why would 94 toy pickup smokes bad on inclines?

[berrett]

i have a 94 toyota pickup with a 22re motor with 151K on it. the oil was changed yesterday afternoon (put like 5.5 quarts), after that we went playing around in the gravel pit and all was good. today we went out and when on an incline (not even steep ones) the truck pours white smoke out the tailpipe, but it stops when you get back on level ground and rev it a couple times. we checked the oil and in shows normal level. any idea why this would happen, we thought maybe it was overfilled with oil but it didn't do it last night and the level looks good in the dipstick. it also is full of coolant and doesnt seem to be losing any of that. any ideas of what to check out? thanks

 

[red]

white smoke is water not oil. how long had the truck been running before all the white smoke came out?

 

[Greg]

5.5 quarts is a lot of oil for a Toyota 22RE, you're only supposed to have 4.5 quarts. I'd drain it & refill with 4.5 quarts before you do damage to the motor.

 

[berrett]

truck had been running for about 15 mins, it has to be stopped on an incline for 20 seconds atleast, and seems to happen more when the motor is lugging down.

 

[lewis]

I had the same problem with my 88 toyota and could never figure it out. Just had to quit going up steep inclines and that was 11 years ago and its still running strong.

 

[jet_aj]

As far as white smoke, that would be water. I'm not sure about the 22re but My 91 4-runner with the 3.0 had a recall on the head gaskets because they would fail prematurely. If you are sure it white smoke and not light blue smoke then it has to be something to do with water getting into the cylinders... maybe you had water sitting the the bottom of your air filter box and when you inclined the truck it fed into the engine...
But if it is blue smoke not white, then could be overfilled with oil and/or not draining back through the engine and getting sucked through the PCV valve (breather on the valve cover) and pulled into the cylinders. That was always a problem with some ford engines I've run because the PCV valve was on the back end of the valve cover... climb a pretty long steep grade and your going to start getting oil in the intake manifold.
could be a bunch of things, just check and see what is different when the engine is inclined... then start eliminating things.
Good luck

 

[I Lean]

Check that oil level first, I'll bet you're just burning oil. Oil burning smoke can be pretty white if there's a lot of it, trust me. That also explains why it's only on inclines.

 

[Tacoma]

I agree. Sounds like oil smoke... were it water, you'd probably have some in the oil.

Drain some and see.

 

[berrett]

we drained the oil again and refilled it, but it is still doing it. there was no water in the oil and the coolant level hasn't dropped. we also replaced the pcv valve while we were at it. i also think it is oil, it does get a slight blue tint when it has about burned it all out of the cylinder (when it is inclined it blows ALOT of smoke). just don't understand why it did it didn't do it the night before, and still does it after refilling to the correct level, although after looking at the empty oil containers i think we only overfilled by pint at most the first time.

 

[hammerhead]

I had an EX400 pour out smoke when on the throttle after an oil change. It smoked the worst when climbing. Come to find out it just didn't like synthetic oil. Switched back to a petroleum based oil and it was fine again... Weird!

 

[lewis]

when i had problems with mine someone had told me it was probably the piston rings. Just do what I did and keep it on level ground.

 

[H-K]

Just curious, does it smoke only when going uphill or does it also smoke when going downhill?

 

[gripguru]

If your coolant is still not discolored and your oil had no creamy white mayo anywhere in it, it is probably the piston blow-by through the rings. Had that happen on an 86 camry at 45Kmi and it is still going strong at 80K mi with no repairs.

 

[jet_aj]

Could be the oil going by the piston rings or dropping in from the top past the valve seals. I assume you used the same oil you always have used for this change as all other changes, so I wouldnt think it was the actual oil. But if it has been excessive time between oil changes (8-10,000 mile average) you could have had a lot of sludge build up that was keeping the oil from passing through the valve seals, when you changed it, now the sludge is cleaned off enough so the thinner oil can now pass through. Probably the valve seals of the rear cylinder as the oil will build up a little more there during climbing, then when your on flat ground the oil doesnt pool there as much so it doesnt smoke enough to notice.

If the engine has a bunch of miles on it then could just be the engine wear showing up. I'd say either just live with the smoke or do a rings and seals job on the motor. You could even try some seal conditioner (I think slick 50 makes some) to try and get the seals to soften and seal better. I used some on a 1982 5.0 and it helped quite a bit.

good luck

 

[gertsch]

probably from changing the oil cleaned out all the grunge that kept it from smoking and now the fresh oil cleaned it out and now your just seeing the signs of 151k miles now. I don't know just a thought.

 

[berrett]

we drained the oil (there was no water in it) and refilled, also changed the plugs and pcv valve. also changed the plugs (they weren't oil fouled, maybe some carbon build up). it still smokes, couple guys said it may be a fuel problem, that when uphill and underload it could be dumping to much fuel in there. any other ideas

 

[camicaztoy]

sounds like worn out valve seals on the back 1 or 2 cylinders.

 

[jet_aj]

if it was fuel it would be black smoke, not white/blue. I had a mustang with a bad Mass Air Flow sensor that was bad, smoked bad only under load... but it was black smoke
my guess is still probably valve seals. I say spend a few bucks and replaces some seals.

you can do some tests to check if is fuel problems... most easily is to see if your fuel mileage goes way down. in the stang it would get about 12MPG with a bad MAF sensor, but got close to 18 when it was fixed. VERY noticeable.
Stuck injectors are easy to find to. Use a mechanics stethoscope (or long screw driver pressed against your ear) and listen to each fuel injector. You will hear a rapid clicking noise and the swoosh of fuel if the injector is working properly. If it makes no noise it could be stuck open...
I still think it sounds more like burning oil not fuel, prob could replace the valve seals and cure it

 

[Goose]

smoke

If it is a 22re you would have seen some milky residue in the oil due to the head gasket. No milky oil, then I would say valves or a fuel prob like the other guys said. (probably valves).

 

[rev8n]

So, did you ever figure it out?