White smoke

Asked by GuruV3DQ3 Sep 20, 2018 at 08:46 AM about the 1997 Ford Explorer 4 Dr Eddie Bauer SUV

Question type: General

My '97 Ford explorer 5.0L has white smoke
boiling out tailpipe. Tried to do a
compression test and gasoline shoots out
spark plugs and holes. What's the cause,
please?

1 Answer
42,950

Hornet_2497 answered 5 years ago

You probably have a failed head gasket on one of the engine's two heads. This will allow coolant into the combustion chamber causing the white smoke out the tailpipe. Smells like coolant too. Compression test won't tell you much more. But it's normal to have unburned gasoline coming out the spark plug holes during the compression test. You could pull the fuse to the fuel pump during this test but I wouldn't bother testing.

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