I have an 84 944 track car only. At full throttle it smokes like mosquito truck! At idle nothing.

I thought might be a head gasket, but the antifreeze has not fluctuated, and both it and the dipstick are clean.

I did a compression check and came up with the following

Cold engine and dry

175
165
165
165

Cold engine and wet

190
190
200
200

Plugs stunk of gas and the car has not been run in at least two weeks.

A friend suggested I check to make sure the master cylinder was not leaking and letting brake fluid get sucked into the manifold. I checked and there was no fluid leak from the master.

I am thinking maybe the DME is doing something funky. Any suggestions?

 

When I think of white smoke, I think of coolant in the combustion chamber indicative of a bad head gasket. Since you say that the coolant level is constant, I don't know what it could be.

 

I dont know much about compression numbers dry vs. wet.

But, a compression number that is that much higher when wet than dry is usually indicative of rings going bad (or gone).

However, bad rings would make for an engine that burned oil...which creates blue smoke not white. Are you sure the smoke is white? Not a hint of blue in it??

 

Doesn't unburned gas come out as white smoke? If it smells like gas, that's what it is. If it smells really bad, it's antifreeze.

 

Unburned gas comes out as black smoke, if I'm not entirely mistaken. <img border="0" alt="[burnout]" title="" src="graemlins/burnout.gif" />

 

i thought white smoke coming out of your exhaust means your running rich?black smoke means bad, and so on.i thought this theory would be true since its the same type of engines in my hobby(nitro r/c).and yes i think white smoke with a hint of blue means your piston is going bad or something like that.

 

white smoke means water is geting in somewhere, usually the head gasket. It is definately water, as this is why a car will emit puffs of white smoke when started from cold on a cold day. This is the effect of the condensation in the exhaust turning back to vapour.

Black smoke is unburnt fuel, and any car can emit black smoke, new or old.

Blue smoke is burning oil.

 

A small water leak will lend to unburnt fuel in the chamber. It kills power though. Too much fuel is nearly the same effect with out so much power loss. Wet plugs though means that you are not getting a complete burn. Thus gas left behind in the chamber. Bad spark? compression seems decent. wet and dry. Check rotor and cap how old are the wires themselves? HTH

 

What do you mean wet and dry?

 

Check the spark plugs and keep an eye on the in-dash temp gage.

If a plug appears "cleaner" than the others, that cylinder may have a leak between the water jacket and the cylinder. Check the piston top for the affected cylinder. Coolant entering that cylinder will reduce the amount of carbon build-up on the plug and piston.

Also, if the in-dash temp gage climbs during hard acceleration, then exhaust gasses are entering the cooling system.

These are the symptons I noticed on my '84 before the head gasket finally failed.

 

If you are burning a bunch of water, your plugs will come out looking very clean. It doesn't take much water to created large plums of white smoke out the exhaust, either, so your coolant reservoir isn't necessarily your best gauge. Is your car running a bit hotter than it was before? Your compression is also kinda high for an '84.

I am guessing that you have a head gasket that is starting to fail (mine failed between 3 and 4 on both my '84 and my '86).

Regards,

 

When I was referriung to "wet" versus "dry", I mean wet has had oil added to the combustion chamber prior to doing the compression check. This will increase the PSI. If it does so by a lot, the rings are bad.

The smoke may have a bluish tint, I am not sure, as it only happens under wide open throttle, and generally I am in the car at that time. But if it was rings, I would think it smoke at idle.

I was sure all signs pointed to a head gasket, but a compression check should have shown two clyinders in row which were unusually low. At a minimum one ahould be low.

The last thingI wasnt to do is put head gasket in a car that doesn't need it.

I am wondering if valve seals could create such a problem?