hey yall. i was just wondering what it means when water comes out of your tail pipe. does that mean you have a cracked block?

 

Ummm,
That is the least likely reason. (I guess possible though.)

Water is one of the two ideal products of combustion (the other being carbon dioxide). If your gas had no additives and burned perfectly, those two would be all you had coming out the tailpipe.

Since combustion temperatures are VASTLY over the 212 degrees that water stays in unobservable vapor form, most of the water is invisible gas. However, the nice long path these gases take through the exhaust manifold, exaust pipe, catalytic converters, y-pipe, muffler, and finally tailpipe allow the steam to cool back below 212 degrees. The water vapor portion of the exhaust then condenses back into liquid water.

(A side note on physics: Liquid water occupies [I believe] 1732 times LESS volume than its vapor/gas counterpart. This means that there is a significant volume drop in the piping where this occurs. I have to assume that since the pipe size remains constant that means the pressure drops dramatically at this point in the system.)

How all this affects performance remains somewhat challenging for me to figure out...But suffice it to say that water coming out of your tailpipe is healthy and happy news.

If you had a cracked block, you'd have some or all of the following problems:
-Bad compression/idle/power
-brownish discoloration of your oil (from coolant contamination)
-Oil floating in your radiator in the morning (before coolant circulation masked the problem)
-blue tailpipe smoke (from any source of oil burning, possibly a cracked block)
-exhaust venting into the crankcase/cooling system.

I have actually never heard of a block crack causing coolant to flow into the exhaust system. Come to think of it, your water pump output pressure would have to be awfully high to push coolant into the exaust flow. The pressures of the exhaust system are way way way higher than the 14 psi or so the cooling system runs at.

Hope this helps.

Joe

 

I get a lot of water out of my pipe on my truck when its first started. its normal.

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Don W
97 F150 4X4 XLT, ORP, Tow Package,
CD-Changer, K&N, B&M shift improver,
PIAA fog lights, Weld Rims 17", 265 70LT AT/S, Flowmaster 40 series 3" cat back.
f1504x4.hompeage.com

 

HEY 1STSUPERCREW,
would you help my kid's with there homework...lol

 

FUNNY I NEEDED THAT LAUGH THAT GUY KNOWS HIS STUFF


KEEP ON TRUCKING


1997 REG. CAB 4.6, LARIAT, 4X4

 

man you know your stuff! thanks yall.

 

Hey Linedog...No problem, love to help...But it's THEIR homework not "there homework."

I learned a lot about steam on a battleship.

Joe

 

Many years ago I had the water leakage problem. It was so chronic that my Mom had to put plastic sheets on the bed........

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2000 XLT Black Sport, Flareside, 2WD, Ext. Cab, 5.4L Auto. Other factory options: 3.55 LS, Class III tow, 6-way Captains chairs w/CD changer, Remote entry , and Slider window.
Mods: Undercoat, window tint, headlight & tail light covers, removed "Sport" decals, upgraded Triton tailgate emblem, Linex spray-in bedliner, an ARE LSII lid, recessed Blazer reflectors below the bottom tailgate edge (Thanks Captain),and a Flowmaster cat-back exhaust kit.
Wish list: K&N FIPK, Belltech 3/4 drop, Belltech or Helwig sway bars, and a front bumper cover with lights.
Check out more pics at: http://home.columbus.rr.com/selva1/f150.html




[This message has been edited by selva1 (edited 03-21-2000).]