88 civic engine smoking

I changed my head gasket and now when I start it, it starts fine, but when it starts to warm up the idle acts like it wants to die. THen the car starts to smoke out of the camshaft cover. I cleaned the surface of the head and engine with a wire brush, to remove all of the previous gasket. Then I had the head re-surfaced. My engine ran fine before this now I cna't drive it at all. What should I do to fix this?

What was your reason for changing the head gasket in the first place?
And when you say it smokes out of the camshaft cover, where is smoke coming from? (is it coming from the oil filler cap?)

My car died and I had it towed to a shop and when It got there it started right up. They tested the head and told me that I was getting exaust in my cooling system and that was why my water pump was leaking, because of the extra prusure on the system. when I changed the gasket it was really bad, the gasket had been eaten away by the water and the head had small pits from the water. So, I had it re-surfaced and put it back on.

the smoke seems to be coming right out of my camshaft cover right under the gasket. when the engine cools down there is an oil residue on the gasket, so I think that is it oil buring. Also, I tried to drive it and there is no power. I cannot move even a few feet.

I just keep leaving stuff out on the way home the timig belt broke, but when I replaced my head gasket everything seemed to be working right.

Come on somebody has to have a general idea why white smoke would come out of the valve cover when the engine get's warmed up, and this is tied in with loss of power, where the car can't generate enough power to move.

try sending a pm to jackasssi he's a mechanic and has worked on a fiew civics, or try starting new thread entitled need help from mechanic.

Alright the guy at the machine shop said that it sounded like my head was not on right and that the exaust was being forced into my crankcase and then up to my valve cover. SO, I took the head back off Tap and die the threads and clean both surfaces really well. When I put it all back together it is working. My only problem now is that there is a little white smoke comming out of the tail pipe.

i can think of 2 things....your head might be cracked and water is mixing with your oil. or is it cold outside??? :p

Yes it is a little cold out side, but it is still in the 70's, I think.

prolly just cold outside, measue your water level, go one or 2 tanks of gas and see if it goes down.

No it is not the cold, I am still leaking water into my combustion chamber. Not sure if I am going to try and fix it or just drive it for a little while. But, I really need to get the timing fixed. the car has real problems while I am driving. When I am trying to go it has a hard time. I don't know anyone with a timing light, so I am debating over buying one or just taking it to a mechanic.

what you need to do is find friendly shop that is willing to so simple jobs.