1993 Sonata Slight Smoke Screen

Was looking for a used Sonata I found a 1993 which hadn't been used very
frequently in the last few months.

Initially it ran pretty good, but then it's exhaust started to become white.
When in park with accelerator depressed there is much 'smoke' and a fair
amount of water expelled from th etail pipe.

There is not water in the oil. The antifreeze is 'good' and the level does
not diminish.
There are zero odd noises coming from the engine.
The exhaust just looks like a -35C day when it was raining. I ran it for no
more than 5 minutes and turned it off.

Is this just because it was sitting for so long and ran infrequently for
very short periods. Or would I be looking at substantial $$$.
If I buy this thing it needs to pass a clean air test.

 

No, its because the oil rings are shot. The rings were doing their job ok
until the block got warm and expanded. Then the rings just didnt expand to
fill the gap.


Its not hugely expensive to replace rings... have to do that before the
rings fail totally.

That sucks. Why dont you buy a car which has already passed a clean air test
?

 

But of course, if you can get the car checked by someone who knows better,
then you might find the computer has a better reason. that car has efi ? so
you could get the codes checked - it might be just a sensor problem.

Well thats my guess anyway.

Maybe its much simpler problem and a simple solution.

 

Was the car running for a total of 5 minutes???

If so, then what you're seeing is just steam, and should disappear once
the car is fully warmed up, with the temp gauge in the middle of its range.
IOW, this could be perfectly normal behaviour.

Take the car out on the highway for a 10-15 minute test drive. If it's
still putting out a lot a white smoke and it's not too cold out, then you
may have a problem.

If it puts out a huge cloud of smoke when you start up from waiting
at a red light, for instance, but doesn't smoke much while you're
driving, then you have bad valve stem seals, which was a common
problem for Hyundai's before 1996 or so when they changed to a
slightly better seal design.

How many miles on the car?

Why not just test the car before you buy it?

Bob