hello all.
im having a problem with my mazda protege 97.
when i start up the engine in the morning a lot of white smoke come out from the exhaust.
the mechanic said it might be the valves seals, so he change it along with the valve cover gasket, head gasket, intake manifold gasket, exhaust gasket and other gaskets , but the smoke keeps coming out.

is there something else i can check?

 

do you trust said mechanic? sounds like something in the head to me. does it always smoke or just in the morning? either way, the valve cover gasket, intake manifold gasket, or the (i presume you mean the exhaust manifold gasket) will have nothing to do with the engine burning oil through the cylinders. and what do you mean by "other gaskets?"

 

it smokes only in the morning or when the car hasn't been move in a time (more than 4 hours or so). well regarding the gaskets i bought the full gasket set. (cam shaft seal, egr valve gasket, head gasket, intake manifold gasket, throttle body gasket, valve cover gasket, valves steam seals, water outlet gasket, water pump gasket) i think thats all...
also, when the car engine was disassembled i noticed that a piston moves side to side a little bit (the #1), could that be the problem?

 

side to side inside the cylinder??!! should be a tight fit!!

 

yep, side to side, just a bit, but it moves, that makes me sad

 

Alonso,

White smoke is a general indicator for a potential coolant leak into a cylinders combustion chamber. Another possible cause is atmospheric water condensing in the exhaust system during cooldown and then getting heated up, vaporizing, and blowing out the exhaust pipe on startup, creating the smoke (steam). The unvaporized water may also drip from the exhaust pipe onto the ground for awhile as well.

An oil leak into the combustion chamber will produce a bluish colored smoke and will definitely smell like burning oil. This oil can come from only two places - through the valve stems past the seals or past the piston rings. If the #1 piston has excessive side to side slop, then it is a definite possibility you could be getting oil into the cylinder that way (worn cylinder bore and rings). Hopefully your mechanic checked the cylinder head for cracks, as well around the deck area of the engine while it was apart.

How is your coolant level holding up? Were you having to add to it frequently before the work was done?

Sounds like that mechanic has misdiagnosed your issue. If you are willing to properly repair this, then a a thorough diagnosis of the basic mechanical condition of the engine is in order, starting with a compression test of each cylinder. Inwlf is correct - there should be VERY little movement of the piston inside the cylinder.

Curious what your mechanic found when the head was off the engine other than what you described. If there was either coolant or oil (or both) getting in any of the cylinders, there should have been plenty of evidence of it in the combustion chambers, valve ports or exhaust manifold area.

Hope this helps - sounds like a bit more work is in order....

J

 

Sounds like that mechanic has misdiagnosed your issue. If you are willing to properly repair this, then a a thorough diagnosis of the basic mechanical condition of the engine is in order, starting with a compression test of each cylinder. Inwlf is correct - there should be VERY little movement of the piston inside the cylinder.


My thoughts exactly. Any way you look at it, the cylinder with the sloppy piston is the culprit.

Oh by the way highorder, it's spelled LNWLF, but don't sweat it it happens all the time...

 

the smoke smells like oil
if its the piston problem it should smoke all the time, and not only in the morning.

 

Oops - Sorry. The name looked like a capital I instead of L. My bad....