several symptoms, no clue

[nos92mx3]

how does the crank look when its spinning?
Is it true? Or have some wobble to it?

[myfirstmazda]

never noticed any wobble to it...

[myfirstmazda]

It occurred to me this morning that the smoking problem might be related to cold temps in the morning at startup rather than idling before shutdown... it was a little cold this morning, and it did it again, it hasn't been doing it lately, probably because the mornings have been getting warmer. here is an example:



this is a little worse than what came out when I seafoamed it. it's getting embarassing, and it can't be too good for my mileage. I'm not losing coolant, I am losing a LITTLE oil, but there is also an oil leak I haven't pinned down yet. this is overfueling.

[myfirstmazda]

ok, I've changed the o2 sensor, we'll see if that helps the smoking issue, but honestly, I'm not sure... the old one was covered with white ashy stuff. The surging under acceleration is still there. I'm not sure, I might have been hearing things, but for a split second I thought I heard detonation today while it was surging. What is the distributor problem that these usually have? could this be what I'm facing?

[myfirstmazda]

well, I haven't noticed any more smoking since I changed the sensor, but it is still running weird. But I'm still getting 30 mpg out of it, so I'm not too concerned, but I would like it running right.

[SuperK]

sigh... I'd put my hand on the exhaust while it's smoking then smell it. I bet it smells a little sweet. (considering you do use antifreeze not just water)

And I bet when you find out it's smelling sweet, you'll realize... it's your head gasket.

It will smoke while it's cold, then when it heats up and the metal expands it creates a bit of a "seal" causing it not to smoke anymore.

[myfirstmazda]

um, duh, I just said it's not smoking anymore. I know what coolant smells like.