Ok, I am having a problem with my 1992 ford f250 with the 351 and 5 speed manual. It has no power and when i start it up and hold down the clutch and hit the gas it bogs down and blows out alot of white smoke out of the exhaust. It will only go to 45 mph.

It has not cat on it, fairly new exhaust, It drove fine in the morning but when I hoped into it to head home it wouldn't let me go no more than 35.

 

I assume you are losing a lot of coolant?

 

I was thinking on checking the sparkplugs, and take the clean air oil vent and put a piece of paper to it and see what happens.

The entire cooling system is brand new.

 

Check your oil and see if theres milky sludge in there

 

Ill have to check when I get home from school. I was told there was a way to clean the engine if it happens. is that true?

 

The cooling system may be new, but is your coolant level going down?

 

Does this white smoke dissipate rapidly?

If so as previously stated its coolant blowing out the tail pipe.

If its actually smoke it doesn't rapidly dissipate I believe brake fluid burns with a white smoke, a fluid leak into the brake booster could be a possibility but you'd also have to be suffering brake issues. Such as hard to push the pedal down, little or no power assist.

If the diaphragm is ruptured it might suck brake fluid from what is or was an otherwise good master cylinder due to the amount of vacuum put to it.

 

If u have a blown head gasket u need to address the head gasket before trying to get the water out of the oil

 

I checked the oil and there was no white. The master cylinder and booster are brand new and the coolent hasn't gone down.

 

How many miles on the engine? Might be blow by and time for some new rings.

 

Doesn't take much coolant to produce white smoke/steam, depending on how long ago it started the coolant may not have noticeably gone down yet.

That is the most likely cause for what you describe.

A rich fuel mixture creates black smoke, burning oil creates blue smoke.

Water/coolant creates what looks like white smoke when it goes through combustion and is blown out but it is actually steam not smoke. Steam rapidly dissipates to nothing very quickly once out of the pipe, smoke from burning oil etc does not rapidly dissipate so its pretty easy to tell the difference between smoke and steam.

What does this smoke smell like?

 

Interesting, Subscribing

 

Is the white "smoke" all the time or is it only when u start it up?

 

It's burning coolant as suggested is my guess. Pressure test the coolant system Or do a cylinder leak down test. Does the exhaust smell sweet. That's a very good indication it's coolant.

 

Is it white, or does the smoke have a blue-ish tint to it? Since "coolant" is already taken, I'll go with it's oil and the valve seals are done.