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What does "smoke an L" mean?

Black smoke means blown piston rings...what is white smoke mean?

  • 1 have a 1994 ford ranger, 4cly, 5 speed so there is 8 spark plugs and wires. i was told today that i have blown piston O rings. i was showed WHITE smoke coming out the tail pipe and was told THIS prooves it. then i got told by a friend that says BLACK smoke would b from the messed up pistons. umm i know white smoke is not good..but this is the first time i have seen it (it was cold today) so if it was white "smoke" and not steam then could it b somthing else? its not running with full power....that is why i asked a mechanic...

  • Answer:

    Oh jeez. Where do I even start? 1. Your 2.3L ford Ranger engine has 4 spark plugs and 5 high tension wires. 4 to the plugs, and 1 from the ignition coil. The only 4 cylinder I can think of offhand that had 2 plugs per cylinder was a Nissan engine from the late '80's. Some 426 Hemi's did too. And Mazda Rotary engines. That's about it. 2. Piston rings are made of metal. O-rings are made of rubber (unless you're talking O-ringing a cylinder deck, which is usually only done on engines with forced induction or other racing applications. Then it's copper wire.). O-rings have nothing to do with pistons. 3. Smoke from too rich of a fuel mixture, or other unburned fuel, is black. 4. Smoke from oil getting into the combustion chamber is blue. 5. Smoke from anti-freeze leaking into the combustion chamber is white. You may smell the smell of anti-freeze. But every engine produces water vapor. When it's cold outside, it's just more visible. Look around. Every car that is running is putting out white smoke, especially when accelerating, and especially when the engine is still cold. 6. Steam does not drift down. If it did, making distilled water would be impossible.

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It usually just means there is condensation in the exhaust system, which happens more in cold weather. If that is the case, it will go away in time when driving. If it continues, and especially if you find your coolant level dropping, it indicates coolant is getting into the combustion chambers, which means a cracked head, bad head gasket, or leak in the intake manifold. Blue smoke would indicate you are running rich, black smoke would indicate burning oil. If you have a mechanic saying while smoke is piston rings, go find another mechanic for a second opinion.

oklatom

Black = oil Blue = gas White = coolant (water) yeah, it's mostly steam. A small amount of steam exiting the pipe in cold weather is normal. (in warm weather you see drops of water instead) A lot is not. Piston rings are not o-rings (unless it's a Green's steam engine).

Firecracker .

White smoke usually is just condensation in the exhaust. It can also be a sign of a blown head gasket or intake manifold gasket that is leaking coolant in the piston chamber.

Norman W

Usually white smoke means antifreeze is getting into the cylinder, and being burned off ! Sometimes this could mean blown head gasket !

The Judge

Black smoke means too much fuel.Blueish smoke means its burning oil.and white smoke is coolant burning.

bgibby62

for 1 your car only has 4 spark plugs since its a 4 cylinder. and 2 the white smoke could be that you have some bad oil burning. its and internal problem no doubt, but how long has it been since you had the oil changed? if you don't change it every 3000 miles, then you need to start. but you could possible have bad o rings. its not hard to blow out an o ring. and if black some were to come from messed up pistons, then all diesel engines would be bad.

Erica S

black is too much fuel. bluish is oil in the combustion chamber. white is either condensation or a head gasket/cracked block or cracked head. worst case scenario it can be a combination. because you are loosing power, i think that if you check the coolant level then you wil find that the level is falling at a good pace. you could confirm this by doing a compression test to see which cylinders are effected.

mdk68gto, ase certified m tech

White smoke... always always always coolant. 4 cyl has 4 plugs and 4 wires, not 8. Don't take it back to that place. They're maybe trying to overcharge you. Burning coolant... 1. Bad head gasket. 2. warped heads (overheated the engine) 3. cracked block. Worst of the 3. Replace, repair not possible.

Chris

It could be steam from the exhaust. Or if the exhaust has a sweet smell it would be burning coolant, which is a blown head gasket. The head gasket is letting coolant into the combustion chamber.

David

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