1 and 3?

 

[bullet87]

plugs are 3 and 6. I have started my tear down process. I bought all new gaskets and valve seals and piston rings. Any info on what I should or shouldnt do at this point? Links to tolerances would also be good.

 

[dr_frankenstein]

what are the piston rings for? planning on a re ring?

A.j.

 

[bullet87]

I picked up the piston rings, because I figured that I would go ahead and replace them while I was in there. I am tired of thinking that everything is a ring problem. I mean, the rings on the car now have many many miles on them.

 

[bullet87]

All the Coolant was because I thought I had it all out of the engine area before I started the tear down. If you notice the one white spark plug on the cylinder head. Everything is pretty baked with carbon or something. There was a good layer of black residew in the throttle body. Some of the header bolts on the passenger side were not as tight as I suspected they would be. Oil was dark black, no milkiness. I see no metal shavings. I will be able to see if the cam is ok tomorrow when I pull the intake pan.

 

[Alky V6]

Post pics of the head gaskets.

 

[bullet87]

Here is the passenger side head gasket. Will have the other one off tomorrow.

 

[bullet87]

Also how do I know what to grind the piston rings to? I know that the parts place asked me if I wanted standard or oversized bore. Anyone have experience with this? Ive pulled this engine many times, but have never pulled the pistons or disconnected the rods.

 

[dr_frankenstein]

Also how do I know what to grind the piston rings to? I know that the parts place asked me if I wanted standard or oversized bore. Anyone have experience with this? Ive pulled this engine many times, but have never pulled the pistons or disconnected the rods.

if the engine has never been rebuilt then it would be standard size.

if there just replacement rings, you shouldnt have to grind them. just confirm ring gap is in tolerance.

A.j.

 

[Alky V6]

It sounds to me like you have zero experience working on engines. Pick up a good book on the subject and study it. You have a lot of very basic questions here and I'm not sure how that's going to affect your responces. There may be a few people willing to hold your hand through a complete rebuild process, but I think you're going to be losing many who don't want to bother answering such basic questions. Good luck.

 

[bullet87]

I dont know about zero experience, but I have never put piston rings in or had a engine idleing pretty good with two clean plugs. Not something that I do everyday and during a deployment kinda had more important things to remember.

 

[mikestertwo]

I wish I could post more numbers, but the direct scan that I bought doesnt work. It doesnt bring up anything when I turn on the computer. The program just freezes.

What operating system are you using? Remember DS is a DOS program and will not work with operating systems newer than Windows 98SE.