PRelude787

I have some coming from my exhaust. It's not a whole lot but I can see when it's idling. It was about almost 70° and I still saw the smoke so I don't think it was cuz of the weather.

I know I have a leak on my radiator near the top of it........it's easily reachable and visible. Would this cause the white smoke to come out of this exhaust......or is it something more serious? I did search btw and everything seems to lead to a busted head gasket leaking coolant.

I just wanna know if the leaking radiator would cause this........or is it something worse? Thanx!

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96 Prelude Si

fmshaw1971

Well I don't think it's something worse, but the two that you mentioned are pretty bad. If you have coolant leaking in the block somewhere, you have to tear apart your engine. Could be the headgasket too or more likely the piston rings. If you are smoking even at idle I'd say it's worse than bad valve seals.

A radiator that leaks would do nothing. If you are still losing coolant after you repair the leak then it's going in the block somewhere.

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97 EGP Base 5spd Prelude. Engine: DC short ram, DC SS headers, AEM pulleys, Random High flow cat, Mugen sport exhaust, Apexi VAFC. Suspension: Tein SS, Tanabe front lower tie, Neuspeed front upper strut, Neuspeed rear sway, Tanabe rear upper strut, DC rear lower tie, 17X7.5 5Zigen Typhoons with 215/40/17 Goodyear F1 GS-D3s. Other: Bride Ergo II, Spoon oil cap, Magnecor wires, relocated Odyssey 680 battery, Denso iridiums, Mugen pedals, Mugen lugnuts, shortened shifter w/ Momo airleather, Rotora slotted rotors and Endless NA-Y pads, Goodridge SS lines.

Gopherhog

White smoke is caused from coolant. Blue smoke is from oil, and black smoke is from running overly rich. Did you say piston rings are the likely cause of coolant to enter the combustion chamber? Or did i read that wrong?

Check your oil. If it is milky at all, it is from coolant entering your oil supply. You can also check your radiator fluid for oil droplets etc..

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-Eric

fmshaw1971

No, piston rings would be oil in the combustion chamber. If he has coolant in the oil, he has worse problems than bad rings.

BTW, did you go past redline or do anything to harm the engine? I would change your oil immediately and check it out. A lot of coolant would be obvious. Send it off to be tested even if it looks fine.

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97 EGP Base 5spd Prelude. Engine: DC short ram, DC SS headers, AEM pulleys, Random High flow cat, Mugen sport exhaust, Apexi VAFC. Suspension: Tein SS, Tanabe front lower tie, Neuspeed front upper strut, Neuspeed rear sway, Tanabe rear upper strut, DC rear lower tie, 17X7.5 5Zigen Typhoons with 215/40/17 Goodyear F1 GS-D3s. Other: Bride Ergo II, Spoon oil cap, Magnecor wires, relocated Odyssey 680 battery, Denso iridiums, Mugen pedals, Mugen lugnuts, shortened shifter w/ Momo airleather, Rotora slotted rotors and Endless NA-Y pads, Goodridge SS lines.

PRelude787

I was driving a little hard the other day but never went past redline. I'll have to check the oil first thing tomorrow.

I checked the coolant yesterday and it seemed fine....nice and green. I had gotten a valve adjustment from a mechanic a couple of months ago. Ever since then the car hasn't idled as smoothly as it used to. Could they have forgotten to tighten some bolts or something? I did get all new gaskets also for the valve cover, seals, and distributor rotor or something like that (it was a gasket set from Honda).

Is there any other way to check? Would a compression test let me know if the white smoke is something serious?

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96 Prelude Si