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Occasional smoke from the exhaust pipe.

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Old 08-02-2007, 01:12 PM
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Default Occasional smoke from the exhaust pipe.

I experienced an "occasional" blue smoke on and off coming out from the exhaust pipe
from my SSE 1988 with 221,000 km'*. (~125k miles)
The blue smoke was appearing off and on randomly (cold &/or hot start)
The smell of burning oil drafts was coming on and off also.
I taught that the engine was starting to shows it'* 20 years old age.
Having this car since new in 1988 and never beated it, I was quite surprise that could be it until I decided to investigate lately the root cause of this occasional problem.
After some research, I found out presence of transmission oil floating on top of the radiator and coolant overflow reservoir.
Engine oil was also showing up some contamination mixture of trans oil and Engine oil.
Inspecting the spark plugs revealed a wet presence of contaminated engine oil (wet reddish residual mixture) that was explaining the "occasional" blue smoke when the plugs got wet enough to avoid sparks.
I notice in the past years that I had to add some trans oil to maintain the level but never had found any drip of trans oil in my parking spot.
The reason is clear now that I was losing trans fluid transferring internally.
into the coolant and engine oil system since couple of years I think.
The oil transfer was originating from the transmission vacuum modulator where the diaphragm was found to be busted.
Transmission modulator was replaced and now the engine just work perfectly.
I taught I had to share this experience with all of you dear old bonnie owners.
I am pretty sure that I am not the first one to lived such problem.
Old 08-03-2007, 09:56 AM
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Thanks for sharing. It'* good to read these stories that have an answer/solution in them. It can help raise the collective knowledge level.
Old 08-03-2007, 10:23 AM
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This is good information. But, how did the transmission fluid get into the coolant? Wouldn't that suggest that the trans fluid cooling coils in the radiator had failed? I can understand the trans fluid causing the smoke as it gets sucked into the intake manifold from a failed modulator, but not how it could (readily) get from the modulator to the coolant. The trans fluid in the coolant suggests that he needs a new radiator and a change of transmission fluid.
Old 08-03-2007, 10:48 AM
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Good point, Bill!

See, I thought I was awake this morning, but was apparently still dozing.
Old 08-09-2007, 12:02 AM
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Why do you have more than one username?
Old 08-09-2007, 10:34 PM
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Originally Posted by bastard
Why do you have more than one username?
Why not?
Old 08-09-2007, 11:18 PM
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Originally Posted by IMPALA SS 2005
Originally Posted by bastard
Why do you have more than one username?
Why not?
its confusing
Old 08-09-2007, 11:28 PM
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... and unnecessary unless you just feel like arguing with yourself. And it is against the rules on some sites, in case you get banned, you can't keep posting and stirring up trouble. Not to mention the low post count. Some people always like to welcome newcomers to the sites they frequent. So unless you just need that much more attention, I don't see any point in it unless you plan on getting banned and want to keep your foot in the door.
So there'* my answer, what is yours? Why do you feel the need to have more than one user name?


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