Changed radiator and now lots of white smoke out the tailpipe

Calling out for some advice.
I have a 1996 Tacoma 3.4 4x4 with 325,000 miles. The radiator sprung a leak a few weeks ago and I replaced it with a new aftermarket one. seemed to be running fine. Started it up today and its running a little rough and quite a bit of white smoke coming from the tailpipe. I'm wondering if I might now have a head gasket leak. I'm not very experienced mechanically. Any advice on where I should go from here? Thanks!

 

Ok, not trying to be a smart a$$ but, are you sure it's not just normal white smoke during warm up?

Does it smell like coolant?

When your radiator sprung a leak, did it run dry? Did the engine over heat?

 

Are you losing coolant?

 

If you're just doing short trips, some white smoke is normal (especially in the winter). If you've been driving half an hour or so and still have it something might be wrong. Are you losing coolant? Does the white smoke smell sweet? Are there bubbles in your coolant overflow tank while it is running?

 

No I am not certain it is the head gasket but It's a lot of smoke and the engine is idling rough. It doesn't smell like coolant to me. It never has overheated. The leak in the radiator was on the top of it and it never ran dry. I've run it 150 miles before this smoking and rough idle began today. It is super cold today but this is more smoke than there should be. I'm not very mechanical to know if it could be something else. Thanks for lending me some brain power.

 

I have not try to run it since it started smoking for fear of damaging something. Should I try to run it up to temp to see what it does? The coolant may be a little lower than when I topped off after the install of the radiator but I was thinking that might be from some air continuing to work our of the system.

 

If your exhaust smoke smells like sweet burnt syrup and the whiteness doesn't evaporate into the air as it floats off, you may have coincidentally blown a gasket right after the radiator install. That rough idle is telling.

 

Check the compression of your engine. That will tell us and you if it is indeed the head gasket, and then report back here.

 

Thank you, that's my next step I guess.

 

White smoke can be cold, or oil. If your head gasket blew out at a cylinder it can dump oil into said cylinder, causing a miss fire or fouling out a plug. Or it can dump coolant as well.

Start cheap, Milky discolored oil means its transfering coolant. Bad looking coolant with foam oil seeping into the coolant.

If its Smokey as hell with a cold motor and runs crappy can be bad rings, cracked head or block ect.
In relation to cracks
As it warms up the motor, rings expand sealing it off. Valves usually smoke non stop with a decrease in oil level.

Bad head gaskets also loose psi so the truck will over heat. Alot of times overheating is caused by mud ect in your radiator fins cause no one sprays them out after wheeling.

 

Thanks for that info. I don't see any discoloration in the oil, or any milkyness in the coolant BUT I haven't really run the engine much at all since the smoking began. I noticed the missing and smoke when I started it the other day and have not tried to move the truck or even let the engine warm up, I shut it down right away.

 

Check your plugs, replace one if its fouled and the 1 wire and coil box. That would eliminate the ignition system.

If you dont have a foaming radiator, or chococlate milk looking oil. And the plugs check out might be a shot wire/electrical.

The truck NEEDS to be close to warm to CHECK Pull the cap off of the radiator and let it warm up, should be quick wait for the thermo stat to open. You will see it flow pretty fast when it is.
If it sits all the water will go to the top of the oil pan and your dipstick is at half. So it could seperate and not show.

 

I don't mean to offend you Adude, but this is incorrect information. Oil burns blue with no evaporation, and smells like a refinery. For the OP... Go to Autozone and have them put a code reader on the truck. It could be bad plug wires, or bad CO2 sensors, or whatever. Is the truck in a high humidity climate? Exhaust systems are known to trap loads of water if parked for a while.

 

None taken, sound advice.
Oil and antifreeeze have always poduced a white with a hint of blue on the motors I have had to take care of.

 

Sounds like it is miss-firing to me. Unburned fuel going into your exhaust and atomizing through your cat. Make sure you didn't knock any wires loose like your crank position sensor or plug wires from your coils. IDK its either one of 2 things. 1) simple fix just something loose or a bad connection after radiator replacement. 2) If it overheated and that's why you needed a new radiator then perhaps you have a head gasket problem or a cracked head.

I would definitely check make sure you have no vacuum leaks, all connections are good. Like I said, sounds like missfiring which can easily cause fuel to be dumped into the exhaust causing white smoke.

 

Ok, It has never overheated I just noticed the radiator leak and decided to replace with a new one. I will check the connections and plug wires to see if that might be the issue. If still a problem I will get the compression checked. Thanks so much for this advice!

 

If you end up needing it - here's the 3.4

 

@darcytribe Hey does it happen only when it's cold? Also, youre saying it was fine for a few weeks after radiator replacement right?

It could be not related to your job at all. Still do what you mentioned with checking connections and compression test, but also look into your coil packs. Cold weather can sometimes cause water to condense inside the packs if they are old ,I mean they are electronics after all, and cause a miss-fire. Perhaps something just happened to go bad couple weeks after your radiator replacement and isn't related to your work at all.

Like I said before, honestly it just sounds like electronics allowing fuel to not be burned and dumped into your exhaust. Those motors are very simple compared to what they are now. There shouldn't be much to diagnose compared to say a 2016 model.

 

Is your check engine light on. Are there any codes? If your burning lots of coolant from a blown gasket or cracked head there will usually be misfire codes. My truck had a random misfire code from burning coolant and smoke show on start up. Also my rad had low pressure... It was a brand new rad. If you can easily squeeze the top rad hose after the truck is fully warmed up, then you are losing coolant somewhere.

 

Well, I got it into the garage today and a friend suggested I spritz the plug wires and coils with H2O and look for a spark. We found one where the plug wire inserts into the middle coil. It also began ticking with each firing. I do not see any signs of foaming in the radiator fluid or any milkyness in the oil on the dipstick. I'm hopefull this is an electrical issue. I'm going to try new plug wires first and see what that does. The connection on that coil under scrutiny looks really clean so I'm hoping its the wire going to it. I will let you know what happens after replacing that wire. Gotta order a set on Rock auto. Thanks again for the clues on what to look for!