Failed smog test, excessive white smoke

[wag123]

Originally Posted by Charlie2015
I would put an engine in it. Buy a low mileage Japanese engine.

Forget trying to buy a used engine for this car. If you can find one, it will be expensive. All of the boy racers buy them up to put into their hotrod Civics.

 

[DejaVue]

Originally Posted by PandaBear
If I were to truly find out what it is, it would be at least 1-2 hr of mechanic time doing compression test, that's $100-200, then decide whether to fix or not (likely the head gasket still).

I would probably start by borrowing a compression tester for free from Autozone and do a compression test myself. It's just an inline-4 in there, right? It'd take 30 minutes to do if you're slow.

Or maybe I'd consider stuffing something non-flammable and non-meltable in the tail pipe to see if it stops the smoke.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted by DejaVue


Or maybe I'd consider stuffing something non-flammable and non-meltable in the tail pipe to see if it stops the smoke.

It is in the middle of a smog test, they have to stuff a probe into the tail pipe. You cannot just plug / filter the white smoke by stuffing something there.

 

[PandaBear]

Retest on a clear sunny day, with an 8 mile freeway run, it passed.

No white smoke, numbers are much closer to average than before. The smog guy said it took a long time for the machine to lock in the reading, that's a good sign that it is on its last leg and 2 years from now it may not pass. I'll worry about it in 2 years.

 

[Malo83]

Good to hear, run it like you stole it on the freeway is key.

 

[Vikas]

Quote
The smog guy said it took a long time for the machine to lock in the reading,

I am not understanding this. What is machine looking for? Isn't NOT finding it is a good thing? Why should machine lock on the reading immediately?

 

[zorobabel]

I received a similar comment, the tech blamed it on lazy O2 sensors and suggested I should consider changing them. It was a 97 Accord with about 270k mi.

 

[Gokhan]

If there is an obvious problem with the engine, such as missing parts, they will fail you, despite the CO/HC/NO_x numbers. I understand the sensors getting confused if there is that much H_2O.