White smoke from behind engine after EGR cleaning

Either you spilled something that will quickly burn off or somehow you have a leak... Let us know more once you know more?

 

Normal to have a little smoke after cleaning

 

Hello PC'ers. I just finished my gen4 to gen 3 swap. When I first started her up, lots of chocolate milk came out the tail pipe. (water and oil) after running for sometime, the majority went away. I cleaned the egr with oven cleaner and pressure washer. I can see daylight through it. Before and after the cleaning, I have white smoke coming out the tail pipe upon Hugh acceleration. Now I'm getting the code for the egr flow. I'm not sure what direction to go next. Also, the car has been sitting for a few months, so I'm thinking bad gas? Should I put a fuel additive in the tank and fix the fuel? Drain the fuel? Is it coolant? All my hoses, vacuum and coolant, have been verified and seem to be correct. Could all that water damage the cat and cause this issue?
Any help is appreciated.


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Just my opinion: I think your issue is not related to the OP's and deserves a new thread, maybe with a title mentioning the gen4-to-gen3 swap, b/c that's really the headline. And people will likely want to know more about the timeline of what was done and which symptom showed up when in order to make suggestions.

BTW, how much coolant are you losing at this point?

 

Okay, why did you change a gen4 to a 3? Or was it a 3 to 4?
Either way, was the engine blown and blowing coolant into the exhaust? If you had a lot
of coolant leaking into the exhaust, after the engine shut off and cooled, it could have been sitting
in the converter and exhaust and take a while to burn off. Plus it could cause damage to both.
Could be oil and coolant mixing, or rust from sitting. If you smell it what does it smell like?
Are you loosing coolant? It's normal for it to go down a little after changing it or replaceing the engine.
Have you check the oil? If it brown, or clean/new? If it's brown, I would say head gasket leaking water
into the crankcase. If it's clean/new, probably okay since you swapped them.
Was it a new or used engine? Do you know if it was good or bad? Is there a warranty?

How does the engine run? Is it smooth? Is the egr valve funtioning correctly?
Did you clean the intake manifold also? There is a small hole for each cylinder.

If it seems to run well, and you aren't loosing coolant, except to top it off after running, and the heater
is hot after warming up, I would say you got all the air out and it's sealed.
If you're loosing coolant, probably the head gasket, or cracked head/block???

The gas should be fine for just a few months. It wouldn't hurt to put some treatment in the fuel the displaces
the water.

 

I think this is it. I test drove her tonight and romped on the gas and the smoke was 90% better. I'm going to drive her to work tomorrow and really give it the test. 45min both ways. Should get the rest of the oil / crud out. I feel good about it. I plan on installing an oil catch can as well to see if it helps over time. Thanks for the support everyone.

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Thanks and I agree. After reevaluating, I believe it is oil / carbon from the cleaning. After the drive tonight, I did not see any coolant missing. Thanks again.

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2016 engine into 2012V. 50k miles. Previous engine had blown head gasket. Egr cleaned with oven cleaner and pressure washer. Intake and egr ports cleaned. Oil clean and new. Coolant nice and pink. Smoke 90% reduced after cleaning and driving around town today.
No coolant loss. No water on dip stick. Internals seems good. Leaning towards oil burning off after cleaning. But I am concerned about cat damage from all that water. Hopefully the long drive tomorrow will finish burning anything left over. Will report back after the long drive. Thanks



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Seems like you got everything done right. I would guess water in the exhaust pipes.
Not sure if the water would damage the cat or not. I guess if you left it long enough it would.
Maybe the muffler more... If it is, and you're not in calif then you can use an aftermarket cat.

Hope the drive goes well....