White Smoke?

Hey All:

I've been working on my MJ - 88, 2.5, 2WD - just bought it.

It starts, but sometimes idles rough and needs alot of help to stay running - other times it's fine.

Also, once the engine warms up it (exhaust) starts smoking like CRAZY - thick white smoke that reeks and stings the eyes. It'll fill up my big garage in no time - so thick you can't even see.

I'm thinking head gasket.

I know I need to dig into more, but thought some of the experts here might be able to steering in the right direction on things to check first.

Thanks,
Chris

Classic head gasket symptoms (or less likely, head itself, and even less likely cracked cylinder wall if it ever froze badly). Head gasket will probably show in a compression test as two adjacent cylinders low.

:wstupid: < ment in a good way! I fully agree with the previous post and think that if those ideas don't reveal a problem area then its probably time to refresh the motor completely.I myself own a 88' model jeep (xj wagoneer) and had a similar problem with smoking (black/blue/white all at once!) What I ended up doing is running this stuff called seafoam ,that can really only be purchased at napa auto parts stores, and the smoke that I saw dissapeared almost completely. There was still a little residual white smoke but that ended up being a coolant leak caused by a loose set of head bolts! Tightened them up with a new gasket and the beast doesn't smoke at all now! Something to check as well as the possabilities mentioned in the previous post. Keep us informed!!!

Maybe a cyclinder is not firing? If there is a rotten egg smell to the "white" cloud then it prob is gas that's not being burned. the rotten egg smells comes from some crap they put in the fuel in winter if you live in real cold climates etc... anyway if it is not firing all the way ur cat convertor might get clogged up easier if it's not burning all of what goes into it

Some times with a blown head gasket you can feel the radiator hose get really stiff when you crank and run the vehicle or feel it pulsing hard. Is it oil smoke or antifreeze?
Also make sure your pcv system is working correctly and your blowbye isnt pumping oil straight into the intake. Oil pulled from the intake in to the cyl will cause a condition like that. Runs great then starts smoking/running rough(oil fouling the plugs)

Not to get off subject (but I guess i am) but I just had a customer call me saying that her car was blown up and she wanted me to fix it free of charge and how dare i sell a used car [six months ago, with no warrenty implied or written] and not stand behind my product/ bitch bitch bitch. Any how I get her to tow it to my lot and I tried to crank it up. It would barely start and smoked like a military smoke generator. There was a brand new oil filter on it. My first thought was, heres another person that never changed/checked their oil and after a half year the oil was gone/worn out and after the motor started smoking and knocking they changed the oil. But I decided to check it out anyhow, just to see how bad they had hurt the motor. The oil was sooo over full that it was almost coming out of the dipstick tube. I drained a lot of oil, took the intake off and drained the oil out of that, and the airbox (there was so much oil in the engine that I had time to go take a leak while it drained). After I refiled the oil with the proper amount, it took about 30 min of driving the car to clear the oil from the cyl.'s and exhaust and to get rid of the huge cloud of white smoke. Funny she never even said thank you. I dont know what kind of damage you can cause by super over filling the oil but it seemed to run right.....