billowing smoke from the tailpipe
 

Hello all,
I recently purchased a 1995 Volvo 850 station wagon. I love the car, but I fear that it has some problems. After I bought it, I noticed that it sometimes had some visibile exhaust from the tailpipe. I thought this might be sort of normal, because my last car had visible exhaust when you first started it as well. I have come to believe that this is not normal, however. This is because you can see the exhaust every time that the car idles at a red light. There seems to be a lot of it, and it happens pretty much whenever the car idles.

I thought that this might be due to the fact that the oil in the car was a thick black, as it turns out. I got the oil changed (the mechanic said that I should do it again soon, because it was so black). But, the oiled was changed 5 days ago and it is still billowing the white exhaust. There doesn't seem to be a smell.

If anyone has any ideas as to why this might be, and you could tell me, that would be great.

Thank you very much,
Andria

RE: billowing smoke from the tailpipe
 

If I remember correctly white exhaust usually means your burning coolant. I know blue smoke is oil, so besides the blackness oil probably isn't your issue.

RE: billowing smoke from the tailpipe
 

is your 850 a turbo, or non, because white smoke also indicates that you are running lean i.e. too much air not enough fuel
and that could be a problem because when your running lean the internal temp gets very high. liek the kid said above you also might be burning coolant check for leaks, might be a head gasket as well.

RE: billowing smoke from the tailpipe
 

Also if your car is turbo the turbo might be bad it will put out white smoke when the turbo is bad.

RE: billowing smoke from the tailpipe
 

Thank you to everyone for your responses. The car is not a turbo.

So, I know where to look to see if I might have a coolant leak. But, I don't know what the headgasket is or what it does. What would that have to do with the smoke?

I have not noticed that the temperature gage is going high at all, so hopefully that means the car is not running lean. How could I tell if that was happening? Since I live in Las Vegas, overheating is an issue.

Would you recommend that I take it to a mechanic?

Thank you very much,
Andria

RE: billowing smoke from the tailpipe
 

A few places you can look:

Coolant reservoir, look for any oil in it.
Oil leaks, visually inspect your engine bay.
Puddles under car, look for any puddles of ANYTHING, and inspect while it's still sitting there.

Being that the "smoke" is coming out of the exhaust, it basically implies that something is burning inside your engine's cylinders that shouldn't be. The head gaskets seal between the cylinder head and the engine block. So, if your head gasket faults, there is a good chance for coolant(which is running through channels in your engine to keep it cool) to get into the cylinders and "burn" with the fuel, and exit out the exhaust. Which, gives you white, somewhat "sweet" smelling, smoke. Based on that information, I would assume you have a blown head gasket. Been there. Done that. I would recommend you take it to a mechanic and get it looked at. Sorry I can't be more specific.

Matthew

RE: billowing smoke from the tailpipe
 

Often with a blown head gasket, if you're burning coolant as previoiusly suggested, by comparing spark plugs you may notice one plug looks unusually clean, or it may even have a slight green tint around the electrode. If you take the time to look, and one of the plugs does look different, then make sure to pay attention to which cylinder that plug was in.
Cranky

RE: billowing smoke from the tailpipe
 

Does your mileage seem appropriate? I had similar symptons this summer. Other than the smoke and decreased fuel efficiency, the car ran fine. It ended up being an emissions pump that got water logged. That, in turn, ruined the O2 sensors. Get it scoped and see what your code is, but be prepared to spend some money.

Billowing smoke
 

Turbo needs seal kit?

Turbo kit of seals you has?




Resurrected from 5 years ago. Not spam at all.

95/ Volvo 850 turbo
 

Hey I replaced hg got 2 shops to check head and it runs good just very very bad smoke and it seems to get fairly hot

95 850 turbo
 

Billowing smoke
 

Similar issue but I used
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/volvofo...c8252323ed.png
This product cleaned a lot of the carbon out where I no longer had smoke issue.
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