White Powdery stuff in my exhaust...

[coolchrisp]

Well i took my GT recently on about a 2 hour trip to my College in ohio. It ran great the whole time no problems at all. But then i get there take a look around it and i notice the inside of the tail pipes are white so i put my finger on it and its powdery. Then i step back and look and the whole back of my car is coverd in this white residue!! except its not powdery on the car just kinda fogged on there i guess is how to say it. And i have no idea what it all is!!

any comments?!?

[opelnut10]

Were you buzzing it along on this trip? 75-85MPH my guess is you were cleaning the carbon out of it and that is ash residue. You get that on a non-emmissions car with a carburator when you run it hard for an extended period of time. Bet it ran better around town after you got there

[coolchrisp]

haha that could be it, but allso i always run this car pretty hard hah. but like you said mabey the extended period of constant running down there is why it happened. (to tell you the truth ive been trying to blow this motor so i have an excuse to make it a 2.2, but dont tell any one! but lemme tell ya this bad boy is strong...)

[heimue]

It can be residue from burned radiator fluid, if your head gasket is bad. The green fluid leaves white-grayish residue when burned. You might be closer to your goal of blowing it than you think!

Dieter

[timemachine]

With a car that looks like a GT dusted in white powder, I hope the cops don't make you for a drug runner!

[spdkilz02]

i would bet the head gasket as well...the antifreeze is burning and the residue is whats left over...by the way where do u go to school in ohio? toledo?

[Betta Carotene]

Easy way to check a blown head gasket.....Remove the radiator cap, and smell inside the radiator. Burnt Anti-freeze (blown headgasket) has a very distinct smell.

[roadings]

allot of times with a blown head gasket you can see bubbles in the radiator with the cap off... just make sure you take the cap off while it is cool then warm the car up, look into the radiator fill hole (might need a flashlight)if you see any large bubbles or smell something like exaust coming from the fill hole you got yourself a prime candidate for a new head gasket/ or new head

[opelnut10]

Originally Posted by roadings allot of times with a blown head gasket you can see bubbles in the radiator with the cap off... just make sure you take the cap off while it is cool then warm the car up, look into the radiator fill hole (might need a flashlight)if you see any large bubbles or smell something like exaust coming from the fill hole you got yourself a prime candidate for a new head gasket/ or new head

GT's are hard to check in this manor as they have a neck coming off the top tank with the cap on it instead of having the cap right on the top tank. You can however run a pressure test on the radiator which will tell you if you have a leak, if you are losing coolant and none of the hoses or the radiator is leaking then it is either burning it through the engine ( head gasket or cracked head) or the water pump is leaking. If you have the head that has the two extra bolt holes that bolts to the front cover then you will usually find the head cracked instead of the head gasket leaking.

[jeff denton]

Take a close look at your spark plugs for more of this whitish stuff. They might tell you which cylinder is getting coolant in it. You didn't mention if coolant is disappearing from the radiator. Also the exhaust may have a sweet kind of smell to it, sort of like that antifreeze odor. Some might be getting into the oil, does it have a funny color to it?
Worst of all, does the engine crank kind of hard when you try to start it after it's been shut off for awhile? That is antifreeze above the piston, trying to compress it will be damaging bearings, rods, wrist pins, pistons, and head gasket.
You really need to figure this out before you drive it again...

[coolchrisp]

Well all this is good info so far... i check my coolant regularly and its not low at all. also i just checked my compression on all my cylinders across the board its 120. wouldnt a blown head gasket cause lower compression in that cylinder? also i have been mixing about 5 gallons of torco 110 octane to my gas just to kick up the octane # a bit, would that cause this? ill check the plugs tomorrow and see if any have white on it like the exhaust..

and if the head gasket did blow would there have been sound to come with it when it did happen?

haha mabey my wanting a blown motor has come true!!

well have to see!

[coolchrisp]

also Spdkils i go to school in lima at The University of Northwester Ohio.

[jeff denton]

If your coolant isn't low at all, then this isn't the problem. Fuel additives can do funny things. 110 octane fuel really isn't necessary in a low comp engine, even if you are at 9:1 with the flat top pistons, it is still not enough to warrant anything more than 91 octane even with 36 degrees total timing.
Maybe there's something in the Torco gas doing this.

[Manta Rallier]

Keep a good eye on the coolant level. If you have samll, hairline cracks in the head around the exhaust valves, the coolant level will drop very slowly. This will not show up ain a compression test (like a bad head gasket will). These cracks will show a slight to moderate temp rise under moderate to hard engine power.

Regards,
Mark B.

[opelnut10]

Originally Posted by jeff denton If your coolant isn't low at all, then this isn't the problem. Fuel additives can do funny things. 110 octane fuel really isn't necessary in a low comp engine, even if you are at 9:1 with the flat top pistons, it is still not enough to warrant anything more than 91 octane even with 36 degrees total timing. Maybe there's something in the Torco gas doing this.

I think we have solved the mystery, There is an additive it the 110 octane torco, it call LEAD that will do it. High octane gasoline when ran hard will give you that white tailpipe.

[coolchrisp]

ok cool, well then ill stop using it and see how it goes!!

thanks all!

[opelnut10]

Originally Posted by coolchrisp ok cool, well then ill stop using it and see how it goes!! thanks all!

You don't need to stop the additive completely, just lighten up on your mixture such as 15-20%, 1 1/2 to 2 gallons per 1o gallons is a good place to start. Back in the dark agos when AMOCO premium was the onlt unleaded gasoline (96 octane) we used a trick of mixing a quarter tank of leaded regular to 3/4 tank of unleaded (based on a 20 gallon tank) it boosted the octane from 96 to 100 and the car it was going in was 10.25-1 compression ratio and you got no ping.