No start, White smoke

[pie5566]

Today w tried to start my dad's ZR-1 after it had been sitting for a month or so, and it would not start. We tried to jump it, and it turned over. But after a few seconds of cranking it would start to make a screeching-like noise. It was still turning over when this happened. We tried to start this a bunch of times, and it seemed to get very close to starting a few times. After a while (or it might have been doing it the whole time, but the wind just blew it away) it started to blow lots of whit smoke each time we tried to crank it. (the exhaust is really good at blowing smoke rings:)). Anyway, it never started. Afterward we noticed that there were little white specks on the exhaust tips. Doesn't white smoke mean coolant in the cylinders, which would mean blown head gasket or cracked cylinder head, right? We should probably do a compression test on it to verify this, correct? Any other possibilities:dontknow:?

Thanks

[rhipsher]

White specs of ceramic inside your exhust tips means your catylatic converter is breaking apart. And the car not starting could mean a loose piece of cat could have got sucked up into one of the valves Which would cause white smoke.

[pie5566]

Meaning that it is going to need a valve job and a new catalytic converter? A compression test would still tell us which cylinder is messed up, right? Shouldn't the exhaust valves be closed when the engine is "sucking" on the intake stroke?

[rhipsher]

It can still happen. When my cat blew out I was told not to drive it just for that reason. There were chunks of ceramic honey comb all throughout my exhaust system. I had to shake my exhaust system out till there was no more left inside it. But if a piece got sucked up into one of your valves then its a little more serious.

[Jeffvette]

Start simple. You obviously have air. But do you have spark and do you have fuel. White smoke can be a couple of things, but start with the obvious first, then run to a compression check.

[Nick]

Pull all the plugs, crank it over and see what comes out of the cylinders (if anything). If nothing comes out, do your compression test then, since you are that far along and already have all of the plugs out. If something comes out of the cylinders...:confused:

[pie5566]

Cool, thanks for all of your guys' input. We won't have time to tr any of that until next weekend. I will definitely try what you guys suggest. How exactly do you check to make sure that it is getting fuel? Fuel pressure gauge? We don't have one of these.

thanks

[tccrab]

Cool, thanks for all of your guys' input. We won't have time to tr any of that until next weekend. I will definitely try what you guys suggest. How exactly do you check to make sure that it is getting fuel? Fuel pressure gauge? We don't have one of these.

thanks

There is a schrader valve on the front end of the passenger side fuel rail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrader_valve
Remove the cap and with the key in the "ON" position slightly depress the plunger with your fingernail or something. Make sure to have a rag or two wadded up around it because the fuel pumps should deliver about 50psi of gasoline.
Without a pressure gauge, all this will tell you is that at least one fuel pump (there are two) is working at least a little.
The car should start with only one operational fuel pump. Depending on which one is bad, it might start and run or it might start and quickly die.

Good luck!!

TomC
"Crabs"

[pie5566]

I just got home from school. My dad said that he was going to work on cars today (our Mitsubishi is also broken.), I don't know what he was doing. He might have been testing for spark or something. Maybe we can try this when he gets home.

Thanks a bunch!

Edit: Ok, I ended up going out of town this weekend. While I was gone my dad got a new battery, still doesn't work. This could be a while before we get a chance to do this.