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Pours out a thick white exhaust

Tiny
JTMCINNIS
  • MEMBER
  • 1998 FORD ESCORT
  • 100,000 MILES
The car pours out a thick white exhaust while seemingly running on only 3 of its 4 cylinders what can I do to fix this? It is a 1998 Ford Escort LX with a 2.0L SPI engine. It has a brand new catalytic converter, radiator, timing belt, serpentine belt, and a rebuilt head. All of the gaskets have been replaced with new ones. When looking at the cylinder heads the one on the far left next to the timing belt is perfectly clean while the other three are exceptionally dirty. When running if the gas pedal is pressed the volume of exhaust increases.
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Sunday, September 2nd, 2012 AT 6:53 PM

2 Replies

Tiny
KHLOW2008
  • MECHANIC
  • 41,814 POSTS
If the smoke is completely white, coolant is being burnt in the cylinders due to a failed head gasket or cracked head or block. And the clean pistons indicates that. The # 1 cylinder is the one having the problem.

Was the cylinder head pressure tested?
Is the coolant level correct at the moment?
What are the compression readings?
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Sunday, September 2nd, 2012 AT 6:56 PM
Tiny
ASEMASTER6371
  • MECHANIC
  • 52,797 POSTS
You have coolant getting into the cylinder and burning off.

Have the cylinder tested for leak down to confirm

Roy
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Sunday, September 2nd, 2012 AT 7:02 PM

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