smoke coming from tailpipe, plz help!

Jake Toney · Mar 11, 2005

hey guys, I have a 1993 xj with 118,000 miles on it. It has started smoking out of the tailpipe as of about a four days ago. The smoke seems to be blue but sometimes almost looks whitish/greyish. It also smells wierd, kinda rich almost? Whats wierd is it just started the day after I changed my oil, which I dont know if it is unrealted or not (doesnt seem like that could do anything). The smoke is pretty much only at idle. like the other day i went through a drive though and by the second window it was smoking pretty bad. Please help me, what could it be? Thanks a lot guys.

XJ_ranger · Mar 11, 2005

sounds like a headgasket to me...

OEM tech btw...

MudDawg · Mar 11, 2005

Hold a piece of glass (like a mirror for example)so the exhaust from the tail-pipe hits it. If water collects on the glass its a gasket or a cracked head or block. If no water collects, it's burning oil. Be sure the engine and exhaust is fully warmed first.

Since it happened after a maintenance was done (and you haven't shared with us other details such as overheating) I would suspect a malfunction in the engine ventilation system in which oil is being transported into the intake.

DaffyXJ · Mar 11, 2005

Could be ventilation issues. The measurement of water on the mirror might be too subjective. H2O is a byproduct of combustion.
If it's noticable at idle and not at higher RPMs it's leakage around the valve guides.

check the plugs and do a compression check. Blow buy (rings) will effect the plugs alot more than valve guide leakage.
compression check will tell ya which cylindar is the bad actor.

Jake Toney · Mar 11, 2005

srry guys forgot to tell you that I did check the spark plugs. did not do a compression test but all the plugs look about the same. not to bad, definately dark grey and some carbon build up but not to bad. thanks for your replies, i really would like to get this fixed.

mack · Mar 11, 2005

:repair: i'll put my guess on a head or ring job....:tears:

Timber · Mar 11, 2005

mack said:
:repair: i'll put my guess on a head or ring job....:tears:

Sorry, mechanical newbie. What do you mean, ring job? BTW, I'm probably tearing into my water pump this weekend, so I'm not afraid of doing stuff; I just don't know all the terms. Thanks.

junkxj · Mar 11, 2005

just out of curiousity what kind of oil did you use? I put synthetic in my girlfriends zj a while back and it made it smoke a noticable amount. Changed back to good old cheap stuff and smokes way less now, I know it shouldnt happed but it did?

XJ_ranger · Mar 11, 2005

Timber said:
Sorry, mechanical newbie. What do you mean, ring job? BTW, I'm probably tearing into my water pump this weekend, so I'm not afraid of doing stuff; I just don't know all the terms. Thanks.

kinda like a rim job, only tastes better...

no - in all seriousness - the piston rings get worn and then begin to let stuff by as they dont seal all to well - namly oil into the combustion chamber - causing smoke...

Jake Toney · Mar 11, 2005

ummmm....i just used from 10w-30 valvoline high milage. hey just outa courisity how much oil you guys normally put in?

XJ_ranger · Mar 11, 2005

Jake Toney said:
ummmm....i just used from 10w-30 valvoline high milage. hey just outa courisity how much oil you guys normally put in?

the owners manual sugested 6quarts goes in my 1992 4.0L

smoke coming from tailpipe, plz help!

Jake Toney

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XJ_ranger

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MudDawg

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DaffyXJ

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Jake Toney

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mack

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Timber

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junkxj

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