White smoke?

Hello everyone.

My first post so I would first like to introduce myself. Name is Brandon from Florida and I drive an 89 Accord. Found the site a while back, but just now made an account.

Now that that's out of the way...


Last night my car ran out of gas and my boss gave me some that he had in his garage until I could get more today. I'm pretty sure the gas was 89 octane, and I've used 93 ever since I purchased the car. After work I go and change the air filter and put some oil in. Drive down the road and it's fine. Get 10 in 93 gas and drive home. As soon as I pull out there is a huge ass cloud of white smoke coming from my car. It covered the whole road. It stopped traffic. :dunno:

So I get home and it's still bellowing out, letting up for maybe a minute, then returning.

What I'm trying to figure out is if the smoke is being cause by bad gas, the new oil, or something worse like a blown head gasket. I doubt it's a gasket, since the engine only has 105k on it and was taken care of before I got ahold of it.

Any ideas on what it might be? I need help! :sad2:

If the smoke goes away like steam does it's almost surely a blown head gasket. Miles on the engine don't really matter. It could be caused by a warped head from over heating in the past.

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Originally Posted by Blkblurr

If the smoke goes away like steam does it's almost surely a blown head gasket. Miles on the engine don't really matter. It could be caused by a warped head from over heating in the past.

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True, it's not steam like. It's rather thick and doesn't dissapate quickly. It has an odd odor too.

By the way. 93 octane gas doesn't really help you unless your getting pre detonation knocking using 87. the higher the octane, the harder it is to ignite. High compression engines need higher octane because of the heating affect you get from compressing the air to a greater amount. The hot fuel and air mixture can detonate just by piston compression and engine heat. Deisel effect.

Sounds like antifreeze burning. Head gasket time.

I took a trip to the mall to test the bad gas theory. Only had one little cloud, then it was fine. Pretty sure it was just the gas I got from the boss.

Never the less, the head gasket is going to be checked regardless for good measure.

Thanks for the help.

i'd say thats bad gas. it'll do that. that gas the guy gave you was probley some that had been sitting for some time. as long as it doesnt do this much anymore, then you should be fine. this stuff called Barryman B12 thats in a silver can does the trick at cleaning gas up and stuff. its worked when my grandma put diesel in her accord and when i bought old gas a month or so ago. add that to a full tank if its still smoking. when i put bad gas in, it smelled funny at the exhaust, like old gas. and it ran like crap until i refilled it and put some of that fuel treatment in.

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Originally Posted by HondaBoy

i'd say thats bad gas. it'll do that. that gas the guy gave you was probley some that had been sitting for some time. as long as it doesnt do this much anymore, then you should be fine. this stuff called Barryman B12 thats in a silver can does the trick at cleaning gas up and stuff. its worked when my grandma put diesel in her accord and when i bought old gas a month or so ago. add that to a full tank if its still smoking. when i put bad gas in, it smelled funny at the exhaust, like old gas. and it ran like crap until i refilled it and put some of that fuel treatment in.

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Cool, that's what I'm going to do next time I need gas.

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Originally Posted by Priest

Cool, that's what I'm going to do next time I need gas.

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well he might have given you chainsaw or weedeater gas by mistake. It will smoke like the devil. LOL he probably did it just to get your goat.

Headgasket the exhaust will be very white fuffy smoke and smell sweet like anti-freeze. Your oil may look like mayonaise too.


wp

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Originally Posted by Oldblueaccord

well he might have given you chainsaw or weedeater gas by mistake. It will smoke like the devil. LOL he probably did it just to get your goat.

Headgasket the exhaust will be very white fuffy smoke and smell sweet like anti-freeze. Your oil may look like mayonaise too.


wp

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I agree with the mixed gas theory, sounds like there may have been some oil mixed in there and it has burned off now.

Then again I would do a compression check before ruling anything out. My malibu had a crack in the head and would only give out little wisps of white smoke for about 3 months until it overheated three times which led me to believe that it had to be something up with the head gasket. But hopefully for you it was bad gas b/c with miles that low I'd hate to already be puling that engine apart.

Hasn't come back since the last time I posted. It all looks good. Thanks for the help guys.

if it was mixed gas, the smoke would have been blue, not white, so thats not it. I'm guessing the problem was water in the gas you put in the first time.

glad to hear its not anything worse!

Thanks guys. The white smoke is gone, but I've still got many things to get done before it's even reliable. I'm basically going through the fix everything phase. It's all going out one right after the other. I just had the clutch replaced and the front brakes done. Now my rear brakes are going bad, my starter is dead, I'm not getting any power to the car at all (the battery is good), cv axel on passenger front is bad, oil leak, new tires...yeah I think thats it. lol I know people have had worse, and since I've started putting money in her I'm not giving up now. I hope to be Accord of the Month...in a few years maybe. Hehe. Good thing I have a buddy that does cheap work for me and teaches me new shit all the time. I've been dying to learn more and hopefully I will. This site is a big help.

Ok, I'm rambling...later.

check your main power relay under the hood for the power problem.

These are older cars, so if they've never been fully serviced, things tend to go out all at once. But once you do replace the stuff, it'll be good for another 100k. :D

It was a blown battery fuse...

I was pissed. I totally forgot to check the obvious first.

Owe well. Atleast she's back up. Time get a new starter and rear brakes. Maybe nows a good time to switch to discs in the back...yes, I think so. Hehe.

yeah, i'm about to updgrade to 89 front and rear discs. as soon as this rain quits.