bbobjjoe

Hi, I have a 94 Civic, and it has a problem I've never seen before. I was out driving home in the snow storm we had the other day, and was struggling to get up a hill to get home. After getting up the hill, I noticed there was smoking coming from under the hood, and there was a hissing noise coming from the engine area. I popped the hood to see that the white smoke was coming from the area of my distribbutor. I let the car sit and moved it to the driveway once it cooled down.

Yesterday was the first time I've driven the car since the day of the storm. I added coolant to the engine the night before (I have a leak, possibly from near the engine, I had a puddle beneath the engine area. The coolant's been leaking a while, but I never saw a puddle until yesterday).

I drove and by the time I got to work (20-25 minute drive), the car had just started to smoke from same area.

On the drive home, the same thing happened (white smoke, hissing). I had to stop a few more times because of a longer drive due to traffic. I added coolant into it maybe halfway down the ride, and managed to make it home just as smoke started to come about. Something new that happened on the drive, is that when the smoke started to come, the engine started to stutter like it wanted to die out on me. It reminded me of what my car was doing when my alternator went.

Any ideas as to what it might be? Thanks.

go-part

Your car should be overheating if all this is happening.

If that is happening then it sounds like you may need to locate where the leak is coming from.

It could possibly be a headgasket leak. It would explain stuttering and the white smoke.

http://www.aa1car.com/library/coolant_leaks.htm

bbobjjoe

Thanks for the response and the link.

I was cheking the car yesterday and then today, and think I might've found the leaks.

From the looks of it, I'm loosing coolant from two areas, both of them small leaks. The first leak is dripping from close to the back of the engine. I couldn't get under the car to see exactly where. The other is dripping from near the hose right under the distributor.

While running the car, I also noticed a small oil leak from the distributor and the puddle of oil beneath the car this morning.

I've checked against some of the symptoms of a bad head gasket and haven't seen. I checked the oil on the dipstick and when I open the top on the engine and the oil color is normal, it's not milky or discolored or anything. And my exhasut is shooting a small amount of white smoke from beneath the car, along the exhaust pipe. My exhaust system is funky and parts of it need to be tightening once I get under there.

bbobjjoe

So I'm having a shop take a look at the car tomorrow.

I took a look today, and see that the oil covered hose right beneath my distributor is slowly dripping coolant. I don't see any puddles farther back towards the firewall, so I'm thinking maybe just that spot is leaking, at least externally.

I'm not sure where in that area oil is leaking, I was going to swap out the O-Ring and see if that helps any.

I also noticed that one of my spark plugs smells funky. I checked only one of them so far, but am going to check the other 3. The smell reminded me of alcohol, but when I smelled the unused coolant, the smell was the same. So I'm wondering if it's something related to the head gasket. I saw on that link that a bad head gasket leaking into a cylinder can mess up my spark plug. Causing that smell?

J-Master Flex

Yeah, without looking at it or knowing anything about your car, I'd say it's probably a head gasket issue. If the leak looks like it is coming from the head gasket area, then definitely get it checked out. I'd also recommend a new distributor, the white smoke leaking from there might foul it and cause further damage. And, when you are adding coolant, you should try to bleed your coolant lines, because gas pockets in the coolant can cause an engine to run hot, and start hissing and spitting out white smoke. Until then, I wouldn't run your car any more than you absolutely have to.

iim1rmg

There is a small hose that runs near the distributor.

You likely need to replace that hose. It is probably broken near one of the hose clamps. Once water is steaming out of a broken hose it goes everywhere, so all the water may be coming from the same place.

This fix is easy and cheap, but if you overheated the engine when it was low on coolant, that can easily result in a blown headgasket or a warped or cracked head.

If you are getting coolant smell on a spark plug, and if you are seeing white smoke in the exhaust, you have a head or head gasket problem. This is not easy or cheap to fix.

It could be that the blown hose caused a loss of coolant, which caused overheating which resulted in head-gasket or cylinder head problems.

Marksordan

I was cheking the car yesterday and then today, and think I might've found the leaks.