Like with people, smoking among cars has dropped dramatically over the decades. Once upon a time, it was quite common to see tired cars with a tell-tale plume of blue smoke. Now it’s practically a rarity. Of course, sometimes folks made their cars smoke on purpose:
Smoke doesn’t show up very well on a camera, but this is the other smoky car I’ve noticed recently. But both of these are nothing compared to what a guy I knew used to do, when he was growing up in Berkeley in the early sixties.
One of his friends had an old 1948 Chrysler eight, and they rigged up an intake manifold vacuum line into the passenger compartment, where they had a bucket of old motor oil. In the middle of a major intersection, they’d unkink the hose, and drop it into the oil, and rev the motor. Within seconds, the whole intersection would be engulfed in a solid cloud of thick, acrid smoke, and they’d quietly drive off. The good old days.
Seen any smoky cars lately?
My Co-workers 2001 Chrysler Sebring Convertible with the sludge-o-matic 2.7L V6.
You have some strange friends Paul. I hate it when mine smoke.
Stinky cars are more common around here (that raw gasoline smell) and most of them seem to be from the carburetor era. I guess those impoverished folks around here who still drive 1985 Chevy trucks are better at changing their oil than rebuilding their carbs.
Remembering the complexity of the setup in my ’84 Ranger, I think most automotive jobs are easier than rebuilding a carb of that vintage. I still remember the smog shop guys cringing when I had to go for a test. It could be made to pass, eventually.
Not too many smoky cars in our area, though it looks like some of the worst offenders are 1980s vintage. No smog inspections here (so far; the worst air problems are from wood stoves and fireplaces on cold, still days), but I think the more smoke-prone cars have been scrapped, or the lucky ones got picked up by the Klamath Kruise folks. (They’re going to offer a category for rat rods at this year’s “show and shine”. Can’t put my finger on it, but something’s wrong with that statement. /sarc)
Open air cleaners and unplugged or clogged lines to the charcoal canisters…
My ’77 Chevelle gets downright rank if the air cleaner isn’t a fully closed snorkle unit, and the charcoal canister isn’t doing its job.
With all that working (now and installed) its slightly more stinky than a new car.
Hondas have a nasty habit of smoking when their tube seals and valve seals leak and due to the FRM cylinder liners. Engines would hold up but they would drink oil like an Irishman.
We prefer whiskey to oil. 🙂
Armored fighting vehicles generate smoke by dumping fuel into their exhausts.
In the case of AFVs it very much IS a feature and not a bug. Most also have the ability to throw a volley of smoke grenades.
I saw a smoking MK4 Volkswagen GTI VR6 yesterday.
I’m sure it’s fine.
I hate getting stuck behind a smoke belching car and almost always give the driver a dirty look, even if they look impoverished. It’s just rude.
I agree you see less of this, probably because cars have gotten so much better and there is less tolerance. What totally baffles me though are these leaf blowers that the gardeners use to clean up.
I don’t have a problem using them to round up leaves as that would take a lot longer with a rake and create a higher bill. But when you see these guys blowing the dust and grit on the ground into the air only to have it settle back down somewhere else I get really angry. A mow and blow two houses down can totally ruin a fresh car wash.
I predict this practice will be a thing of the past in a few years. It’s an easy, 100% preventable form of air pollution.
yes! I hate leaf blowers…useless things, hopefully they will become as ubiquitous as household floor polishers
Emissions testing has taken almost all of these off the road in places where that’s required. Visible smoke will flunk you every time (and will get you pulled over and a written up for a ticket between inspections).
Not around here. I’ve seen cars that put out a lot of oil smoke pass emissions inspections and they don’t pull people over for it either.
I had a sedan version of that 95 850. Mine got so bad that on a 150km trip I had to check the gas and fill the oil.. two liters of oil every 150 km or so. It didnt snoke while driving but if you left it idle it made its own smokescreen, drive trus where the worst.
Chrysler minivans with Mitsubishi V6s were big culprits. Also, early Ford 4.6s (like my 93) that have, I understand, a valve stem seal issue.
