First car, lx450!
- Thread starter tug123
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- #282
I absolutely will, I should've been looking up the same thing, not much on ih8mud on this that I've found. Honestly I'm wondering if this is transmission fluid, if I accelerate it kinda smells like gas but (I *think) that could just be combo of it running rich from bad timing + my charcoal canister being well overdue replacing (whole interior of car smells like gas). I could not figure out what the smell of the fluid coming from the exhaust was, wasn't gas, wasn't coolant (or coolant + water, what I drained at the same time was basically scentless). The only thing I can think of is transmission fluid at this point.
I think I will, issue is both front and back plate screws are rusted in so gotta figure that one out ha.
The one thing I do notice consistently is it starts idling at about 720RPM, but drops to 540RPM after a few minutes and sounds pretty soft. It used to die out, which it doesn't now, but something feels off.
Once you get your timing set, you can adjust the idle at the throttle cable. Those cables stretch over time, OR the previous owner messed with it. Either way the idle can be adjusted.
Edit: never ever do this
your cruiser will definitely blow up. On a serious note, definitely follow the FSM to do it right. 
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Fj80oregon
GOLD Star
drive it a few cycles and then see how it idles the ECM needs to relearn and get back into stock parameters. Good work!
You gotta clean it out, and comp needs to catch up now that things are corrected. Who knows what's all hung up in the exhaust from before you went through all the work. Could be burning all that s*** out..... If it does end up being a head gasket, which I don't think it is, what do you have to lose? gonna have to come all apart again anyway.
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- #286
Ahhhhh! That makes sense why it's better but not great. I matched old settings by taking pictures and looking at number of threads, but it wasn't right when I got the car either. I'll absolutely do that.
One thing that is bugging me a bit is I noticed some fluid on the exhaust pipe, furthest one back close to the firewall. It definitely wasn't there before I started it, feels like it's a clue since this is all coming out of the exhaust.
I will definitely take this for a ride though and see what happens tomorrow.
Still smoking after it's warmed up?
The idle is not "adjustable" via the throttle cable. The ECU receives input from various sensors and adjusts how much air bypasses the closed throttle plate via the idle control valve, which determines the idle speed. Refer to the FSM on this one.
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- #288
I dug around and, though I can't find anything for transmission vacuum modulator for LC's, I found this which seems to suggest its referring to the EGR vacuum modulator. Olathe specifically refers to white smoke here, and the picture seems very close to our EGR vacuum modulator. Still seems weird this could be related to transmission though.
I did do a poor man's EGR delete with resistor trick and plugging up the vacuum lines around that modulator, I wonder if that could be the culprit here. No harm in just undoing the EGR delete and seeing if that resolve it.
Yep, worse than it used to, let it idle for 10 minutes and still blowing out like crazy. Fluid leaking out of exhaust (tail pipe) as well, smells really strange, not like coolant not like gas.
Do a quick check of the oil level, make sure it's not vastly overfilled.
If you are only running distilled water that could be why it doesn't smell fully like coolant.
I'd pull the spark plugs and see how they look as well as test the coolant for hydrocarbons to see if it's head gasket related. A steam cleaned spark plug is a dead giveaway of a head gasket leak.
It's very unlikely the EGR system is causing this issue.
Yeah these trucks don't have the vacuum modulator, and +1 for the computer being responsible for idle and not adjusting it manually.
I once had white smoke like yours after repairing a major head gasket failure. Scared the crap out of me. I reasoned that when the HG blew it pulled the coolant into the combustion chamber and spat it back out into the exhaust and filled it. I took a small drill and poked a hole in the lowest point of the exhaust and emptied cups of coolant. Mind you, it was the better part of a year between when the gasket blew and when it was up and running again, including it sitting all summer in a storage lot in Moab. I don't know how fluid may have gotten in your exhaust if your head gasket is still good, but lots of things are possible with a new to you rig. PO could have had it up to the headlights in a river with engine off for all we know.
I once had white smoke like yours after repairing a major head gasket failure. Scared the crap out of me. I reasoned that when the HG blew it pulled the coolant into the combustion chamber and spat it back out into the exhaust and filled it. I took a small drill and poked a hole in the lowest point of the exhaust and emptied cups of coolant. Mind you, it was the better part of a year between when the gasket blew and when it was up and running again, including it sitting all summer in a storage lot in Moab. I don't know how fluid may have gotten in your exhaust if your head gasket is still good, but lots of things are possible with a new to you rig. PO could have had it up to the headlights in a river with engine off for all we know.
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- #291
Still pretty confused. Tried rubber glove over radiator first, got a little bit of expansion but kind of feel like that's from the radiator fluid (water) that popped into it. Tried the combustion leak test, got no color change, but also not really sure I did it right since I put it into the hose port to the left of the PCV valve. PCV valve hose made the engine die out every time I unplugged it.
It's weird, I feel like it smells like oil from the front of the car, but from the back it just reeks of chemicals, cannot place what it smells like (doesn't smell really sweet like coolant, but it is probably 80% water through the coolant system by this point).
I'll do some research on combustion leak test and try again tomorrow. Main thing I'm noticing is no smoke from cold engine, only starts smoking about 2min into running the engine, which is the opposite of most posts I've seen. Friends say it feels like HG, but it still doesn't make sense to me.
