The smoke in cars or vehicles is due to failures in its components or due to engine wear and can roll for a medium time. But when the color of the smoke is white or light gray it is a serious problem and it is almost impossible to roll it short distances. Water is one of the main enemies of the engine, cylinder head and compression chamber, it is a situation that must be dealt with promptly. Cooling, that is, keeping the engine at a certain temperature for its proper functioning, is the most important thing in an engine to extend its useful life. Of course, everything has a cause that we will tell you later.
Main causes of your car emitting white or gray smoke.
- Gasket or hard packing of the broken or damaged cylinder head, because the cylinder head gasket is damaged due to excessive temperature above normal, the car could have run out of water or the water tank cover is damaged, the rubber is broken, the radiator is broken with leak. Also the presence of water or coolant in the crankcase causing the temperature to rise for a long time and burn the cylinder head gasket, in extreme cases, double the cylinder head; the loss of compression or power also generates high temperatures in the engine burning the head gasket, also the high pressure in the cooling system of the car damages the head gasket.
The cylinder head or head of the engine covers the pistons between the cylinder head and the engine block, a gasket goes, the manufacturing material of the gaskets is bonding, which is placed on a copper sheet above and one below covering it, this is to secure engine compression tightness. This gasket has a series of holes for lubrication and cooling of the engine and the cylinder head which are perfectly aligned and the gasket prevents the communication of all those ducts. Hermeticism has the property of preventing any type of external foreign body from entering the cylinder head and engine block, which can be oil, dust, water and air. There are 4 types of gasket a) flat gasket, b) O-ring, c) preformed flexible gasket and flanged gasket.
Also
The burned head gasket produces communication of the different ducts, both the lubrication and the cooling, causing the car to emit white or gray smoke.
- Cracked or bent cylinder head and block with internal cracks, this is due to the fact that the car was running for a long time with high temperatures causing the cylinder head to bend due to the type of material with which they are made and then the water that enters causes a shock thermal both in the cylinder head and in the block producing cracks, also although it is unlikely that they come with a factory defect or in a workshop they have made a bad machining and hit it.
- In diesel engines, the most common reason why they emit white smoke is due to the injectors or several spark plugs in poor condition, if the injectors do not supply the fuel at the right time, whether it is behind or ahead, it causes the car to throw white smoke due to the fact that it does not burn well and completely all the fuel added, the excess being evaporated in the exhaust pipe; the injectors are out of time and it was time to investigate what the causes are. Worn plugs or pre-heaters do not burn the mixture well, producing white or gray smoke.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, the main element that leads to a car emitting white or gray smoke is water or coolant and, in the case of diesel engines, the evaporation of fuel that has not been burned. It is worth noting that there are certain occasions where not all that glitters are gold, for example in winter when the car is turned off hot and cold, condensation is produced that the next day when the car is turned on and the engine begins to rise in temperature and the exhaust pipe the water accumulated by the condensation of evaporates is heated, producing very fine white smoke which disappears after rolling for 5 minutes.
Now that you know why a car emits white or gray smoke
Now this fine white smoke is normal but if it was dense white smoke it is because there is a fault in the cooling system, be it the head gasket or the cylinder head and also in the block. In the case of diesel cars, they turn on the car and start it at once without the engine warming up to its optimum operating temperature, cutting the useful life of the engine, producing gray white smoke that, as the engine warms up, the smoke It is disappearing slope with this okay.
