Billowing Smoke

[Reg Evans]

There shouldn't be any problems created by pulling just the one bolt.

[Barabbas]

Well no luck!

I went out today "Hey this will be easy, just one bolt" and proceeded to prove that the bolt in question did go thru the water jacket (forget to drain the radiator and pull the bolt: old faithful ensues). Drained the radiator pulled the bolt and saw that it did indeed have sealant--"well maybe not enough-I hoped" I put a ton of locktite sealant on torqued her down and started Doris up. For about 30 seconds I was happy, then a lite puff of smoke that just kept building. If I put my hand under the tailpipe it is almost pure water coming out the exhaust...so back to the drawing board

The only other stupid, easy to fix thing I might have done is put the new thermostat in upside down. but I don't see how that could cause coolant to get into the cylinders. The oil looks clean and the level is about right so there's not a ton of antifreeze just running into the cylinders..

Any suggestions before I start all over?

[greg g]

give it a while, there might be quite a bit of residual coolant and water int he exhaust system that could take a couple of heat cycles to get rid of. Was it running smoothly with good compression?

[Barabbas]

She started right up and ran smoothly--I didn't check compression because that gage that I trust is the old rubber tip hold in kind and I need an extra set of hands to get a good reading

[Niel Hoback]

Did you retorque the head bolts after it was hot? Like Greg said, you may have a muffler full of water. If its running smooth at idle, it can't be passing much water through the cylinders. Warm it up and torque the head bolts one more time. Go to 70 ft lbs.

[Barabbas]

Niel, I've retorqued a couple of times--I checked them just after the last run-in--(temp was probably only 130 or so) they were all rock solid at 70

[Reg Evans]

Like others have mentioned you might have to run the engine at higher rpm's for 15 or more minutes before all the water is blown out of your exhaust system.

[Barabbas]

I just had a 1/2hour run at idle and once around the block (a decent size hill) and she still smokes but not as bad as yesterday, by the of the run she was still smoking but could maintain a 500rpm idle it wasn't Lexus smooth but not terrible---BTW compression nos

125,125,125,125,125,140

I will take short drives the next couple of days with my AAA card and cell phone

[Don Coatney]

She started right up and ran smoothly--I didn't check compression because that gage that I trust is the old rubber tip hold in kind and I need an extra set of hands to get a good reading

Only compression gauge I have is the hold in place rubber tipped one. Works great for me. I have a remote starter button so using this gauge is no problem.

[Barabbas]

You're right Don, I just hadn't learned the technique, I kept getting the gage to pop out of the hole before I got a complete reading, so I resorted to a second pair of hands. I got the technique down this afternoon--you can see the readings above

[Barabbas]

Just got back from a 20 minute drive around town--the exhaust is pretty much cleaned up -- so probably a muffler full of antifreeze and maybe one bolt not sealed well enough...tomorrow I'll take a bit of a road trip just to make sure but for now, things are looking good---thanks to everyone