Gasoline over flow

ARIEL19

MEMBER
2004 BMW X3
6 CYL
AWD
AUTOMATIC
58,000 MILES

X3 2004, cylinders over floded with gasoline and some oil. Wile engine is on, there is lots of white smoke coming out the exhaust pipe and there is tons of vacuum when the oil cap is taken off. After this I pull the spark plugs and all of them were wet with gasoline and some oil and you can see the gasoline on the top of the cylinders.

2 Replies

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,747 POSTS

I have two concerns. First, the white smoke indicates that coolant is getting into the combustion chamber indicating a bad head gasket. Also, if the plugs are wet with gas, to me that sounds like the fuel pressure regulator may not be working. The interesting thing is a rich mixture (too much gas) usually produces a black smoke from the exhaust. The white comes from coolant, and oil burns blue. I would recommend checking engine compression to see if there are cylenders that are lower on compression. Also, check the coolant level to see if it is low. Finally, with the engine cold, remove the radiator cap and start the engine. If the coolant starts bubbling and coming out (sometimes spraying out), you have a bad head gasket.

Let me know what you find or if you have other quesitons.

Joe