intermittent HEAVY smoking

[rag]

this is a wierd one;

i went wheeling today, wasnt too hard on the engine

at one point i thought i blew a headgasket or the actual head. i was blowing white smoke from my tailpipe and under the hood

when i say blowing smoke imagine a seafoam smoking type of deal only worse. much worse.

heres the thing, no powerloss, i was not beating the piss out of it, sometimes it would happen at isle, other times will at 1500rpm, no bucking, smelt sorta like when i seafoam a truck.

no apparent leaks other than my slightly leaky valve cover seal.

it happend 2 or 3 times for only several seconds. 20 seconds at the most then resumed to normal.

temps remained normal, good oil pressure, a steady 14volts to battery, not really off camber but it also happened on flat pavement

ive been driving it since and havent noticed anything new whatsoever.

coolant level is the same, oil levels are good, im completely stumped.

any ideas? is it time to stroke my extra block ahead of time and swap?

any input is greatly appreciated :compwork:

 

[Cherokee Freak]

By the sounds of it, do you have any pranksters in you 4x4 group.

 

[rag]

By the sounds of it, do you have any pranksters in you 4x4 group.

i just got back from a drive and i did notice my valve cover leak getting much worse and it seems i am burning some oil on hard acceleration... hmm assgas:

 

[Cherokee Freak]

When you say your burning some hard oil, is it blue out the tail pipe or can you just smwll it? 4.0 liters are famous for the bolts on the Valve cover becoming loose over time. I'd start there first. re-torque them and see where that takes you. You might just have some blow back coming down on the pipes.

 

[rag]

When you say your burning some hard oil, is it blue out the tail pipe or can you just smwll it? 4.0 liters are famous for the bolts on the Valve cover becoming loose over time. I'd start there first. re-torque them and see where that takes you. You might just have some blow back coming down on the pipes.

white smoke bellows out of my tail pipe, through my exhaust. i assume the smoke from the engine compartment is just valvecover leak.

i dont have my manuals handy anymore. what is the torque spec and possible sequence for the valvecover? with temp red rtv gasket maker will work just fine correct?

 

[Shorty]

I would lean toward a head gasket leaking into the combustion chamber. It only takes a couple CC's of coolant to fog for mosquitoes and it can be a very intermittant leak-- pull your plugs and look for one that's MUCH less carboned than the rest (it may be kinda rusty brownish- but little-to-no carbon on it)

--Shorty

 

[Yucca-Man]

Auto, or manual? Overfilled or very hot AW-4s will smoke heavily as the oil pumps out the front vent...and directly onto the hot exhaust pipe.

Jim

 

[Shorty]

white smoke bellows out of my tail pipe, through my exhaust

overfilled trans wouldn't blow through exhaust. will make a smoke show (and fire hazard) but not through exhaust

 

[Yucca-Man]

Correct - overfilled trans won't blow directly out the tailpipe...but it makes a mighty good show of looking like that's the case.

 

[Rick Anderson]

In case you didn't know;

Blue Smoke out the exhaust pipe, from burning oil, looks white/greyish with just a little blue tint to it. It often smell like the used oil from an oil change, and dirty black oil at that, OR just like a really rich mixture. When people say "BLUE" Smoke, they mean the slight blue tint, not a true blue smoke cloud. The CCV or PCV, and the valve cover/gasket is the place to start here, because if they malfunction, stick open or clogg, it can cause oil to spit into the intake and cause white/grey with a slight tint of blue smoke billowing from the exhaust. Bad Valve Stem Seals don't smoke bad at all, until you sit at idle or low rpm for a while, with high vacuum sucking in the oil, then when you accelerate away the oil accumulated burns off and makes lots of smoke. Bad rings will smoke all the time.

Water/Coolant is really a steam cloud, but it can be dense and look like white smoke from the rear view mirror. It will smell sweet and like anti-freeze, because all it is steamed water and anti-freeze. Not in a Jeep, but a Chrysler 4 Cylinder, I had an leaking HeadGasket, it created the great white steam clouds, and went away after warming up, so it was intermittent, but I only drove it a couple of times like this and saw it wasn't worth the risk and changed the headgasket.

I have also poured distilled water down my Throttle Body to clean the combustion chambers, and it made just as thick of a white steam cloud. Could you have sucked in some water in the air cleaner box while wheelin?

Do you have a CLosed or OPen Cooling system. Remember, with the open system, the reservoir or bottle is only the overflow for the system that should be sucked back in "IF" everything is working right. If you have a leak in the cooling system, it can suck air back in instead of from the bottle, thus the bottle level never changes, but the level in the radiator is actually dropping. Pull the pressure cap (WHEN COOL) and check the level of fluid in the radiator itself.