Hi, I have a 1987 Nissan Pickup truck with the Z24 engine 4 cylinder, fuel injected.
My uncle came home with it, and he was going to replace the brake pistons because the brake master cylinder (not the brake booster) was leaking, and the pistons were worn. So he replaced them, but now when the car starts up, white smoke pours out of the exhaust. Any ideas? I only see one hose going from the booster to the engine...did brake fluid get in there somehow? What is that hose for? It doesn't smell like oil...in fact it doesn't have much odor at all. It smells BARELY bitter...but its hard to smell it. Just pure white smoke...the head isn't leaking any oil, no coolant leaking, and the car was working fine before replacing those pistons. Anybody have ideas?
Hi, I have a 1987 Nissan Pickup truck with the Z24 engine 4 cylinder, fuel injected.
My uncle came home with it, and he was going to replace the brake pistons because the brake master cylinder (not the brake booster) was leaking, and the pistons were worn. So he replaced them, but now when the car starts up, white smoke pours out of the exhaust. Any ideas? I only see one hose going from the booster to the engine...did brake fluid get in there somehow? What is that hose for? It doesn't smell like oil...in fact it doesn't have much odor at all. It smells BARELY bitter...but its hard to smell it. Just pure white smoke...the head isn't leaking any oil, no coolant leaking, and the car was working fine before replacing those pistons. Anybody have ideas?
Most brake boosters run off of a vacuum hose to the intake. If you have brake fluid in the booster housing (from the MC leak) it could be getting sucked into the intake.
__________________
Jerry
2004 Frontier, King Cab, XE, 4x1, 4-cyl, 5-spd My Frontier Page
You could try to remove the vacuum line from the booster and see if it clears up (I wouldn't drive it without the booster; it'll probably make braking much more difficult).
I'd double check the radiator cap and oil filler cap to make sure there are no signs that the two are mixing (a cracked head or block or leaking head gasket could cause white smoke).
How's the brake, coolant, and oil levels? Are any of them dropping?
__________________
Jerry
2004 Frontier, King Cab, XE, 4x1, 4-cyl, 5-spd My Frontier Page
Last edited by jerryp58 : Oct 14th, 2005 at 10:18 AM.
You could try to remove the vacuum line from the booster and see if it clears up (I wouldn't drive it without the booster; it'll probably make braking much more difficult).
I'd double check the radiator cap and oil filler cap to make sure there are no signs that the two are mixing (a cracked head or block or leaking head gasket could cause white smoke).
How's the brake, coolant, and oil levels? Are any of them dropping?
Well, the brake fluid is full, coolant level, it was low so I topped it off...but there didn't seem to be any oil (it would be brown right?) so I put some new coolant in, and started it and same thing happened...oil levels...I THINK its going down...after every start, checking the oil dipstick, it looks like the oil level gets lower and lower...but yea this smoke thing is ridiculous, even the bottom of the car theres white smoke I guess coming out from the exhaust joints or something...can it really be I have a cracked head? I can't see any oil leaks or anything...no fresh oil around the head gasket either...any more suggestions? It's just weird because you just turn the car off after coming home from work, replace brake pistons, and then put them back on and smoke just comes pouring out.
I think this may be a new problem that has developed, irrevelent to the brake job. What does the smoke SMELL like(no I haven't lost my mind)? If it smells like fresh asphalt, it's oil burning. If it has somewhat of a sweet smell, that's antifreese.
Just looking at the pictures, the smoke seems to light to be oil. If I were to take a guess on the information I have, I'd say head gasket just let go, but that's just me.
__________________
The only way to achieve the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible - unknown
Looks and sounds like coolant to me as well. Oil smoke (in my experience) is more greyish or bluish and has a distinct smell.
I'd bet this is just one of those crazy coinicidences that happened just at the same time as you fixing your brakes - kinda like when you turn on your kitchen light and the refrigerator compressor starts up at the exact same time - not related at all, but interesting non-the-less.
