Could this problem be started by moisture/ice in the gas lines?
My husband had let his 1999 Dodge Ram van sit for over a week because of the snow. When he tried to move it it wouldn't start. We sprayed some started fluid in the air intake and it started but would stall right away and there was a lot of gray smoke in the exhaust at first but then a lot of white smoke (maybe it was steam) and there was several drops of water dripping from the exhaust pipe. The van would stall as soon as he took his foot off the gas. Any ideas as to what this problem could be?
Robert2010-03-01T07:52:23Z
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Moisture in the air will cause this white smoke if the weather is real cold. Water coming out of the pipe is just water that in coming out of the combustion chamber due to the moisture in the air.
as for the white smoke and the dripping fluid. That's called cold start condensation. That's completely normal in every way, as long as the smoke stops after you are able to get it warmed up all the way. the grey smoke could have been build up from sitting there. soot will drop in the exhaust pipe and will cause a grey poof of smoke to come out. The other options for GRAY smoke is from the cats. your cats are essentially a metal pipe encasing charcoal. if while the van was sitting moisture was able to find it's way into the crevices in the charcoal and it was allowed to freeze and cause the charcoal to brake and disperse then you could have been watching your cats blow out the exhaust. Other options are blown seals gaskets grommets and other oil sealing parts, but, generally this is a BLACK BLUE smoke that would be the color of these culprits. try to use some starter fluid spray it in the intake and right when you fire it up tell your husband to lay qall hell into that throttle. some times an engine needs to be shaken awake. If that doesn't work you may want to take it and see if it's throwing a code that isn't allowing it to start properly.
Maybe. Starter fluid is kinda ok to use but not much or often, it dries out seals and gaskets on gas engines You likely kicked off the fast idle when pumping it trying to start it. Water out exhaust pipe is normal(condensation) from temp differences. Grey smoke is unburned gas and or oil bypassing in combustion chamber. White smoke is coolant in combustion chamber. Block froze from not enough coolant(antifreeze) wrong mix too much water. If it makes a lot of noise, more than normal...cracked block If it seems to run kinda okay but stumbles or seems sluggish...head gasket and if it continues to pump out white exhaust. Not much choice if it wont start or stay running but to haul it to a repair shop
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