Honda White-Smoking

The son of a friend of mine has a small Honda (Del Sol??). It was reported to me the engine had blown a head gasket and would not run. Later I was told the engine had dropped a valve. This morning the son called me and said he started the Honda....started immediately and ran/idled as good as always. He says it will run and idle as normal but will start to white-smoke once it goes over 2000 RPM's. He says it seems to have plenty of power and he is able to drive it but, naturally, the smoke is an issue. I haven't looked at this vehicle yet but plan to do so this Saturday...anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks in advance!

 

A blown head gasket will allow coolant to be lost thru the exhaust = white smoke. Run it long and it will run out of coolant and neccesitate even more repairs

 

Thanks for the input...I know a head gasket will cause the coolant to be burned but according to the son, the coolant is full and he has not added any. I'll find out more Saturday once I look at it.

 

It's possible he is mistaking the color of the smoke; perhaps he has an oil-burning issue and not coolant.

 

You will also smell the nice odor of antifreeze in the exhaust if it's a blown headgasket. It will also most likely start to overheat as well.

 

If its white smoke, then it is DEFINITELY a blown head gasket.. I have torn down and modified many hondas and I have performed a lot of engine swaps to these cars as well as putting on turbos and nitrous systems.. In short.. I know my hondas!

and so do these guys..

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and

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your sons del sol is referred to in europe and asia as a crx.. in the US what would be considered the 3rd generation crx overseas.. became the Del Sol for the north american market.

Your sons Del Sol will probably have a 1.6 liter single overhead cam (sohc) motor in it.. engine code d16a(1) he might possible have the upper end model which would be the "si" or "vtec" version, in which case he could have the B16a(1)or(2) engine code.. which is a dual overhead cam motor

either way, to find out exactly what motor you have, look for the distributor - on the passenger side of the engine, follow straight down from that and you will see a small flat spot on the engine block where the transmission and the block meet.. and it will have the engine code stamped into the little flat spot.

if I had a picture to post to show you I would...

anyways.. when researching.. a D engine code motor will be referred to as a "D" series, and the "B" code is obviously a "B" series motor..

These engines are VERY VERY easy to work on.. do not pay huge bucks to have the head gasket done.. get a chiltons, or a haynes manual.. or shoot me an email, and I can send you to a website that has all the factory service manuals in .PDF's

good luck

Mike Murray

 

Thanks for all the replies guys! I'm sure it is probably a head gasket too but I have yet to look at the car. Dependent upon what I find, a decision will have to be made by them whether or not they want to repair the engine...a friend of his said he would replace the head gasket but my concern is the mileage (175k+) and I feel there will be a lot more expense than just the gasket. I'll let y'all know Monday what I found.

 

When replacing a head gasket the head should always be sent to a machine shop to be surfaced and checked for cracks.

 

And good time for a new timing belt; a broken one on a Honda is gnerally fatal to the head (and your wallet). I'm assuming it's already been done at least once in its life; if not it's really on borrowed time.

 

Quick question...

What happened to the web sites I posted?

I specifically put them in because those 2 particular websites hold vast amounts of information, and are full of awesome members, some of them have driven ACROSS THE COUNTRY to help out a fellow board member!!!!

Can we not post up links to websites that just might help out somebody on THIS board with a problem???

That seems to be pretty counter productive on a board such as this...

explain please.



Murray

P.S. sorry to hi-jack the thread.. any word on the car??

 

Links to external sites are allowed but only in connection with direct information pertaining to the specific question being posed and when used to direct the member to a specific webpage and not to a site/forum in general. We often direct people to auto repair info on autozone.com, but we don't just say, "go to autozone.com". First we navigate to the site, locate the specific page and then refer to it, such as a question about starter drives could be refered to

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/04/b3/6d/0900823d8004b36d/repairInfoPages.htm.

If you have the specific webpage that contains helpful information for the OP's specific problem, go for it.