My 68 Mustang did the same thing. Its 200 I6 needed stem seals, as it had over 100K on it. The longer it idled, the smokier it got. My college roommate had a really worn-out 71 Duster. His dad bought oil in gallon cans from Tractor Supply Stores. I think he had to fill up the crankcase with every fuel stop. Good times.
Uh- I think I’m one of the smoke brigade- My ’61 Rover p4 doesn’t like idling in traffic, and tends to get a bit smoky thanks to worn valve stems. Not a big job, just waiting for a high compression unleaded-compatible Land Rover cylinder head to show up on fleabay. Still, great compression, and not bad for a never-rebuilt 289,000 mile truck engine.
For comparison, my daily driver Saab 900 16v classic has 204,000 miles on the clock and uses less than 100ml of oil between its 3000 mile oil changes (which it has had since new). If only the gearbox was built to the same tight tolerances.
My first car, a 59 Rambler Classic, came with 5 gallons of oil in the trunk:)
Lots of poverty in southern Missouri.
Thus, ample smoke-blowing vehicles.
The sub-human mentality so prevalent explains the lack of engine exhaust muffling.
Seems that many of the smokers are later-model Mopar cars.
The Mitsubishis are another smoker cohort. The “sportier” models, especially. Due to being driven hard?
No smog checks in this area, likely due to a low population.
Ample poverty and lousy to non-existent public transportation is likely considered by state level politicos.
This area is also one of those places where lack of local opportunities leads to a lot of cannon fodder for the elites to send to foreign affairs.
If I win the Lottery for a decent amount I am so out of here!!!!!!
Will write for wealth.
East TN is similar.
Good post!
’70 MGB-GT was the smokiest I’ve ever owned. Newer cars are so clean…
OK, it’s not just me. Regarding Mitsubishis, that is. While not every older Mitsu around here smokes, when I do see a car burning oil it is much more likely to be a Mitsubishi than their numbers on the road would suggest.
I just returned from a 1,500 mile trip from Charlotte, NC to Michigan (various places in SE) and happy to report that the 93 Century wagon was a little trooper. Burned no oil, leaked no oil, performed flawlessly and returned 31.56MPG for the entire trip. No bad for 20 years old and almost 300K on the original drivetrain.
Just about every dumbass with a Powerstroke’d,Duramax’d and Cummin’d powered HD truck with a powertuner. You know the ones with a fifth grade education. Easy to spot because they never made it to HS where they could have learned how to use those gimmicks in auto shop class.
Something for you I spotted in Michigan.
Very nice, probaly the best looking version of the not great looking small Eldo.
Most of the smoke I see is from diesel pickups with “bro” mods and maladjusted fuel injectors.
I will confess to occasional smoke from my 78 BMW motorcycle when some oil gets into the top end when it’s parked.
Memories of my K75C, which would always smoke momentarily if you started it while it had been sitting on the sidestand.
My 1990 Chevrolet 1500 pickup with the tired 4.3 . Still runs really good, but smokes out the whole neighborhood if left idling more than a few minutes.
Failed its last smog check miserably, which is why it’s been sitting in the backyard over at my parents’ house until I’m able to unload it.
My 75 Corvette also smokes a bit on startup.
There is a first-gen Saturn SL that runs around my town. I think the city employs the owner to drive it around to fog for insects, it’s that bad…
For oil It is usually the POS Chrysler products(especially the ones with those Mitsu V6’s) that are the smokers around here. Maryland is strict for the most part in emissions things EXCEPT that you can get a wavier if you spend X amount of dollars so there will always be some smokers.
The other ones I have seem around are late 1990’s Corolla and Civics(the Corollas because Toyota is venturing down the GM highway of half fastness and the Civic because they have been ragged out)
My 1992 S-15 Jimmy, with the TBI 4.3 would blow a couple puffs of bluee smoke when it first started but after that it was clear and clean and it never used any oil between changes and rolled through emission inspection twice in the 5 years I owned it and passed with flying colors.
Now since you mention smokey cars, there is also the white smoke legion(aka almost every Subie with a 2.5l) around my parts
Now that you mention it, I probably see as many cars with the telltale white smoke of head gasket failure as I do with spewing blue smoke. I’m in Northern Virginia, where there is biannual emmissions inspection and annual safety inspections.