It's weird, I feel like it smells like oil from the front of the car, but from the back it just reeks of chemicals, cannot place what it smells like (doesn't smell really sweet like coolant, but it is probably 80% water through the coolant system by this point).
I'll do some research on combustion leak test and try again tomorrow. Main thing I'm noticing is no smoke from cold engine, only starts smoking about 2min into running the engine, which is the opposite of most posts I've seen. Friends say it feels like HG, but it still doesn't make sense to me.
CharlieS
GOLD Star
Do not set idle with the throttle cable. It should not impact rpm if adjusted right. Follow the FSM. You should see 650 +/- 50 rpm, in neutral, wheels chocked, dtc jumper in place, AC off.
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- #294
Makes sense, honestly idle seems to be getting better the more I run it, timing light said 500 but actual gauge in drivers seat says >600 after 5-10min. Not a big concern, think it's mostly fine.
Thing that worries me about this is how similar the smoke looks, this is exactly what mine looks like. Don't have the courage/information to take a drill to the exhaust quite yet, if this is coolant I'm inclined to think it's HG. Only thing that doesn't add up for me here is a) no signs of it yet with tests, b) cold compression was rough but hot compression was as good as I could ask for. If this only happened till the engine warmed up, I'd feel fine, but it's worse with a warm engine. Feel like I'm missing something, will continue to dig in and troubleshoot.
Have you been out on a drive yet? Has the coolant level dropped since you started running the engine? Any check engine codes?
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- #296
CEL is gone, all codes gone. Coolant dropped initially, worried me a bit, but hasn't since then (think it was just spreading throughout the system). Was about to go for a drive, but noticed injectors #3 and a bit from #4, when I turn off the car they're spilling out fuel. These two injectors spun with some resistance as I was installing them, was mildly worried but decided they were fine - clearly they're not, gotta pull upper intake again, at least I only have water in the system right now.
Leaky injectors (probably from poor installation) still wouldn't explain the smoke though, right?
to be clear, that video was taken after the head gasket was repaired and the engine was in perfect condition. The smoke was only coming from residual coolant still in the exhaust boiling off. My point is that if your engine is fine but there's fluid in your exhaust it could explain your exact symptoms.
As for your injectors, I agree an external leak wouldn't explain the smoke but it's far more pertinent in terms of safety so do that now. soaking the injector rings in gasoline and doing a gentle back-and-forth rotation while installing will help keep those 0-rings from rolling/pinching on installation. Once the fuel rail is torqued in place, I like to check that each injector still rotates back and forth with a consistent and low resistance as a confirmation.
If you are spilling fuel I'd get that sorted before running the engine again or worrying about anything else. Good luck!
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- #299
Yeah I'm not running it again till I fix injectors, too hot today but hopefully I do it all tomorrow.
Makes sense, I never would've thought to do that. Wanna really make sure HG is fine before I do anything, but wonder if I could put one of those snake cameras or something through the exhaust to verify. Probably not cheap though ha.
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- #300
Gas leak is fixed, have gotten pretty good at pulling throttle body and upper intake now, took me six hours to remove, fix injectors, and put it all back together.
Bit of an interesting development, I think it's an oil leak. Looking at the smoke, it seems more like a blue tinge than pure white and I think it smells like oil (I'm not too familiar with the smell). I also found this spot of oil under the car, I think this is the transmission (?) next to the oil pan (?). Not 100% sure, but that cross bar that is kind of U shaped was caked in black gunk, I cleaned most off and found a bit of fresh oil there so it made me wonder. Just ran the car and checked again, that oil is absolutely fresh. I've inspected everywhere around there, the only place with oil is center right in the image right below that black bar (definitely fresh oil). Is there a gasket there? What am I looking at? I have not heard of anything under the car being one of the main causes for oil leaks.
Other thing here is no smoke until about 5 minutes of idling - assuming this is because the engine is hot, if I turn it on again (while it's hot) smoke comes out immediately. Will try again later tonight to confirm when engine fully cools off.
Also think I have a vacuum leak, have a video of it running, I hear this high pitched sound of air that I will try to get to the bottom of.
Bit of an interesting development, I think it's an oil leak. Looking at the smoke, it seems more like a blue tinge than pure white and I think it smells like oil (I'm not too familiar with the smell). I also found this spot of oil under the car, I think this is the transmission (?) next to the oil pan (?). Not 100% sure, but that cross bar that is kind of U shaped was caked in black gunk, I cleaned most off and found a bit of fresh oil there so it made me wonder. Just ran the car and checked again, that oil is absolutely fresh. I've inspected everywhere around there, the only place with oil is center right in the image right below that black bar (definitely fresh oil). Is there a gasket there? What am I looking at? I have not heard of anything under the car being one of the main causes for oil leaks.
Other thing here is no smoke until about 5 minutes of idling - assuming this is because the engine is hot, if I turn it on again (while it's hot) smoke comes out immediately. Will try again later tonight to confirm when engine fully cools off.
Also think I have a vacuum leak, have a video of it running, I hear this high pitched sound of air that I will try to get to the bottom of.
