F355 possible fire

what color smoke?

 

Maybe running very lean (or rich) due to the unplugged sensors. Either way not good.

If you must run cat less you should still connect your sensors so the ECU can monitor the AFR (air fuel ratio). You can space the secondary sensors farther out of the exhaust stream and avoid a CEL.



Rob

 

white smoke sounds like water...did you wash your engine, or spill some coolant when adding.

blue or black smoke indicates excess (or external) fuel.

sounds like your smoke wasn't actually coming out of the exhaust but from 'around' the exhaust area.


BTW, I got a Halotron fire extinguisher from Grainger...get one!

 

There's actually some good ideas here. Reinstalling A/F sensors and their ECUs should have a positive benefit on engine emissions, and possibly performance. The original configuration should have A/F sensors before the cats anyway. Even second bank O2 sensors would be in front of a TWC system. So, all sensors and ECUs installed in their same areas without cats should still work without getting codes.

BTW, you should have gotten codes (CEL) if your smoke problem was inside the engine/exhaust/fuel system.

Hopefully, this was your problem...just dry off the (cooled) engine and have another drive.

And...GET THAT FIRE EXTINGUISHER!!! (if you have a car fire, you can direct the halotron into the engine bay without lifting the cover, right? With halotron, you don't dump a load of causic powder onto your engine...that's a plus!)

 

uh......washing the car a few days prior to your drive or driving in the rain 5 days before your drive (neither situation would cause white smoke in the engine bay) and then white smoke started in the muffler/cat area under the air boxes after a 30 mile drive?

There is a problem and if you are not sure of the cause then you should take the car to a pro .

 

I have to disagree here. He may have had standing water somewhere in/on the engine bay that bounced onto the muffler area during his drive. White smoke generally equals steam. However, if there is white smoke exiting from the exhaust pipes, then check the coolant reservior for goop and the oil dipstick for milk...both indicators for head gasket leakage...that would be a problem. Any fuel-related problem sould give a CEL and a performance variation, none of which were observed.

 

I was referring to unburnt fuel (smoke) if it was running too rich and excess heat causing smoke from heat shields or other components if the exhaust was too hot from a lean condition. I missed the part about the color of the smoke.

I hope it's nothing serious and you get another 75k miles out of that beautiful machine.

Rob

 

Was there any smell in the smoke ie oil will burn off white if on the manifold, was the oil over full? Are there any marks on the manifold headers anywhere? are any of the fluids other than water over full? I doubt whether it would still be water from your washing the car. Seems odd, would not be fuel as I would imagine this would be evident by a strong smell. Check all fuel lines and connections first then work backwards.

 

That's the most important question THE SMELL of the smoke and location where the smoke came from will tell a lot about this issue.

 

I have a different data point to offer. I had the same set of circumstances while driving my 98 spider up to the mountains one weekend (albeit with cats/ecus). I got white looking smoke coming from the engine bay. Stopped immediately, and luckily the homeowner I stopped next to had a lift and a bunch of old Alfas, so he put my car up.

Turns out one of my CV boots was badly torn and at speed the joint was flinging grease around. Some of it got on exhaust components and smoked white (or at least lighter than what you're used to seeing with oil). Hadn't been immediately obvious because of the heat shield that sits over the joint.

Replaced the boot and cleaned things up and all was well. Good luck!

 

Damn, that was pretty spot on!

 

Nice work guys.

Makes me wish the internet existed back when I was 17 and re-building my MGBGT. I can't imagine how much better my experience of that car would have been with an MG resource the likes of FerrariChat.