Post Head Gasket, Sludgy Oil, Smoke through CDR, White Exaust

[JeffMoss1]

Hi Everyone,

I haven't posted in a while (or worked on my Van in a while), but now I'm back on it. Not sure why I haven't gotten rid of it yet, I just like that thing for some reason.

I will try to keep this concise. Basically I'm looking for confirmation from maybe a few of you that I have this diagnosed correctly. Below is the sequence of events:

- A long time ago replaced head gaskets. Forgot to put in one of the little grommets on the felpro gasket on the passenger side front of the engine.
- While I knew I had done this, the motor worked great for 4-5 years, so I didn't fix something that wasn't broken.
- 2-3 years ago it got bad and I knew what the problem was, but didn't have time for it.
- Van has ended up sitting quite a bit.
- Finally got around to replacing both head gaskets and the coolant no longer bubbles (pretty confident that the cooling system is sealed now, but feel free to question)
- Drove the van around and there was major white smoke and poor power.
- Checked timing with my timing light and the injector line clamp sensor.
- Timing was retarded below spec pretty far and I couldn't advance the pump any more than it was.
- Bought a new IP. Installed it and timed it.
- There was definitely water in the oil, so I did an oil change before I started it up this time, but the oil was cold, so it might not have been that thorough of a change.
- Power is great.
- Odd noise at a seemly specific RPM. Sounds like a piece of sheet metal rattling. Really hoping it's not the lifter spider coming loose or something in the motor.
- Ignoring that for the moment, there is a HUGE plume of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. The more throttle, the more smoke.
- Popped off the air filter and there's a major amount of smoke coming out of the CDR and going right into the intake.
- Inside the CDR it looks like a clogged artery. White, milky goop.
- Put on an extra (old) CDR had lying around, didn't fix the problem.

My Diagnosis:
There's a whole bunch of crud and water inside the crank case and that all needs to burn off for the smoke to stop.

My Plan:
Warm it back up, drive it around, do another oil change, smoke slowly goes away?

I welcome any and all comments. Feel free to tell me to get rid of my stupid van and get a truck. I might not listen to you though. ;-)

 

[Koch13351]

If you have already gotten the majority of the water out of the crankcase, I'd just take it on a good long drive that will get the engine completely warmed up. The oil temp will be higher than the boiling point of water, so the water will turn to steam and eventually make its way out thru the CDR.

 

[JeffMoss1]

Well it's nice to know that you think I'm on the right track. The problem with a nice long drive is right now the truck is not inspected (New York) and you can see me coming from like 1/4 mile away. We're talking some serious amounts of white smoke. Hard to be subtle.

 

[Agnem]

Does the white smoke smell like coolant? Any coolant consumption? Drop your Y pipe and see if it is coming out of one side or both sides.

 

[JeffMoss1]

Does not smell like coolant, but the engine has mostly water in it right now.

When I run the engine with the air filter off I can see quite a bit of "smoke" billowing right out of the CDR right into the intake. I'm thinking that's got to be the source of the problem, no?

I'll drop the Y pipe and double check there's no coolant consumption. I'll report back, thanks.