drew303

Son of a b^tch. That about sums up this motor.

Bought an '85 ext cab w/ a 22r. After getting it home it started blowing white smoke and overheating... ahhh crap HG. We messed around with different T-stats (it wasnt opening) and i think we ended up with a 180F which is a bit low but it works. The white smoke got worse n worse but atleast she didnt ru hot.

Pressure test showed high PSI (210) on cylinder 1 and 180 on 2,3 and 4. The displacement caused by the water in cylinder 1 caused the high pressure.

backing up, when I went to test cylinder 2 after 1... it blew water out the cylinder 1 spark plug hole like someone turned on the garden hose. PROBLEM FOUND!


... We had already replaced the rear main seal and rear oil retainer seal (the guy who apparently REBUILT this motor didnt even scrape the old gasket off the oil retainer, or put a new gasket on) ... So whoever rebuilt this 22r didnt exactly do a pro-job. Oil pan bolts were finger tight, if that.

The head bolts were original so they were re-used by whoever rebuilt the motor and werent torqued to 58lbs... especially the first intake and 2 exhaust were very loose and a few over piston 4.

anyhooo onto the issue.

-We tore the motor down to the block, intake/exhaust, front cover, timing chain, oil pan etc... only the block left in there.
-We took the Head into a machine shop to have it cleaned up and pressure tested. He did a fine job cleaning it up and gave it a good bill of health. The head looked like it'd been rebuilt, only slight carbon buildup on the valves (before it was cleaned).
-Installed a new timing chain (engbldr) and front cover, new water pump as well. We re-used the existing oil pump.

FIRED it up, had an exhaust leak, fixed that...

she runs FINE!!!

well Im still working on the timing. With the light on piston 1 the timing seems to skip a beat.. (instead of being at 0 TDC w/ the vacum advanced plugged it will show 0 and skip retarded... like a retard, twitchy like). It gets less twitchy, if at all if you advance the timing. =/

My 87 22r i have at 0 TDC (no vacum) and it its solid as a rock. no twichty ness =/

but we have white smoke that won't go away long after its been running.

I pulled all the plugs and iginition and turned it over to see if we could get water to come squirting out, nothing, checked all the pistons through the plug holes (turning the motor by hand) and they're dry look normal. All the plugs look fine as well.





I'm wondering if since we've got a lower Temp T-stat the motor doesnt heat up to normal operating temp, its about half way inbetween I recon. The exhaust has leaks in it underneath the truck, theres no cat. MY 87 22r blows the typical startup white smoke till just past the bottom line of the engine temp guage.. and my brothers truck (the one im discussing here) only heats up to about a qtr of normal op temp. could the exhaust just not be hot enough and givin our wonderful rainy cold humid weather it just be normal condensation? ... clear water drips out of the exhaust tip.

AND so far its impossible to tell if any coolant is missing because the level hasnt changed. ITs not blowing anymore white smoke than it did before the new headgasket... but before coolant was obviously draining quickly. .....

WE'RE STUMPED

We followed specific procedure on putting the motor back together. Torqued the head down in the numeric cross pattern method per the FSM. All at 58lb, adjusted the valves (intake .08, exhaust .12) etc..

and it runs good. =(

******

previous owner installed a webber carb on it so its not stock. EGR and all the emissions are completely disconnected and plugged off. I would prefer it be stock carb/emissions but guess we dont always get what we want =/ Whoever owned the truck prior DEFINETLY aint no tree hugger.. probably a logger. =p

thook

Yeah, Drew, that could be all it is. The 22r's don't get that hot as it is, and depending how well the exhaust flows the condensation will pool up and could take a bit to really evap all off. And the humid cold doesn't help matters. Plus, the exhaust leaks. Plus, no emissions stuff to filter some of the minute particulates out. Sounds like you did everything right from your descriptions. BUT! Why don't you run a compression test if you're concerned? Also, are the plugs, rotor, cap, and all that crap in good order?

drew303

hey thook

i ran out of time and patience last night to run a compression test. I mean I was pretty convinced from the plugs out and turnign the motor over to check the piston heads and no water.. ill run a compression test tomorrow.

Might try throwing in a higher degree T-stat and during warmer weather (ha).

I've been seeing lots of cars in town throwing white smoke so i think the weather isnt helping our diagnosis.

I'll throw an update here tomorrow after i get to look at during the day.

Targetnut

The test for a blown head gasket is checking for the presence of CO2 in the cooling system.

If the head gasket is blown bad enough to cause a measurable drop in compression then you'll be blowing all your coolant out right away.

Run the engine at 2000rpm for about 10 minutes and see if that clears up the steam from your exhaust.

Normal combustion produces a lot of water in the form of steam. low rpm conditions allow this steam to cool in the exhaust to the point it starts to condense when it exits into the atmosphere, giving that plume of "white smoke"
You've already made this observation on the other cars you see driving around.

Lower temp thermostats are a patch job for cooling system problems. Now that you've fixed yours, you should install the proper thermostat.