MD has the ‘historic’ cars for >20 year old cars, and some of them smoke…
VA and MD are strict!
I had an 84 Tercel Wagon that smoked quite a bit. It never bothered me until one day when I stopped at a stop sign and a cute woman crossed in front of me. We smiled at each other and then the plume blew forward and she walked right into it. DAMN!
Put some thick stop smoke stuff from Fred Meyer in and it did the trick. Until the tranny went.
I live in Arkansas, which has no vehicle inspections whatsoever. It’s not uncommon to see smoking cars here.
Go to New Zealand – originally Aotearoa by the Maori ( it meant land of The long white cloud ) basically 25 years of 7 year old Cheap japanese imports means its a shocking place ….. ( they also take off the cats)
Saw a mid-2000’s 3 series the other day that smoked a bit, I thought it was strange for a newer car.
It’s the same here in Oz, smoking cars are now a rarity. In years gone by, Mitsubishi 4 cylinder Sigmas (Galants) were a common culprit, along with many other Japanese vehicles. I owned a 1993 Sigma with the 2.6 litre Astron engine, and it needed a total rebuild at 93000 kms. Conversly, I have just sold my 1998 Holden Commodore with the 3.8 litre Buick V6 with 262000 kms on the clock, and it never used a drop of oil. I did see a Hyundai Excel the other day with a cloud of blue smoke behind, but that was unusual. I guess cars are getting better and better.
I’m guessing you mean 1983 Sigma Michael? I had a Sigma too and the valve stem seals or guides went and it would put out a good load of smoke at the lights. Mind you my sister was driving it then and quite infrequently, before I sold it.
My stupid and departed C34 Nissan Laurel smoked like a train. It was an RD28-engined diesel, so produced lovely rich black smoke – often seemingly with grit in it. Changing down a gear was a quick way to get rid of tail-gating drivers – the smoke made them back off, and I also couldn’t see them any more. Couldn’t see anything behind me except a large black smokescreen in fact.
The smoke wasn’t the engine, it was actually from the wrong injector pump being fitted. My original pump had seized (the car still drove, just wouldn’t go over 40km/ up hills). I paid over NZ$1,000 for a fully reconditioned exchange injector pump to be fitted by a diesel pump specialist.
When it was fitted all the performance came back (performance being a relative word with a 70kw diesel in a 1,450kg car), but so did enormous helping of the luscious black smoke every time I hovered my big toe near the accelerator.
Long story short, Nissan had quite different specs for RD28 injector pumps depending on if the transmission attached to the engine was manual or auto. My car was auto, the exchange pump was originally fitted to a manual. It was heavily over-fuelling at certain revs, hence all the black smoke. The “specialist” didn’t want to know.
Anyway, that car was a dog, and when the head cracked a month later I sold the car for scrap value ($400) and walked away poorer but wiser (and much happier!) All I have to remind me of that rotten smoky car are the photos below (of the actual car, note the evil injector pump I’ve arrowed) and the bank loan I’m still paying for 2 years later… (And yes, I immediately bought a newer C35 RD28 Laurel, but at 311,000km it’s smoke-free)
That is a common trick with a lot of diesel owner/operators, trying to adjust the injection pump to game the engine and produce a little bit more power. The problem is that it causes the over fuelling that you mention and quite often after a while head gaskets and other failures. A properly functioning diesel should not produce a lot of smoke, maybe a bit on startup and on very heavy acceleration, but should be rather modest in most situations. Diesels are best left to people that either can do the work themselves, have a lot of money, or have a very good experienced mechanics that is familiar with them that can properly take care of it. Diesels are not particularly difficult to figure out, but since most of the world’s cars are gas driven, naturally most people have a gas mindset and they often make a lot mistakes blending the two.
I know a guy who runs 2 turbo LD 28s one in a 49 Bonus pickup and the other in an XF Fairmont ute even in turbo form they have less hp and torque than my little Citroen which does smoke nicely thankyou many a boyracer has been annoyed by that little green car that just overtook and the cloud of black smoke at upshift lets them know their turbo subaondayota just got wasted by a diesel if you dont prod the throttle too hard and stay under 3000rpm no smoke at all and approaching 300,000kms uses no oil between changes.
