See my other post about coolant in #1 cylinder, could be bad headgasket, cracked head or intake gasket leak....

Anyways, since then everytime I've started it, instant smoke show, smells like coolant, stumbles and misses badly on #1. Today I had to move it out of the way and it stumbled a little at first then idled fine, ran fine, not even a hint of smoke. WTF??? The only thing different today is the weather is about 20 degrees warmer. Clues???

 

did you go back in and retorque the head or tighten the intake bolts at all?

it is odd that it was fine, then started smoking, then nada. are you sure it was steam from coolant and not burning oil?

 

I hear if you happen to get an elephant caught in there, that would be enough to stop a head gasket leak. It's just what I hear, though.

 

hahaha you said it smoked at first then stopped and idled fine right? the only reason that it smokes is because there is coolant in it. once you burn the coolant out of the cylinder you probably dont have a bad enough headgasket leak to continue to make it smoke. i had the same problem it would smoke for about a minute and after that it ran awesome and you couldnt see the smoke anymore but after driving it for a while it would start to over heat due to loss of fluid. but i had to drive it for 2 or 3 hours before it would happen again

 

Didn't touch anything on it as I'm swamped with work and figured I'd tackle it Saturday. The other day when I drove it down the street, it smoked the entire time-about 5 minutes. About and hour later, same thing-from the moment it started up it was smoking. Most definitely from coolant, white, thick and had that faint smell of antifreeze. Plus I pulled the plugs and the #1 plug was wet with coolant.

It sat for a day and then today I started it to just move it out of the way for the moment and nothing...no smoke, no rough idle...like it never happened. Pulled #1 plug, dry as a bone. HUH???

The only difference in today and the other day is the temp outside, about 20 degrees difference. Weird eh? And no, I'm not smoking anything either

 

Funny you say that... my 94 seems to hesitate and sputter on warm days( no smoke tho), and then when it rains... smooth as a baby's but. Shouldnt it be the other way around?

 

lol... but it seems the engine is smoking something wacky.

I don't see any other way for coolant to enter the #1 chamber other than through the head gasket or intake manifold... or maybe through a crack in the head or block....

now my mind hits OD...
are there any temp controlled vacuum relay valves... maybe it's possible that coolant is being forced through a relay valve and it just happens to drip behind the throttle body and into the #1 cylinder...

 

there is the iac valve...on the t.b.... I dont know how that could cause probs tho...unless the hose was leaking, and even then, how would it get into the cc?

 

I was thinking that 420... but on the earlier engines, the IAC was electrically heated, not by coolant, so there'd be no possibility of that. But the later throttle bodies with the coolant heated 'wax pellet' type valve could theoretically leak into the throttle, but would the coolant pressure be enough to just leak into the throttle body and would the design of the manifold make the coolant drip into only that cylinder?

 

Thats my guess right there. was a new intake gasket used? I recall it being very easy to fubar those rubber seals, and those rubbers will contract and expand with temp, and pressure.

 

i think its a headgasket... because mine did the same thing. one time it smoked its ass off. actually one time it had soo much coolant in it it took me 5 minutes of clicking to get it to push most of it out so that it could start... and then other times it would start and not even smoke... it wasnt the head gasket but it was the block that was crappily machined and was 2 thousanths off around a water jacket. but thats basically the same thing...

 

just replace the head gasket anyways... that way you know that its fresh the next time it starts sputtering..

 

i agree with space junk... better to be safe than sorry

 

I'd say, at least pull the intake and investigate, if you cant find the prob there, at least you are almost to the h/g's.

 

Think that's the plan of attack, I'll post up what I find.

 

ya you ran the water level so low there was no water to push in there to burn off. if you drive it around the block for about 5 min youd see the temp just keep going up and up and up till it redlines and your 3vze dies an ugly death.

 

Elephants are a big problem when the creep into the emissions control stuff.


As for the HG, are you just plain out of coolant??

 

Sprechen sie english?

It's a 22RE.

I can actually tie my shoelaces hence coolant levels were fine.

Just tore it down tonight and looked pretty obvious the intake gasket was leaking. Drained all the fluids and will have a new one on tomorrow. I'm guessing it stopped leaking after it shut down and the gasket swelled up and dried out. Wouldn't have stopped it though so just a matter of time.

 

Glad to hear you found the problem.