Excess water and steam (white smoke) from exhaust pipe

JESSICA BILLMAN

MEMBER
1996 FORD RANGER
4.0L
V6
AUTOMATIC
300,000 MILES

Okay, I bought the truck listed above it is the XLT model about a week ago. The guy knew something was wrong with it, figured since I was female, I could not fix it. Turns out he may be right. I took the motor apart down to head gasket, but did not actually change the head gasket. I cleaned everything up from the oil, but hated the thought of having to go into the head gasket. However, days later, a new intake gasket, thermometer and coil pack later, I still have this ridiculous amount of water and steam coming from my tail-pipe. I am hoping it is not the head gasket but wondering what you think. Before you ask, the motor runs and starts fine, the oil is not milky. I am thinking the vehicle has the original spark plugs (llan to replace those when I do the combustion test when I change those), but not sure if that would even effect the water in exhaust issue.

1 Reply

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,494 POSTS

90% of the time water/steam out the exhaust is the head gasket the other 10% it is intake gasket related.
The bigger question is, as it seems to run okay, how long have you actually ran it? It could simply be water/coolant that got into the system from an intake leak and it has not "burned off" yet because the exhaust has not gotten hot enough for long enough to steam it all out.

Are you seeing coolant loss?
Go get a cooling system pressure tester. Run the test and see if the system holds pressure. If it does and you do not see the coolant level dropping then it is likely remaining water.
If however it will not hold pressure and you see coolant use, it is one or both head gaskets or worse cracked head(s) block.
Then run the combustion gas test to see if you still have a problem.

When you pull the plugs out, look at them as you pull them. If you find one or two that are very clean you know where the water was/is going.