white smoke/ steam from bellhousing.or back of engine

[andy d]

im baffeled. this is on my new 500$ 88 wag. 360/ 727. i didnt notice this until yesterday. i had been messing with the vacuum lines and i did shorten the kickdown linkage to the trans to get it to shift into high at about 25mph. the engine runs bad, it stalls if the throttle is opened just a bit. and is real boggy in general.it wasnt doing this before. i know that i screwd something up i just have no clue as to what i did i checked the vac routing and everything appears to be ok. im open to suggestions. TIA

[brent]

I sure don't think I can pinpoint it from what you described, but I am pretty certain this is a fluid leak and the steam/smoke is burning spray.
Sounds like something bust open thats unrelated to vac or clutch. Hope you find it.--Brent

[JeepBountyHunter]

I once had a power steering fluid leak, it was hard to trace, but it squirted to the firwall area and had white smoke...which side of the motor?

[brent]

My (all-too-recent) p/s hose leak was from small tears in the heavy duty return hose. Whenver I turned left or right (pressures the hose) my left/driver's side exhaust manifold would get drenched in spray resulting in a ton of white smoke.
Since I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, it took me about a week to figure it out. I finally lifted the hood, opened the fly window, stuck my arm through to turn the steering wheel and kept my head under the hood.
When I got a face-full of p/s fluid I knew where the leak was coming from.
-Brent

[Elliott]

Get yourself a mirror on a handle/stick and check out the freeze plugs at the back of the cylinder heads. If that's what the problem is... don't even screw with trying to fit an expandable plug, pull the head and redo the metal plug.

[ August 31, 2003, 07:33 PM: Message edited by: Elliott ]

[andy d]

yeah, it may be a freeze plug in the head, but i dont think its losing water.and i dont smell antifreeze i think the mirror onna stick is a good idea. my original plan was to swap the motor out. it has 2 weak cylinders, and the rear main seal is gone. oh well, back to plan A

[graham]

Andy, check the heater hose connection at the rear of the manifold. Mine was only just holding together. Fortunately I knocked it doing similar to what you were doing. Would have been knackered if it happened on the beach.
Good luck.

[andy d]

thanks Graham, ihave been messing in that area

[andy d]

well Graham was right!!!. the steam was from a loose clamp on the heater hose at the back of the intake. i yanked the hose when i was doing the comp test, back in june and just puushed it back on and forgot about it. as Pogo said" we have met the enemy and he is us" I owe you a beer, Graham, thanks again.

[JeepBountyHunter]

nice how all this works out! :D

[graham]

Originally posted by andy d:
I owe you a beer, Graham, thanks again.Pleased to be able to help Andy. BTW will you deliver that beer or do I have to drop by ;) ;)