hello everyone, well driving back from work, just crusing at 120 when an m3 passed me. i decided to catch up to it, but soon as i hit 140 the car started to blow white smoke, so i toned it down to less than 100 and it went away.
then got off the autobahn and tried to floor it and no smoke, should i be worried?
also upon start up it smokes till i drive it then it clears up.
any ideas? thanks everyone

 

Check your oil and see if you have any coolant mixed in.

 

Start up as in cold start? a bad sign of a headgasket.......but let us not jump into things

 

i'm letting the car cool down then i'll check it.
what's a good head gasket? it's going to the shop soon for a cam tower gasket might as well do the head too. it's the original gasket. how much am i looking at here?
tia

 

Well, a top end gasket kit is around $130 usd. But you'll have to figure out labor. I don't know if they charge by the hour or job.
Of course, if its the head gasket, you should figure out what went wrong.

Do you have a wideband a/f guage? Do you know what a/f's your running?

 

and if the head comes off you might as well refresh the guides/seals/seats, check spring tension and have a fresh top end all the way around.

 

Ski is right. If you have high km's or mi's, you might as well freshn it up.

 

What was the Tempature out side? I know my older Guru chips smoked at startup when it was cold out. Something about the mixture Danno was trying to dial in at startup. He fixed this in newer chip releases.

 

ok. no oil in the water and no water in the oil. still smokes like a sob. i did loose some coolant, topped it off this morning up to the line and now it's mid way.
temp outside is very cold we just har about a total of 5 inches this weekend.
i have about 145k on the odometer.
while driving a/f guage sweeps from red to green and goes faster as i increase the throttle. i did hit 16 psi when trying to f@#$ arouind with the m3 on the autobahn that's when it smoked.
though it's been running rich lately on start ups.
tia everyone
is it still safe to drive it ( not hard) about 60 miles to the shop? what are my chances of really f@#$%^g things up if i do?
again thanks

 

Low coolant and white smoke on start up is the classic for head gasket. Did it start up fine or did it stumble a bit? (runs on 3 cylinders first).

I drove my NA with a blow headgasket for a week before actually doing the job. Kept a VERY close eye on the temperature gauge because failed headgaskets make the engine run hot (as i know of).

 

that's it stumbles at start up and smokes, temp is on the first tick mark, doesn't go over the second.
would it be hard for a mechanically inclined person to do the head? if "murphy" doesn't strike what's the average time?
would i need any special tools? would it be chepaer on the long run to go ahead and get that $500 tension too? what else (tools) should i get before tackling this project?
thanks.

 

i already have a torque wrench and a few general mechanic tool kit.
tia

 

There is a Kirkit tool that is an alternative to the Porsche special tool. I personally didn't try it nor did anything with the timing belt myself, but do consider it :http://www.arnnworx.com/

Lots of information on replacing the head gasket could be found here : http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/cyl-01.htm

But there are others on rennlist that could tell you what is really required other than just reading it but i know several rennlisters who just followed that proceedure.

 

CarL ... NOT TO "RAIN ON YOUR PARADE" but if the oil is clean (not milky looking) and you loose coolant as well as have white smoke, there could be a possible crack in the block. My friends 951 with dial a boost (go boom) on his racecar had the block crack at #4 cylinder. I would get it checked out by a shop and go from there. Hopefully it this would not be the case here!

 

omg.......cracked block?!!! how much am i looking at here?