Resealed 2.5 reinstalled and still smoking

[travis1]

Hi

Took a gamble on a 96 legacy with a blown head gasket. Car was owned by a friend.

 

Just reinstalled engine lastnight. Engine was 'resealed' by a shop that has done them before and was well recommended.

 

Have driven car approx. 1 hour and still have a small amount of white smoke...which smells slightly of coolant, no where near as bad as before the 'reseal'.

 

Is there any chance there is still coolant in the block or emission sytem that is being burnt slowly?

 

Assume Heads were checked for warpage and 'decked' if it was needed, although haven't personally talked to mechanic that did the work. Unsure which brand of head gasket was used.

 

Noticable blowby from oil cap as well, which is to be expected I guess with milage aprox 150,000mi

 

I am thinking a cracked head? Not sure if this is common with blown head gaskets on this engine?

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks,

Travis

[hankosolder2]

I once did a head replacement / HG job on a Honda and had the same problem with smelling coolant & white smoke from the exhaust. It was just residual coolant in the exhaust system and went away...the car was fine for 4+ years after that. You could get lucky, or not so much.

 

I say drive it, keep a careful watch on the temp gauge and coolant level and see what happens.

 

Wit all due respect, I disagree with Nipper's PCV valve suggestion; how is a PCV valve going to cause white smoke and coolant odors? It could cause blue smoke, oil leaks or oil consumption- but the pcv valve has nothing to do with the cooling system.

 

 

Nathan

[hankosolder2]

Aaah, I bet nipper was mentioning the PCV valve relating to the unrelated blowby from the oil filler. Sorry.

 

Nathan

[john in KY]

Leaking intake manifold gasket?

[travis1]

Thanks for the quick responses.

 

Exhaust might be clearing up. (fingers are crossed)

 

Still not happy about amount of blowby. PVC Valve was replaced, Assuming it is the black y shaped plastic valve. I gather its job is to vent crankcase pressure to the airbox to be burnt.

 

Intake gasket was replaced, both surfaces were cleaned. Unclear how a leak here would cause smoke? As there are no coolant ports in this gasket. I understand the engine would run erractically if it was sucking in air.

 

Fun car to drive, I am really impressed with the AWD can't wait for the snow.

 

Still need to replace front and back steel brake lines.

There is also something strange going on with the automatic transmission cable. Going to start looking at that next.

 

Anyone know what size the nuts are for the exhaust head studs? (they take a 14 mm socket)

 

Just heard all the parts used by the shop were from a subaru dealer. Happy about that news.

 

Thanks

Travis

[Qman]

Residual smoking after replacement of head gaskets is quite normal. Once coolant gets into the exhaust system it takes quite a while to "burn" it out. As you already noted it seems to be improving.

 

The smoking could be valve seal, ring, pcv related. A leak-down test will tell you. A lot of shops have the equipment to do this test. Much better than trying to guess what the problem is.