That is a rather large amount of smoke. Now if it is steam from a cracked head gasket, you're going to notice a sizable drop in your coolant level inside of the coolant bottle. In fact, it may even totally drain if you don't pay attention to it. But hey, at least that is a symptom with a measurable result that you can go by.Originally Posted by bluscreen
The other thing is that while steam is water boiling out, smoke is nothing more than unburned fuel. Just as an oil leak can lead to smoke (because the engine is trying to use it as a fuel), if your gasoline is bad resulting in an incomplete combustion for example, that can lead to smoke. Whenever you see someone in a diesel truck "rolling coal", you're actually watching diesel fuel just get dumped out of their exhaust pipe. Poking a hole in your fuel tank is the equivalent of rolling coal.
But getting back on track here...
Well, there are a few things to understand here before we go on. And I know this is going to be a read, but trust me, it's worth it.
Unless you are speaking specifically about a top-tier fuel that contains additional detergents or distillates to clean your fuel system (meaning name brand gasoline), there is no such thing as "plus" or "premium" grades when it comes to gasoline. They all meet the same minimal standards. Likewise, pure gasoline itself, no matter which pump nozzle it comes out of, always contains the same amount of energy. Octane ratings do not mean better fuel, nor does it mean more powerful fuel. All that Octane does is tell you the gasoline's resistance level to burning. High-performance engines with higher compression ratios will raise the temperature much higher on the compression stroke than ones used for economic driving. All so they can harvest as much power from the fuel as possible. But those higher temps can cause the gasoline to spontaneously combust before the spark plug fires. That's called pre-detonation, or pinging. So additives are introduced into the fuel to force it to resist catching fire like that. The measure of that flammability resistance is called Octane. So, the higher the Octane rating, the more difficult the fuel is to burn because it burns slower. That's because it now takes longer to heat all of the fuel up to that new, higher flash point temperature. So when you put a higher Octane fuel into a low compression engine like the DeLorean has, you can actually get decreased performance. Especially when dealing with gas that's already gone bad. It can also lead to an accelerated accumulation of carbon deposits in the combustion chambers.
I know, this problem gets especially confusing with the Owner's Manual. There are completely different measurement methods for calculating Octane ratings. The manual lists both RON for the UK (page 39), and what we have in the US, (R+M)/2 (page 40). Both methods deliver two different sets of numbers that pretty much mean the same thing. But with a stock DeLorean engine you ONLY want to use 87 Octane in North America.
The other problem is your fuel has probably gone bad. With pure gasoline, when it becomes exposed to air, it will deteriorate. Organic compounds will evaporate off, meaning that the fuel then becomes less potent, and doesn't burn completely. Then the fuel will also break down and become thick. Which is what people refer to as "gum" or "varnish". Even worse is how all this gets compounded with modern fuels utilizing Ethanol. Gasoline doesn't like water, but Ethanol LOVES it! (if you've ever had a cocktail, you know this) Where as gasoline really only gets water through condensation or direct contamination (flood water at the gas station for example), Ethanol will suck water right out of the humidity in the air. So if your fuel has been exposed to air resulting in it going stale, then you just know that it's also been sucking the water down.
That's when Phase Separation takes place. Here's a handy video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1DPsNOCwaU
As stated in the video, once the Ethanol separates from the Gasoline, you not only run the risk of stale fuel, but now you also have Gasoline with too low of an Octane rating. Which can cause pre-detonation, and a crappy running engine. Because before the gas varnishes, the Ethanol first separates from it and lowers it's Octane rating.
If I were to guess here, I'd say that the new fuel you put in probably helped absorb the existing water in the fuel to dilute the level of moisture and raise the octane a bit. From there the SeaFoam probably also added back in the volatile chemicals (what they refer to as "ignition vapors") to help increase the fuel's flammability, and helped emulsify the rest of the suspended water to help slowly boil it out. But with water, and SeaFoam in the tank, I'd say that with that you're still going to have some visible smoke. Vapor from the water, and also because SeaFoam is an oil that isn't going to burn completely.
Start with testing your Cooling System. If that passes, I'd go ahead and drain the gasoline out, and then run at least 2 tanks through. If the smoke still isn't gone, proceed with the compression test and see where you're at then.
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