Gas in oil, fouled plugs, smoke. 205k miles, 86 Accord LX 5 speed.

Hello all,

I have a US 1986 Accord LX and it sat for about 2 years. I started it a couple months ago and started fine. Even drove it across town, noticed it was slow from a stop. Has always idled high or but ran fine even with AC on.

Part one: A month later now it cranks but won't start. So I hold the gas pedal down thinking it was flooded and kept cranking. Started finally with rough idle and soon began blowing white grey smoke (no it's not the head gasket, no oil in coolant) And died. Was able to do this a couple more times.

Checked the coil, it shocked the heck out of me. Cleaned the distributor points and rotor.

Pulled (newer) plugs, fouled black like carbon but wet with gas. Put in old set, same thing happened.

Drained old gas, was yellowish and had a slight varnish scent.

Checked oil. Was way high on the stick, drained it and was a gas/oil mix. Figure about ¼ gallon of gas in oil.

So from I've read, that's gas washing down the cylinder walls past the rings into the oil.

Previously before the 2 year period it the idle jet would periodically get plugged with a little piece of debris and it die when you came to a stop. Per the old Honda mechanic, we'd switch the 1 & 3 cables on the distributor to cause a backfire and that would clear the idle jet for a while until the next time. Tried this but was already missing terribly to back fire.

So, Added new gas, new plugs and oil. Started right up perfectly! Ran at a nice idle and no smoke!

After about 20-30 secs a light blue white smoke started coming out.

So shut it down and waited 3-5 minutes. Checked the radiator, just a hair low down to the first metal can see. No oil in water. Then it started right up perfectly and again after 20 seconds or so, the white (with a tinge of blue) smoke starts up again. I jump in and drive it 20 ft up the drive way and it billows white smoke that quickly dissipates. No strong scent (to me).

And I turned it off and now it looks like I need to pull plugs and check compression.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Consolidated to post above.

Hello all,

I have a US 1986 Accord LX and it sat for about 2 years. I started it a couple months ago and started fine. Even drove it across town, noticed it was slow from a stop. Has always idled high or but ran fine even with AC on.

Part one: A month later now it cranks but won't start. So I hold the gas pedal down thinking it was flooded and kept cranking. Started finally with rough idle and soon began blowing white grey smoke (no it's not the head gasket, no oil in coolant) And died. Was able to do this a couple more times.

Checked the coil, it shocked the heck out of me. Cleaned the distributor points and rotor.

Pulled (newer) plugs, fouled black like carbon but wet with gas. Put in old worn set, same thing happened. Billowing smoke, hard to start. Bad idle.

YESTERDAY- Drained old gas, was yellowish and had a slight varnish scent.

Checked oil. Was way high on the stick, drained it and was a gas/oil mix. Figure about ⅓ gallon of gas in oil.

So from I've read, that's gas washing down the cylinder walls past the rings into the oil.

Previously before the 2 year period it the idle jet would periodically get plugged with a little piece of debris and it die when you came to a stop. Per the old Honda mechanic, we'd switch the 1 & 3 cables on the distributor to cause a backfire and that would clear the idle jet for a while until the next time. Tried this but was already missing terribly to back fire.

TODAY- Added new gas, new plugs and oil. Started right up perfectly! Ran at a nice idle and no smoke!

After about 20-30 secs a light blue white smoke started coming out.

So shut it down and waited 3-5 minutes. Checked the radiator, just a hair low down to the first metal can see. No oil in water. Then it started right up perfectly and again after 20 seconds or so, the white (with a tinge of blue) smoke starts up again. I jump in and drive it 20 ft up the drive way and it billows white smoke that quickly dissipates. No strong scent (to me).

And I turned it off and now it looks like I need to pull plugs and check compression.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Do a leakdown test before you just say its not the head gasket. It could also be the carburetor leaking out.

So I started the car to see if it would idle for 15 minutes or so to use stop leak for the head gasket. And Annette beached operating temperature and seemed fine so I decided to try a bit got a mile and a half up the hill and back to my house. And about two-thirds of the way the smoke went away... So now I'm thinking it was the last of the old gas that was smoking.

I say if it runs, then run it. Weird things happen when cars sit. You spend a bunch of time and money trying to figure out what's causing it, and before you do, it's back to running great again. Just make sure to carry a cell phone, jumper cables and sensible shoes with you wherever you go for awhile LOL.

Merged dupe threads.

Wise words sirs.

So long version, I started it and was going to see if it could idle for 15-20 mins first before throwing in some stop leak.

It smoked like a bandit but got to normal temperature and idle after 5 mins or so. I had the radiator cap off at first and saw no oil, no bubbles and put it back on.

So I said, maybe it's the rings letting some oil thru. Research says change oil and drive it hard to loosen the rings up. So I took it for a 1 ½ drive thru the neighborhood at a gentle clip and lo and behold... the smoke went away.

I think it was the last of the old gas in the line that was causing the smoke. It was a whitish smoke with a blueish tingle. Smelled funny. Not like anything particular. Just like off exhaust.

Drove to Costco, filled it up. Drove great. I forgot how much fun it is to drive. Quick, decently responsive (especially considering my other car is a crown vic.)

Thank you both for taking the time to answer. I hope this monologue of mine helps someone else.

Youre going to hate yourself when that stop leak stops working...

Didn't use Stop leak. It was the old gas making the whitish smoke.

Drove it 140 miles yesterday round-trip to the Oregon coast. Did great with the exception that it was gutless going over the 1500ft passes. Couldn't maintain 65mph, had to downshift to 4th and about 55mph. Almost felt like it was cutting it of pushed harder.

I'd like to check the timing, reading the manual here, I'm unclear what degree I'm looking for. 10,15 or 20?

It's a LX US 5 speed.

Any suggestions?

Ps. Has newer fuel pump so I suspect fuel delivery is good. New plugs as well.

It should tell you the tuning on the under hood tag. Go with that.

Thank you for the gentle reminder. I had forgotten about that.

24° ±2 it says