Hey everyone,
So... I just bought myself an 03 with 35K miles for a decent deal from a little shady local dealership. I test drove the car pretty hard, checked it out relatively thoroughly with my brother who has owned one and everything seemed fine (albeit after a little cleanup). Anyways, for the last few weeks the problems have just been rolling in, and I have been doing some searching and reading up but would like more direct answers.
The car has no cats (which were apparently not a problem for the dealership to smog), cat-back, upper and lower pulleys and an older style JLT intake. Other notes are that it was at one time gutted in the rear... has a larger fuel line running under the car going directly to the fuel rail and a breather on the passenger side bank.
The first issue I noticed was after a short 10-70 mph run I noticed smoke coming from under the hood. I thought it was the fuel line initially because the smoke was coming from deep down on the passenger side exhaust and thought gas was dripping down (the fuel line was visually warn). I replaced the bracket, cleaned up the line and the changed the spring-lock attachment and thought that would be it. Next, the alternator pulley went out because the car actually had the wrong alternator on it so I had to replace it and one of the tensioners. Thinking my worries were over, I noticed the smoke to become more abundant under the hood after any load. The breather seems to have a lot of blow-by with oil sprayed around it so I assumed that it was actually oil being sprayed from it onto the exhaust, but the with the hood popped and revving it, I can see smoke coming from the passenger side area by the headers and a mist coming from the breather.
Finally (to those who are still reading) the car has a white smoke coming from the exhaust (even when warm) now.
I haven't driven it hard since all of these problems started, and they seem to be racking up. The exhaust doesn't seem to be blue in color, but it doesn't smell like coolant. There isn't a wideband on the car so I don't know what my A/F ratio is to see if its running rich...and the excessive blowby makes me believe that it's probably the rings. A local shop thinks I should replace the intake, eliminate the breather and replace the lower pulley to begin with.
The car makes great power and breaks the 315s lose with ease but seems to run out of steam on the freeway (from what I understand this is attributed to the pulley set up). WTF did I get myself into and should I be expecting to buy a new block soon or what? Thanks.
So... I just bought myself an 03 with 35K miles for a decent deal from a little shady local dealership. I test drove the car pretty hard, checked it out relatively thoroughly with my brother who has owned one and everything seemed fine (albeit after a little cleanup). Anyways, for the last few weeks the problems have just been rolling in, and I have been doing some searching and reading up but would like more direct answers.
The car has no cats (which were apparently not a problem for the dealership to smog), cat-back, upper and lower pulleys and an older style JLT intake. Other notes are that it was at one time gutted in the rear... has a larger fuel line running under the car going directly to the fuel rail and a breather on the passenger side bank.
The first issue I noticed was after a short 10-70 mph run I noticed smoke coming from under the hood. I thought it was the fuel line initially because the smoke was coming from deep down on the passenger side exhaust and thought gas was dripping down (the fuel line was visually warn). I replaced the bracket, cleaned up the line and the changed the spring-lock attachment and thought that would be it. Next, the alternator pulley went out because the car actually had the wrong alternator on it so I had to replace it and one of the tensioners. Thinking my worries were over, I noticed the smoke to become more abundant under the hood after any load. The breather seems to have a lot of blow-by with oil sprayed around it so I assumed that it was actually oil being sprayed from it onto the exhaust, but the with the hood popped and revving it, I can see smoke coming from the passenger side area by the headers and a mist coming from the breather.
Finally (to those who are still reading) the car has a white smoke coming from the exhaust (even when warm) now.
I haven't driven it hard since all of these problems started, and they seem to be racking up. The exhaust doesn't seem to be blue in color, but it doesn't smell like coolant. There isn't a wideband on the car so I don't know what my A/F ratio is to see if its running rich...and the excessive blowby makes me believe that it's probably the rings. A local shop thinks I should replace the intake, eliminate the breather and replace the lower pulley to begin with.
The car makes great power and breaks the 315s lose with ease but seems to run out of steam on the freeway (from what I understand this is attributed to the pulley set up). WTF did I get myself into and should I be expecting to buy a new block soon or what? Thanks.