I like to watch old movies to see 50-60s cars in their native habitat. It’s obvious whenever one of these cars is started or running- there’s a visible plume of smoke or whatever (probably raw, unburned gas), that streams from the tailpipe. It’s grey, of course, in that black & white era. If that’s the good ol’ days, I’m glad they’re gone.
Except for some of the diesel, ahem, enthusiasts in my area, who seem to have tapped into some long-forgotten stash of primal smoke. One black pickup — they’re always pickup trucks — has installed a five-foot vertical smokestack in its bed, with a diameter worthy of a small steamboat. The driver’s idea of a good time is to spew forth a great belch of black smoke upon any acceleration. I’m reminded of a frightened squid ducking behind a cloud of its own ink! I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an extra fuel injector in his exhaust system, just to paint the message “I’m a jerk!” in boldface…
My 77 Chevelle does it on startup, due to the very typical ancient Chevy issue of tired valve stem seals, but it does burn oil if worked hard. In town not working it, it’ll use about a quart every 1500 miles, on the highway is about a quart every 700 miles.
My well used 312,000 mile 95 Explorer uses about a pint of oil over 10,000 mile oil change intervals( thank you synthetic) It’s used that much ever since I got it, 200,000 miles ago.
The most common oil smokers are of course the horrid Mitsubishi 3.0 liter V6’s followed by there predecessor the Silent Shaft 2.6 that Chrysler bought from them for there Caravans and cars during the 80’s and 90’s. Just saw a late 90’s Caravan fumigating the intersection last week.
Oil burners used to be a very common thing. For instance Rovers used a chrome bore the engine would burn oil from new and the rings on many a 6 cylinder Rover never bedded in and they were once a common car here. Likewise Skodas rear engined offering in the 70s a horrid rust prone car that used a pint of oil per 1000kms from new I used to ride to work in one when I was carless and the rusty Humber 10 I bought for $100 was nicer to ride in. Mitsubishi Astrons smoked straight off the showroom floor, J series Camiras smoked the week after you got it home fotunately these cars have been mostly purged from the roads by our biannual safety inspections.
Driving home after dinner last night we pulled up behind a smoking dull red Honda at a stoplight, about the same vintage as the one in the photo. Best thing about it, it had Oregon plates!
Region seems to have something to do with it. Didn’t see a lot of smokers in Ohoho; mostly because body-rot would set in before actual wear would do the engine. In the Denver area, there were a LOT of rigs trailing blue-clouds. Cars didn’t rust as fast there in the dry air; and while the area was the first with emissions inspections, these were crude, and often done as having the shop guy inspecting a proffered $20.
Your story of the guy with the bucket of motor oil…brings back memories. Back when I was young and unemployed, when carburetors were common and Pintos roamed the Earth…I was doing some auto upgrading in the middle of a Lost Weekend. Specifically, I was mounting a dashboard vacuum gauge on Blazing Saddles, my Pinto Squire.
Being broke, I was limited to what rubber hose was laying around the garage. Had a nice length. Being drunk, I misjudged it. Especially since I had it go through the steering-column boot, up over the bottom edge of the dash and to the high point, to be alongside the instrument cluster at eye level.
Fiddling around, though…the end of it, although too short, was the perfect length to wind up in my beer in the console cupholder. Made me mad…but somehow those besotted neurons hit on an idea. What if I ran something through the engine through that feed line?
Used cooking oil…peanut oil was what I used in my deep-fryer. Had a vat out there. Don’t even ASK how I got there, mentally. But I took a coffee-can-sized vat of the stuff…put the vacuum hose in it…innocently went down to the 7-11 for more beer.
A thick white plume of smoke trailed me…with the pleasant odor of peanuts. Incredibly, it did NO harm to that engine – although I don’t recommend repeating.
That Volvo 850 could be smoking for a number of “little” things not related to “the old engine is shot” thing. Worst case is it get the head pulled and new seats and fresh head gasket and you are set for another 200,000 miles on that white 5 cylinder.