Thread: 3.8 series II sc blows smoke with rev

heres the deal i just bought this series II and its blowing smoke, the color is whitish smells very old school chevy exhausty lol. on idle its ok little traces of smoke which ive always thought normal, however let loose the throttle and it will bury you in smoke. it does have a thrasher pulley of unknown diameter. i noticed the intake was leaking oil badly ( common) replaced/fixed that today , still blows smoke. noticed there looks to be a 3" down pipe on the exhaust, its about 3" up unto the cat then back down to normal size, my question is what could be causing this excessive smoke? if you need more info let me know cause im kinda stumped , it doesnt appear to be a head gasket it runs very nice just blows a lot of smoke which pisses me off!!! HELP !!

Have you checked your oil to see if it is milky in color? Im sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but I thought white smoke was a sign of a coolant leak.

you redid the lower intake manifold gaskets? was there coolant in your oil beforehand?

the smoke white or black? if its white its probably burning coolant somewhere.

Originally Posted by SyntheticShield

Have you checked your oil to see if it is milky in color? Im sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but I thought white smoke was a sign of a coolant leak.

X2 Could be a bad LIM gasket.

Oh didn't see that you replaced the intake gaskets. You were refering to the LIM gaskets right? Well if that is the case then did you pour oil down the lifter valley to wash away the spilt coolant? And did you change your oil afterwards?

oil was ok a little black when i got it , did an engine flush , oil change , drove it for about a week , decided what the hell lets do the lower intake gaskets because they were dumping, did them today , again replaced the oil ( of course ) after i was finished, and same issue

the coolant holds at 15 psi by the way ive tested it - no visible leaks , and the oil is perfect

should i take video to show you ?? lol

im thinking its more of an exhaust issue, then engine at this point it runs to damn good

like i said it looks like the exhaust pipe is about 3" until after the cat then it drops back down to normal where the resonator is and the rest is stock, would a hollow cat cause this?

Your brake booster hose isn't hooked up to a can of seafoam is it , lol jk.

ive never seen a 3800 like this before, this one just has me stumped , but i did take some video and pics if any were interested in seeing

YouTube - 3800 series II smoke problem

YouTube - 3800 series II smoke problem 2

no takers?

White smoke is normally caused by burning oil. On start up an engine will smoke from worn valve guides that will allow oil to drip down into the cylinder. Your oil rings on your pistons may be wearing out or if the engine was rebuilt they might have not been installed properly. That is all i can think of hope it helps you find your problem.

^He beat me to it. I was going to suggest valve stem seals.

thats what i was leaning and hoping for actually lol better than doing rings and cheaper well i guess that will be a project for tomorrow

you think it would pass smog as it sits? lol

LOL. Only if their sniffer is broken.

Originally Posted by SyntheticShield

LOL. Only if their sniffer is broken.

thats what i was afraid of lol , almost worth it to see the look on the smog guys face when i bring it blowing smoke asking " you think it'll pass?" lol ahhh comedy

The good news is that the viton valve seals are fairly inexpensive, its just a matter of getting them in. I dont know if you have a local club, but if you need help perhaps someone near you or from the local club could help out if you need it.

Now, all that said, not knowing for sure what the smoking is caused by, you may want to look into a product called Auto-RX. It is a WONDERFUL product for cleaning the engine, freeing up sticky rings and does help with weak seals. Dont take that to mean it will correct broken seals, but if its a result of seal having contracted some, Auto-Rx will cause a little seal swell and create a better seal. Ive used it numerous time locally for customers that have leaks and such that are caused by leaky seals that arent caused by tears and such with fantastic results.

If you have the time to use the product, perhaps it could offer a solution for you and buy some time for ya. I recently had a guy that was quoted nearly $2000 to fix a rear main seal leak. I told him that if the leak was not caused by a physical tear or deformity in the seal that Auto-Rx would probably help out and correct the leak. He tried it and it worked perfectly and has not leaked since.

Just check it out and if its something you have time to do I can personally vouch for the product as I have used it personally and have used it other owners vehicles (not just Grand Prix's either) with stellar results.

ive heard about the product, never tried it.

the valve seals are 18.00 so i think im going to take that route. do i need the J-Tool for install or can i use a generic installer? i ask only because ive only done them with the j-tool at the dealer and ive only done them twice. typically if they needed seals we would tell the customer that it needed a valve job lol so the dealer would make more money a lot of shops do that though, seals dont pay a lot compared to head job lol, i enjoyed it though, flat rate made me great money lol