gumby3d

Hey,

What a fitting first post... So a few months ago I bought a '93 4Runner, 4 cylinder.... It's great, I love it, it's perfect... And I thought since I loved it so much I would try and get more involved with it than my previous vehicles... Well folks, it appears as though doom has stricken. Following a routine oil "top up", (I overfilled, by a lot, don't ask me what possessed me to dump in oil without checking the dipstick during the process... I know I made an extremely stupid, stupid, stupid mistake) the truck expressed extreme pain by way of spewing forth thick white exhaust, and not responding very nicely when asked to move forward. Luckily it did this promptly, roughly 150 meters out of the driveway. So... I panicked, ran home quickly after pulling the truck to the side of the road, came on here, and learned how to change the oil... So, last night I drained the oil, there was a lot, how surprising...

This morning, I strolled down to Napa, picked up some synthetic, as I had originally planned to switch to synthetic on the first oil change I was to perpetrate. I got a new oil filter, a filter wrench, air filter even, since I was gunna be working anyway (air filter though seems fine, no need to replace it at the moment). So I have successfully changed the oil, replaced the filter, and I have started the beast up once again... Oh fate has dealt me a cruel bony hand in my first attempts at simple auto maintenance... The thick why exhaust remains, the engine seems... SEEMS, to me, Mr. Expert, unsusually warm, after having only let run for a few minutes. The white exhaust is not minimal... The truck casts off massive thick clouds of the stuff when driven... Or revved... When idling at first the white exhaust is hardly noticeable... But once given some gas, look out...

So... I pose to you experts of auto mechanistry, yota gurus... What have I done? I have an extremely huge, sickening knot in my stomach, I feel really ill. I'm very, very worried.

Thanks
Chris

Flamedx4

A little overfilling generally won't hurt anything. But grossly overfilliing can do ugly things. It can cause the oil to foam or froth (because the crankshaft churns it violently) and then the oil pump (a very basic device essentially unchanged in 100 years) can't pump this froth, so nothing gets lubricated. Bearings fail, pistons sieze, etc. Quickly too. Seals get damaged too - it's often nearly as bad as running out of oil. ON the other hand, some oil may have been pushed past the rings and just needs to burn off. It's really tough to guess. I'd hate to recommend you run it or drive it and do more damage.

GodwinAustin

geez - I would hope this isnt the case with tranny, x-fer, and dif oil as I filled all of those all the way up until gear oil started trickling out of the fill hole!

dragon564

Flamed has hit it here.....IMHO i think that the oil did push past the rings....the smoke should start to wane and a normal exhust should return but depending on how much oil went past it could take up to an hour at highway speeds to start to see it wane....if "wet oil" gets into the cat it take much longer to burn it out and idle will not get the exhust temp high enough to do it....it could idle with no smoke but then get on it some and the smoke starts pour out....it should smell like someone is taring a roof....HARD CALL ON THE RUN IT part if to over fill broke some thing then running it will make it much worse....keep a real close watch on the oil press and level.

SolidDigital

might wanna also check the coolant level, white smoke is supposed to be coolant and blueish is oil..

gumby3d

Thanks a lot for the replies, even Austin, that lifted my spirits a bit

But really, thanks for the replies, I appreciate knowing what could be going on in there, your suggestions as to what's going on makes sense. You're right about running it, but I've been super worried about this and the only thing I can do is run it, so I've turned it on a few times and let it idle for a while, just listening and watching stuff. I noticed I'm really low on coolant, I'll go pick some up, then go from there.

I'll get a friend over who knows what he's doing to check it out, get an opinion... I mean, at the moment, just sort of stuck with my own ignorance.

I honestly hope this is a step in the right direction, I really want to learn what and what not to do with my truck. Obviously this was a no.... A very blatant, no. I'll never be so careless again... But I can tell you this with certainty, it idles SO smooth now with the synthetic in there. It's remarkable, there's like no noises out of the ordinary, it's wonderful... If only I could be sure the truck was ok to drive. Mind you I'm sure it's illegal or somewhat frowned upon to drive with a smoke screen trailing behind you.

Anyway, I appreciate the replies.

Thanks.

hkollie

I once had a truck lay on its side for 24hrs, had to pull the spark plugs and "shoot" the excess oil out through the plug hole!!!

I don't suggest you have that much oil in there, but the truck did run fine after a little while of smoking.

Flamedx4

You are supposed to fill the trans and tcase and diffs until it comes out the filler hole. Assuming you used the correct filler holes, then you're good.

GodwinAustin

Rad

Flamedx4

Anyone reading this - it applies only to manual trans. Fill to level indicated on dipstick for auto trans - Overfilling an auto trans is Very Very bad.

Mickdady

I think you are ok. Go drive it at steady throttle but keep the rpms down below 2500. The smoke will supside.

When I worked at ford I saw a tech accidently fill the intake with oil because the oil fill gun had a slightly angled tip which instead of filling the crankcase aimed at the breather hose that came out of the fill hole. approximatly 4qts went into the intake.

He realized his mistake before starting it and I got the job of taking it apart and cleaning the intake and heads. Once put back together it still smoked for about an hour as some oil had leaked into the combustion chamber.

If you had hydrolocked or bent a rod you would know it. Once the smoke clears give a few loaded runs up a hill at higher RPMS.

Consider yourself very very lucky

Bigblock

the cat and O2 is probly well oiled too!lol

PirateFins

Ok you need to check what the smoke looks like and smells like(don't stick your nose on the tail pipe, just stand close).

If the smoke is blueish, grey and smells like oil burning. Then it is just what got past the rings burning off. This will subside unless you blew a seal.

If the smoke is white and smells sweat. Then you probably have a bad head gasket or cracked the head. Pull the dipstick and look at the color of the oil. If it looks like chocolate milk, then you are mixing oil and water. How many miles are on the truck and has the timing chain ever been done (guides replaced)?

Check those things and let us know.

gumby3d

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys, really really appreciated.

I don't think there's anything sweet regarding the aroma of the smoke, it smells like burning oil. I'll have a good whiff later. It looks pretty blue grey.

I was desperate yesterday and drove the truck down to the local "guru", so to speak. He was really cool, I mean, he had a very concerned look on his face when he saw the smoke, he thought it was either a head gasket or a blown seal. When I told him the amount of smoke had subsided a lot he looked slightly less concerned.

He told me it'll either need a complete rebuild or replacement, OR it'll clear up in a few days, and I should replace the spark plugs once it seems to be better.

He said, I can't possibly do more real damage to it then what's been done, which makes sense.

He got a price on a rebuild, which is expensive, and he got a lead on a 22R that'll be selling for around $1300. Plus labour, it would still be under $2000. I can just afford that. I just, I hope it's not that bad simply because I would feel like a moron, I mean I did as much as anyone with no experience could do, probably didn't manage to damage it quite as much as I could have... Maybe .

I really appreciate your help, I really, do, thanks.

CynicX

Well its white, and your low on coolant...I'm not a mechanic but I'll say you blew the head or screwed the block with the excessive pressure of the overfilled oil....Sometimes oil is a little white if you have bad valve seals and it smokes at start up...I'd take it too a mechanic and be prepared for bad news....Hope everything works out for you....

jimbo74

to me, it soundsl ike you possibly put too much oil in and blew the head gasket.. white smoke is water based, oil based is blue... also if the truck gets warm really fast and is low on coolant.... all signs seem to point to a blown headgasket....