#1turbos2k

Am doing this for a very good friend of mines who is also an s2k owner. He called me a few days ago and told me that he was driving on the turnpike and his car all of the sudden turned off. he paid a tow truck to take it to his house (this was around 10:00 pm) the next morning i went over his house and started to check out his motor to see what has happened. I asked him to crank up the car couple of times just to see if the car will at least make a try to turn on (witch it didn't). I notice that the last coil by the fire wall was completely melted inside the spark plug tube. When i removed the coil it was so bad that half of it came out and the other stood in the tube. I disconnected the battery just to be safe nothing happens. i started to remove what was left of the coil with fine pliers, i finally got to the spark plug and removed it. i notice that the spark plug was missing the metal part that makes contact to give it spark. (weird). i also notice that the fuse inside of the car was blown. My friend went to the dealer and got a new coil. we installed it with new spark plugs and replaced the fuse. The car turned on great but it starts to smoke white really bad now and the car when i accelerate it and then let go of the throttle the car does not maintain at idle and it shuts off when coming back down. Am not sure why this is happening. what do you guys think ? Why is it smoking so much white out the exhaust ? why when i turn on the car it idles fine but as soon as i touch the throttle when the car is coming back down it shuts off ?

Could it be:::
1. valve seal
2. head gasket
3. piston made contact with spark plug
4. over heated thats why coil melted
5. or none ?

all info would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Bandiscoot

When you say white 'smoke' ... does it stay as smoke or is it more like steam and disappears quickly?


If it is steam it could be water in the combustion cycle. That could be as simply as the intake ingesting some or as ugly as a head gasket failure and coolant is leaking in.

If it is really smoke and its color is even a slight bit of grey ... then it sounds like oil is being burned. It usually is more of a blue-grey color ... but, I've seen it burn nearly white in color with enough gas added.


If the sparkplug was missing the head ... then, yes, the coil probably had to 'jump' or arc across a distance to conduct to the plug ... and that would cause enough heat (and resistance temperature) to make the coil melt/fail.

A compression test would be a good place to start to rule out that part of the engine. The idle issue could be a number of things ... including a bad cylinder.


Hope that helps. Good luck

#1turbos2k

the smoke does not go away that quickly. The car is in the garage and when I turned on the car in less than five minutes the garage is completely covered in smoke. The more I accelerate it the more smoke comes out the exhaust. I will do a compression test today, what should the compressions numbers be ? Thank you very much for your info.

toekneeg

With the compression test, you'll be able to tell if something is wrong. I say safe range is +/-4 psi difference (between all four cylinders) but anything greater than that something is wrong with that particular cylinder.

If you can't afford to tear the head apart, take it for a leak down test to try to find out what the problem is. I've never done a leak down test so I can't comment on the usefulness of this test.

I'm worried about that piece of spark plug that broke off. It can definitely do a lot of damage. Depending on the size of the object, might of gotten sandwiched in between the piston and cylinder wall and messed up the piston rings.

Again, start with a compression test and go from there. Compression numbers will vary from car to car.

Bandiscoot

[QUOTE=toekneeg,Dec 30 2010, 01:47 PM] With the compression test, you'll be able to tell if something is wrong. I say safe range is +/-4 psi difference (between all four cylinders) but anything greater than that something is wrong with that particular cylinder.

If you can't afford to tear the head apart, take it for a leak down test to try to find out what the problem is.

#1turbos2k

Compression test results

Cylinder #1........183
#2........179
#3.........180
#4..........181

Is this good ?

Bandiscoot

I think so ... I was quoting numbers from a nearly new block. So, the 170-180 range should be fine. The thing to look for is change of more than 15psi in one cylinder.


With those numbers I think the block is okay. But, do your best to figure out what kind of smoke it is. I'm somewhat fearless (and not too bright ) and will smell the smoke to attempt a designation.


Presuming it is from oil ... I would check the PCV valve and EGR. A valve seal could have been compromised. But, that would take a leak-down test to help identify (as it's not always conclusive.)


When you pulled the spark plugs did you notice any color/texture changes between them? If you are burning oil that cylinder/plug should show signs of oil soot (darker in color.)


What was the last kind of service or modification done to the car?

#1turbos2k

well, i went ahead and pull the head off and i will be taking it to a machine shop to get the valve seals replaced and install a new head gasket just in case the head gasket was bad. everything in the motor looks really good and i dont seem to locate the tip of the spark plug that broke off. its not in the piston or in the oil pan. pistons look really good and so is the compression. The car is bone stock and the only thing that it has is a k&n intake witch he bought the car with it, other than that it has absolutely nothing.

#1turbos2k

Now am wondering if the cylinders are good then why would the car turn off after being accelerated? when i start the car it idles fine but then when i accelerate the car it does not maintain at idle it just turns off.

JohnsS2000

check the other plugs?? other coils?