Won't Start
 

Car will stumble or pop when attempting to start. Exhaust is white smoke


Had car apart for a few weeks, did rewire on knock sensor and fixed tps calibration, which cleared both my codes....

While i had the intake penlum and throttle body off i cleaned all the carb build up off with a baby bottle brush and carb clear lol.

Now i got the car started once lol wont start again and ran her for about 15mins, drove up and down the road a bit and let her idle for awhile( ran smoother than ever, sounds better)

I am thinking she isnt starting due to the timing being off since i calibrated the TPS, but would it be this far off as to not start at all?

please help ;)

...
 

white smoke generally indicates burning oil. Black is usually fuel, and blue tends to be coolant. you may be leaking oil INTERNALLY or, as i've seen on a lot of Mitsu's, there may be an oil leak internally in the exhaust side of the turbo.

if you disconnected the battery, the codes would clear automatically, and being that this is the mk3 section, ur pre-obdII.....

i wouldnt be so worried about the timing, as there should NEVER be white smoke. there could be a leaky valve seal, but the smoke should only manifest as a puff and then begone.

if you're really worried about the TPS, check it for resistance with an ohm-meter. if its within spec, check your calibration steps, as it may have changed.

I've seen a lot of bad TPS's on fords, and they run like shit, but start when you give them some gas.

ALL the vehicles i've ever worked on have a generic fuel setting for W.ide O.pen T.hrottle. Try starting her at WOT. I wouldnt normally say to do that, but most of the important Diag done from here requires the car to be running. keep an eye on the smoking tailpipe, oil pressure, and be opservant of excessive missfiring....

let me know.

almost forgot
 

speaking of valves, another far-out possibility is that one of the exhaust valves is open, if only partially, during detonation.... the possibilities for that condition are various...

• broken cam
• broken valve
• broken valve spring
• miss-seated valve

you could take off the valve cover and manually turn the crank.... its a shame the oil cap is on the intake side.....

White smoke is only during starting, i dont loose any oil. Also i dont not have a first CAT. i imagine the white smoke was due to the carb cleaner residue that was left over on the throttle body/intake penlum after cleaning them (they where completely dry before i put back together)

She has never had a problem starting untill i calibrated my TPS and all the resistances where checked with a ohm meter and are now correct (they where pretty far off). I heard that once u calibrate ur TPS it would throw your base timing out.

I had a mechanic set the timing on my engine once after he put on a new timing belt and he said that was very difficult to set and almost off the scale, i dont think he thought to check the TPS.

Oh and as far as the codes where concerned yes i did pull the 15a fuse for EFI that resets the codes and drove around for 15mins to see if the light would come on again. Before it would turn back on before i even left my street and i drove around for a bit.

I had a chevy for a while that would only smoke at startup, it was white and dissipated after running - it was just a simple valve seal issue. a little oil would seep into the combustion chamber and accumulate while it sat.

as far as the carb cleaner, i was under the assumption you ran it for a while and idled it after putting it back together.

kinda odd tho.... most of the vehicles i've worked on run in an 'open loop' status untill a certain temperature is reached.....generally a set of predetermined perameters....

yep i did, and never got it started again so couldnt tell you if its still putting out white smoke on start up, just did the only time i got it running hehe

now it just stumbles or pops, doesnt put out anysmoke, and doesnt start ;(

about 5-6 months ago had head redone and all the gaskets where replaced, dont know if one of those is what you are refering too

And it has never put out white smoke before that startup

you\'ve probably already tried this, but if you put the pedal down to the floor when cranking..... that would eliminate the vaccuum dependancy for ignition timing while you try to start it.......

try starting fluid too... i know it seems odd, but maybe its an A/F metering problem...longshot i know, but it would put that question out of your mind....

i\'m not sure if toyota does it like most other car companies, but you could try unplugging the TPS and put it into limp mode. she may start that way.

i think you may be right with the ignition timing concern.... the odd thing tho, is that it ran for 15 minutes!!!

i\'ll stop putting all these mixed tests out there, as i\'m sure you\'ll figure it out.

you give me to much credit lol, in 2 days when im off im buying a timing light and doing the Ignition timing..

I will try your WOT thing and the TPS unplug as well, i do appreciate all your responses. I probably will figure it out, but that is only becuase of people like you, and others in the forum that take the time to post replies :dance:


Any ways all the timing instructions are unclear on a couple things...

Where is the CPS that i have to loosen to adjust the timing. and do i loosen it before i start the engine?

Something else i just thought of. If i start the car with the TPS unpluged this will put my car into limp mode since its getting no information from my TPS, but isnt the ignition timing based on the TPS, so i adjust with it unpluged and soon as i plug it back in and try to start i would have the same problem?