gasoline vapors

I have a 02 Caravan SE. It started running rough and now I have white smoke coming from the tailpipe and strong gasoline odor. I don`t have any water in my oil nor any gasoline in my radiator. No leaking injectors. All vacuum hoses are connected. Could this be an EVAP problem? If it were getting too much gas for the injectors to burn the engine would not idle. I know the cat converter is turning the fuel into steam but I need to know how unburned fuel is making it to the converter in the fisrt place. Somebody help!!!

If the smoke out the tailpipe is thick white than you have a head gasket issue. If the smoke is black it is running rich, If the smoke is blue it is burning oil. Sounds like you may have the head gasket issue.

i agree with air on head gasket the only other thing would blow white smoke is bad tranny module. but you said it ran bad so i would do a compression check on all cylenders to see if it is head gasket.

I considered the head gasket but now I start her up and she runs very smooth. The smoke is still there but not as thick as it was. I did notice an exhaust leak on the cat converter. The forward end was dripping a little condensation and I could see little puffs of smoke. Is it possible that the o2 sensor (downstream) could be playing a role in this? What would happen if I unplugged it?

unplug it see if it makes it run worse or same? you may have a little leak in the head gasket's i believe if it's still putting white smoke out.

I considered the head gasket but now I start her up and she runs very smooth. The smoke is still there but not as thick as it was. I did notice an exhaust leak on the cat converter. The forward end was dripping a little condensation and I could see little puffs of smoke. Is it possible that the o2 sensor (downstream) could be playing a role in this? What would happen if I unplugged it?


The downstream is just looking at the efficiency of the cat. All it will do if you unplug it is turn on the check engine light.

Further info. Thank you for taking your time to help. Sorry it`s taken so long for me to reply. Turns out the #6 injector was stuck open. I`m still working on the dang thing. I cannot believe the idiotic engineering on the power steering resivior. It was truly unpleasant locating and loosening the single nut underneath. Tomorrow I`ll have the intake manifold off and the entire fuel rail and injectors out. Is it wise to replace o rings on all injectors even though I`m only replaceing the one injector? Considering the trouble gone through to remove the manifold, I will be replacing the spark plugs while I`m in there.

10mm on the end of an extension feed it through the hoses/wires. Loosen it a couple turns and your good to go. If it helps the cowl pops off in about 5 minutes which really opens up a lot of room. Just pop off the wiper arms, disconnect the wiper motor connector, Disconnect the two drains, Remove the 4 or five torx screws, remove the cowl cover, remove the 4 or 5 10mm nuts, remove the 4 or 5 13mm bolts and the whole assemble pops out.

Thanks, Airjer. I just got the fuel rail and injectors out. That sucked. I don`t have a garage so I`m limited to working on the van for a couple hours after work everyday. Now I`m waiting for the parts house to get the injector. Looks like Saturday at the earliest. Thank you for your advice. This forum has pulled me out of a crack more than once.

Replaced the #6 injector but no joy. Still show the same code(P0206). I the PCM controls the injectors. But I don`t know how to test it. Any thoughts anyone? Is there something I can look at that controls that specific injector?

Disconnect the injector connector and test the voltage from the PCM while the engine is running. You can use a meter or a noid light. Don't recall the exact voltage but it's just a few volts. A noid light is just a low voltage bulb with wires to connect to the injector connector available at most parts stores.

OK. I Just hooked up an analog meter using the positive marking on the injector. I plugged the tester into the corresponding connector and the meter went the wrong way. So I reversed it (stuck the Black Prong of the tester into the "positive" side and red into the "neg") and it showed battery voltage. 12-14 volts. The meter did not fluctuate as I would expect a properly operating injector would. I also plugged neg. side of the tester into the positive of the connector and touched the pos.tester to the neg. side of the battery with the exact same result. What does this mean. How could it reverse polarity? Is something going to ground?

the dark green/red wire is 12 volts asd with the key on it will have power for a few seconds then shut off with the engine running it should have battery voltage...The other wire is ground from the pcm, with the key on engine off it should have no ground, with the vehicle running the pcm pulses the driver, ground-no ground-ground-etcc.....not sure if an analog meter is fast enough...

Thanks, man. That`s very helpful. As soon as the weather permits I`ll give it a go. I now have a noid light. And I found a stethiscope so I can listen to all the injectors so I`ll know what this one is supposed to be doing. Now if mother nature will cooperate I`ll let you know how it turns out.

Just wanted to thank you guys for the advice. Sorry for not getting back to this forum sooner but the holidays were hectic. I peeled back the wire loom on the injectors and found all the wires were screwed up. I don`t know how it ran at all but I got lucky at the local salvage yard. They had an `01 Voyager with a 3.8l but it all matched perfectly. Even the MAP sensor. I got out of there for $50. So thanks to RIP and AIRJER and everybody for the help. These forums are a great resource.