Bad miss, wet exhaust, 5kcstq

[Brett Dikeman]

At 5:36 PM -0800 12/3/00, Wallace White wrote:

>I'm troubled by the exhaust, which pulses at that same rate and puffs a
>little... mist? It's not that cold out (50F?) and our other car's
>exhaust is almost invisible. I stuck a paper towel near the tail pipe
>and removed it to find little water splatters all over it. (Sure enough,
>they've evaporated and the towel looks clean now.) Uh oh.

Water is a product of proper combustion, and outside temperature 
means little; dew point and humidity do.  There could also be a lot 
of condensed moisture in the exhaust system from the last time you 
started the car, affected by the angle of the car, temperature 
outside and of the exhaust, duration of the run, max power of the 
run, whether the exhaust system has drainage holes...I could go on 
and on.

Paper towels tell nothing; you need to run a tester kit which reveals 
presence of exhaust gasses in the coolant.  Commonly available at 
most auto parts stores.

Some other symptoms/side effects:

-oil in the coolant reservoir(sure sign)
-"milk shake" on the flat surface of the oil filler cap(not quite as 
sure sign; water is product of combustion and tends to get in places)
-coolant level dropping steadily(not sure sign; many other places 
coolant could be going)
-unusually clean cylinders(water or coolant acts like a 
steam-cleaner; not really a sure sign)

I'm not saying you categorically don't have a bad head gasket; I -am- 
saying you need to use better detective tools to find out for sure 
that you do before you go paying for the fairly costly procedure.

B
-- 
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Brett Dikeman				Systems Engineer
ProAct Technologies Corporation		914-872-8043
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