bluish white smoke

Edited: 5/8/2007 1:22:54 PM by akdmkjeanius662

i have a '96 Honda Civic DX with about 178K miles. and.. i'm almost positive its a blown head gasket. i know i already need new spark plugs, so that will help out as well.

but basically, when i'm driving and my RPM's go up past a certain point, i can see the smoke thru my rearview mirror and i wasnt sure how much it was smoking. but a friend drove behind me the other day and said the entire time i'm driving, there is smoke coming out of the exhaust. not a whole lot but its definitely comin. my question is.. how much would it typically be to replace a head gasket at a shop? or how hard is it to do? i've been adding oil, like a quart a week to keep it at a decent level so with this many miles, i'm sure its the gasket. also, would a valve adjustment be a good idea? how much work or money would that be?

sorry if this seems amateurish, i'm jus tryin to get a few answers to some questions before i figure out what to do. i've worked on my Honda years ago so i know how easy it is to work on it but i have NO time at all. so this will really help me make some decisions. thanks

edit: i'm still driving my smoking civ, is a blown head gasket gonna kill my car soon if i'm still driving it constantly? i'm not revving it hard at all, i'm driving it soft but still.. stop and go driving. will a blown head gasket leave me stranded on the side of the road anytime soon by normal precautions?

i had that same problem with my crx. it ended up being the valve seats.

I agree, it sounds like valve seats/seals to me also from what you have described.

Head gaskets are often times close to $800 for a shop to do. If you have the tools it can be done in less than a full day. I would be concerned about the oil consumption, I am not convinced it is a head gasket. If it is a head gasket I have know people to drive them for quite some time as long as it wasnt over heating and the kept the fluids full.

sounds like you are definitely burning oil. to answer your questions, changing a head gasket is not a job you want to do if you have limited mechanical knowledge. if done wrong, it can cause a lot more harm than good.

2nd, before you automatically assume that you need a head gasket, its good to know why your car is smoking. if you have blueish smoke coming out of the exhaust, then you are burning oil. the oil is entering your combustion chamber (which should only have fuel and air). one of the most obvious sources for oil to leaking into the combustion chamber is around the valve stem seals. it would be good to have a professional look at it to be sure exactly what the problem is. its pointless to make a costly and/or time consuming repair that doesn't fix the problem.

it is very easy to screw up a head if you dont know what you are doing. there is a certain pattern to loosen and tighten the head bolts for one.

yeah, i had thought about the seals being a problem too. how much would that be?

and as far as the repairs go, i'd jus be helping out. a friend of mine is a mechanics apprentice and he has a '95 civic he works on so he'd be able to help me with all this. or i have a real mechanic friend i could take it to, its jus he charges me whereas my friend doesnt. my apprentice friend said the gasket is a bitch to do but its do-able. i'd like for it to be the seals..

FYI, i have a cold air intake that sucked up some water one night. we have flash floods here in new mexico and i didnt disconnect my CAI before leaving a friends house and i literally drove into a flash flood storm. my car was almost water logged, i could feel my engine lagging and it started spitting out smoke from my exhaust and the idle was all messed up for the full next day. after that, i noticed small oil leaks on the driveway and the exhaust smoking.

I had a buddy who had a prelude that had a cold air intake and he sucked up some water into his engine and ended up having to replace the entire engine cause his was spitting and running extreamly rough...hopefully not the same problem you have.

eh.. its sucked up water three times and froze up on me, twice in the same damn day. i know ya'll are shakin ur heads at me but u have to live in the desert and get flash floods to understand..

plus with my job, i drive around in my own car for all but one hour of each daily shift. but it has been running MAD rough lately.. lagging a whole lot. like my torque is half what it used to be. this was before the exhaust spitting out smoke, too.

i'm in the market for another car soon so i can take the engine outta the ol' civdog and take it apart, clean it up,. replace a bunch of parts. but i still need to keep it running for another couple months.. like 3K more miles at least

Buy a new motor. with that many miles on the car you are going to replace one thing just to have another go out a few months later. Just buy a USDM motor. they are cheap and have less than 30k on them. I think your car has a d16y in it i'm not sure. but you can always upgrade to a bigger motor or just stay with the same one. Dropping a new motor is almost as easy as replacing a head gasket.