what the hell is wrong with my car?

[Inodoro Pereyra]

They do need them. ALL spark plugs (with the exception of those with side by side electrodes, like Bosh platinum 2 and 4) need to be gapped.
You need to gap yours at .043". Just make sure, if you're using spark plugs with a thin central electrode, not to lever on the electrode to open the gap, or you may bend it.

[myfirstmazda]

I'll check them. thanks.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Let us know how it goes...

[myfirstmazda]

GGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!









it was about 75 or 80 degrees out when it did this! I've noticed in the past that it does it worse if you let it sit idling for a minute or so before you shut it off. all the plugs were set at .040 so I opened them up a little to get them right.

-edit- I still have no codes on this thing!

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Sorry buddy. That's either valve guide seals or piston rings...

[myfirstmazda]

the majority of it isn't oil, it really is fuel. normally I can get 300 miles to a tank, this time I'll be lucky to get 250. I'm going to put injectors in it next, but probably not until the weekend. my valve guides probably are bad, but that's not the biggest part of this. if I can get the white cloud out of the way, I can live with a blue puff in the mornings. at least we know what it's not.

[Daninski]

If it smokes blueish when you first start the car after sitting for a day or two then the smoke disappears, valve seals. But hey on the positive side, nice stone work on the house.

[myfirstmazda]

thanks, but it's not my house, it belongs to my mother-in-law.

[Ryan]

Has anyone suggested you test your O2 sensor and coolant temp sensor? those both have a HUGE impact on how rich she runs.

When you did your HG, did you look down the ports? You should have been able to see if the guides were leaking, there would be puddles on the valve tops.

rings are harder to diagnose, but a simple compression/leakdown test will help a lot, and you know the valve seats aren't burnt.

[nos92mx3]

Has anyone suggested you test your O2 sensor and coolant temp sensor? those both have a HUGE impact on how rich she runs.

I did a few pages back.

[myfirstmazda]

I found some crap on two of the terminals in the distributor cap. I scraped it off with a screwdriver and hosed it down with some wd40. maybe that had something to do with it. we'll see. wouldn't that suck?

[myfirstmazda]

well it didn't smoke all week until this morning, so I took the injectors out and sent them to a shop to be cleaned and tested. I'll have them back in the car by dinner time, and we'll see if that gets me anywhere. even if not, at least that's one more thing it's not.

[nos92mx3]

ok compared to this morning what did you do different, what was different this morning?
Temperature by chance?

[myfirstmazda]

yes it was the temperature. it was colder this morning than it has been all week. it only does this when it's stone cold. if it was idled for a minute or more before shutting it down, it will smoke like this the next time it's cold started, even if it's 80 degrees out. by the way, as soon as I put my injectors back in, it smoked like a pig for about 5 minutes. finally got it to quit by hopping in and driving it. I figure since there was still air in the rail/injectors, it was detecting a lean condition or something, and just dumping more fuel in to compensate. we'll see what it does for a few days.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

When it smokes like that, do you smell raw fuel off the exhaust?

Anyways, worst case scenario, you got your solution right there. Just move to the tropics, and you're good. Here in Miami we have less than 80 degrees for one month a year, at most.