smokeychokey

[4gotn]

ok this one is a bit odd so stick with me
my car will smoke when i drive it..it seems to be coming from the cat area...
it smells like oil but i cant find any oil leaks and being as i rebuilt the engine about 1500 miles ago and this just started i dont believe its something internal
also the car chokes out going down the road sometimes...
the best i can figure is that its getting sucked through the pcv valve but that would have to be a hell of a lot of oil and i would have to have blowby but like i said engine is fresh
anyone have ideas?

[Ryan]

When my block heater exploded out the back of my car, it filled up a guard/heat sheild on the bottom of the exhaust. Peek under your car when the exhaust is hot and see if it comes off of the pipe just past the flex pipe.

thats my only experince in this area.

Maybe your cat is clogged, and it burst a leak in the gasket before the cat, causing a small leak. That would explain everything.

[4gotn]

there b no more cat
but maby a leak none the less

[mzdamx3rsdohc]

if smokes coming from where your cat is then you have a exhaust leak as thats the only way for the exhaust to smoke, did you put in a test pipe? weld or clamps? or gut the cat? if you gutted it did you get new gaskets?. it could also be a leak thats dropping on the exhaust and burning that way. explain what you mean by the car chokes? if the engines choking it could be a valve cover leak thats dripping onto the exhaust and burning that way. did you torque the valve cover on correctly when you installed it after the rebuild? new or reused gasket? cause if your valve covers leaking it will accumulate oil in your spark plug sockets causing you engine to choke by not firing properly. is that what you mean by choke? losing power or struggling. just pull your plug boots and plugs, if this is the case they will be oily the boot may even be.

last summer i had my motor rebuilt in my prelude, the guy that built it told me that if anythings going to happen it will most likely be within 10000 or so kms.

have you tried pulling codes? put a clip between the ten and gnd pin in the underhood diagnostic box and turn the key to on, the CEL will flash displaying a code. my car has had codes before and never tripped the light.
if someone else rebuilt your motor it would be a good idea to check your compression as your rings are seated by now, make sure everythings proper and in spec, you should have over 180 and even on all cylinders! not out 5% maybe 1-2% due to your motor being so new. if its out more than that or your compressions around 150 then corners were cut on the rebuild or it wasn't done properly

[4gotn]

i did the rebuild so i know the engine is solid as for the valve cover ill have to check but i havnt had time because im trying to catch up on bills :C
it stoped smoking though so i probably splashed something on the exhaust? weird place for it to happen... but its got the iab and the egr valve disconnected right now and its running slugish already
new o2 sensor seemed to help too
damn recession :"C