Massive smoke when I floored the car...

[sh00ter]

Had to take a car I don't normally drive for an estimate and when I pulled out of the neighborhood to merge into traffic, I got on it and it began hesitating real bad and then a cloud of smoke half the size of a football field was behind me. The person who drives this drives it like a granny so I doubt they ever punch the gas like I did.

I was immediately worried the rings were shot, but there has been no smoke for her under normal driving and after that happened, I drove a few miles and hit it again and no smoke or hesitation. I chalked it up to it just needed to be floored to be "cleaned out"? I am sure the hesitation was misfires due to massive gunk & carbon being burned off but again, I was worried it was the rings & oil burning, however, if it never smokes otherwise, then I would have thought the rings would be okay?

Can any of you gear heads confirm that everything is okay? It runs fine, has synthetic oil that is clean and changed regularly, 80k, 4-cyl engine.

 

[sklfco]

Sounds like a fouled plug needed to shed a layer of carbon, especially with no mention of the disco lights on the dash. Take it out on the interstate and let it breathe a bit.

 

[sh00ter]

I probably need to change the plugs anyway, maybe I will seafoam it to clean the entire head and then change them.

 

[MacFromOK]

That much smoke sounds like oil or trans fluid to me. Could be something flowed into a vacuum line, but if it doesn't do it again, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[xseler]

If it's been a while since it's been driven, it could be that oil has seeped past the valve seals.

 

[Rez Exelon]

Color of the smoke matters here too...

 

[Shakel65]

Color of the smoke matters here too...

Rez is right on here. Was it black, white or blue?

 

[MacFromOK]

Color of the smoke matters here too...

Very true. Trans fluid smoke is much whiter than motor oil, which has more of a blue tint.

 

[Glocktogo]

If there's no knocking, tapping or other bad noises coming from it, and it seems to be running fine, I'd say you just blew out some deposits. While engines that never get pushed sometimes break when you do push them, most just cough up a wad of gunk and breathe a bit easier for a while.

When I was in my late teens, my mom had a manual trans VW Rabbit. She only ever drove in town, always drove slow and probably never felt the pedal against the mat. To save gas one time, a buddy and I borrowed it to go float the Illinois river. I was hooning it down Hwy 10 when a comically large cloud of black smoke erupted from the tailpipe.

I thought I'd just cratered her engine and shut it off immediately, then coasted to a safe stopping place. No oil under the car and the water temp was fine. We pulled the coil wire and cranked it, no bad noises. Plugged it back in and took off again. We immediately noticed improved throttle response. A few weeks later my mom asked what we'd done to the car because it felt "peppier" and her gas mileage had gone up noticeably.

All's well that ends well!

 

[Cowbaby]

Black smoke= unburned gas= fuel problems
White smoke= water steam= head gasket or water in oil or combustion chamber
Blue smole = oil = rings, valve stem seals ect.

other smoke with flames not from tailpipe = fire- run quick and get fire extinguisher lol