Smoking motor
Asked by Intuitive57 Sep 23, 2018 at 05:48 AM about the 1999 Toyota Camry CE
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
Hey guys! I have a 1999 Toyota Camry, it's been
parked for about 4 months now. During those 4
months it's been started and driven roughly 4-5
times but after startup I noticed the motor
smoking a white/gray color and the smoking does
intensify during drive time. I don't want to continue
driving the car without knowing the problem, any
suggestions?
6 Answers
Perform a compression or cylinder leak down test you may have some frozen piston rings,although white smoke usually means the engine is leaking coolant into the combustion chamber, is it using coolant? How does it run? If the converter is still working it won't for long, if it plugs it'll be expensive, is it using oil?
Intuitive57 answered 6 years ago
Yes the car is still using oil as far as I can tell and the car is still driving smooth despite the smoke, sorry about the late reply. What is the easiet way to check for a blown head gasket?
Cylinder leak down test. A special fitting is screwed into the spark plud hole, then compressed air is put intl the cylinder if air bubbles appear in the radiator that cylinder is leaking into the cooling system, if you can hear air blowing into the crankcase the piston rings in that cylinder are letting compression leak by into the engine. If the cylinder holds up he air pressure it's OK.
Interesting problem, let us know how it turns out, mechanics tend to get used to instant self-gratification.