I hope you get this figured out and it's not too major a deal.
Thanks guys. Well, everytime the car has been running, I've been trying to really smell and sniff the smoke lol....and honestly it doesn't smell strong! There barely isn't any smell...at times I can smell it, and it smells SLIGHTLY and I do mean SLIGHTLY bitter/sweet and then it's just like my nose gets adapted to the smell and I can't smell anything. I honestly can't tell the difference, but it is definitely not strong, and doesn't smell like burning oil/asphalt or gas. But yea, I'm trying my hardest to really sniff and get the smell (no I'm not stuffing my nose to the muffler or in the smoke to sniff it lol) but I am still unable to determine what it is. So far, I am guessing it is anti-freeze. Keep em coming guys, and thanks again.
Coolent leak would cause white steam to come out of your tail pipe:
Either/both
a: Oil ends up in your coolent (radiator)
b: Coolent in your oil (checking oil on stick will look like chocolate milk)
As stated above, oil burning looks blue-ish or black and smells like oil burning.
(you can tell easly)
If your car has for somereason digested break fluid, you can smell that to.
You said your car was low on coolent, it might have over heated and cracked the head and now is leaking coolent in to the combustion camber.
Let the car cool down and remove your radiator cap. Does it decrease?
Does the "smoke" increase when you rev your engine out?
Coolent leak would cause white steam to come out of your tail pipe:
Either/both
a: Oil ends up in your coolent (radiator)
b: Coolent in your oil (checking oil on stick will look like chocolate milk)
As stated above, oil burning looks blue-ish or black and smells like oil burning.
(you can tell easly)
If your car has for somereason digested break fluid, you can smell that to.
You said your car was low on coolent, it might have over heated and cracked the head and now is leaking coolent in to the combustion camber.
Let the car cool down and remove your radiator cap. Does it decrease?
Does the "smoke" increase when you rev your engine out?
X
Yes, the car was low on coolant. If it did crack the head, I can't see where the crack is...or any leaks for that matter. I have not had the car on for a long time where the temperature will reach 'normal' because there is just simply too much white smoke and it's really thick. When I start up the car, it will take maybe like 10 seconds before you start seeing smoke and then it just gets thicker. The smoke does increase when I rev the engine out. Checking the oil dipstick shows solid oil, and no 'milkiness' if the coolant is inside, so I assume oil is going in the radiator? Thanks again.
Last edited by oliverr87 : Oct 14th, 2005 at 02:32 PM.
Thats coolant smoke, put your hand in it and see if it's getting wet...
it probably just happened, since you've only now seen it, so there may not be enough coolant getting into the oil to foul it up...
try opening your radiator cap and revving then engine while watching... see if exhaust bubbles are getting into the coolant...
probably just a bad head gasket, could even be bad to where the "crack/channel" in the head gasket is going from a coolant run to the cylinder directly...
pull the spark plugs and see if they're wet...
__________________
05 4X4 Nismo KC 6-Speed Mods: PXNI AAI-NIS Audio input box, XTR7CK Sirius Sat Radio (dash antenna & custom radio mount), iPod integration, lug/spare/gas locks, Silverstar 9007ST Headlights, Full Synthetic Swap (engine/diffs/tranny/xfer case), OEM Rubber floormats, Flowmaster exhaust, K&N 63 Series Intake w/ an AEM dryflow filter
Yea, if it is excessive then I suspect coolent in to camber. However you may so no signs (as of yet) except the steam coming out.
What happens is:
It sucks coolent on the doward stroke then it "burns" it.
To make sure I'am right. Pull the plugs one at a time. The cleanest plug will probably be near the leak. That plug will have less carbon and may be wet. You can pressure check that cylinder.
As for for the leak:
It could be a small crack between the valves & drawing coolent from there. Or something easy like a broken head gasket. You just don't know tell ya pull it apart (top end).
If it is a coolent<>cylinder leak it maybe a cheep easy fix (head gasket) or not so easy (cracked head).
Linear Mode
