smoking; possible head gasket?
 

I have an '01 screw with a 4.6 160,000. I am getting white smoke and moisture out my pipe. The first thing I thought was blown head gasket. I have checked the coolant resv. and the level never changes. I have had it for 4 years and has never ran hot on me. I just changed the oil and it had ne water in it. I just went out of town this weekend and drove 463 miles and it never got hot on me??????????? I have been reading posts on here and I have removed my cats. Well not removed, just gutted. All 4 of them. About 5 months ago. Would this cause my engine to smoke and drip moisture? I get a rough idle. It goes from 600 to 300 and then jumps up to 1000 or more and then settles down to 600 again. A couple of sec. later it does it again. When I am crusing it has a slight miss. When I am accelerating, it seems to pull ok(for a 4.6)?????????????

it sounds like a head gasket, is their bubbles in the coolant res? if their is then its either a broken head gasket or worse case one of the water jackets might cracked through into the one of the cylinder bores. thats very rare so dont get nervous its prolly just a gasket. correct me if im wrong on this anyone

Its normal. Its cold outside and there is normal moisture in your exhaust you probably just noticed it more then usual. Smell the exhaust if it doesn't smell like anti freeze its normal condensation. You could use cleaning the throttle body and IAC or replace the IAC that would fix the Idle but the moisture is normal.

I'm in Florida. Last week it was 90 deg. It was still smoking. I notice it on take off from a stop. Big puff of smoke then disapears. In park at idle, just a little smoke. Having my converters gutted wouldn't affect anything would it?

Like I said, I am not loosing any coolant and my oil had no water in it. It runs cool all the time. It has never overheated. ??????????????????????????????

Also, this has been going on for a couple of months.

You might want to send in a sample of the engine oil to an oil testing facility to analyze your oil and to check for any coolant. My only advice is to shorten you oil drain interval until you get the Oil Analysis results. Just google and you will find plenty of labs that will run an OA for you. A test usually costs around 20 dollars. Good luck

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/standard_analysis.html
http://www.oaitesting.com/
http://www.testoil.com/

Do you have antifreeze in the radiator? if you do you can smell it in the exhaust if it is getting in the combustion chamber at all. I think it sounds like you need a tune up Throttle body cleaned IAC replaced motorcraft spark plugs coils. First sniff the exhaust. Get a new PVC from ford while your at it. that might be where the smoke is comming from.

Thank guys. I will try a tune up today and check my exhaulst smell. I may have to sniff it for a while. LOL...

do a cylinder leak down test and listen to the radiator with the cap off. if you hear air or hissing, you probably have a blown head gasket. white smoke is an indication that coolant being burned

The first thing I thought of was a dirty MAF. I would clean it and see if that clears it up.

I have cleaned the MAF. I think I have an idea. When I fill the oil to the full mark it smokes and runs really bad. It seems to be using a lot of oil. Well it burns it down to the bottom of the fill mark on my stick. If I leave it at the "fill" mark it doesn't smoke hardly at all. It doesn't seem to use any more oil either. QUESTION: could I have a bad ring? Rings? I do not have a compression tool but it feels like there is no power in this 4.6. (well it never really had any) but especially now.

You truck takes exactly 6 quarts of oil on an oil change. Do not fill it with any more then that. Do not fill it to the full mark when you put 6 quarts in where it is on the stick is the full mark. Mark that spot on your stick and from then on that is your mark.

sure its not a bluish tinted smoke?

when was the last time you had a tune up? plugs, wires/coilpacks or COPs. clean the IAC and throttle body. dont forget the MAF as well.