I have 211K miles on my 2001 accord. old motor has bad piston rings and valves so decided to buy an engine from the local junkyard, 129k miles and an '02 with 30 day warranty. Just completed the swap last night.

First start up isn't great so far. Forgot to tighten the fuel line so fuel spewed out and white smoke from the tailpipe, also heard a weird noise. Turned off engine, tightened fuel line and noticed cylinder 1 spark plug wire popped out. Second start up after fixing wire and fuel line, still smokey as hell from the tailpipe. Let it run for about 2-3 mins while examining engine compartment, notice air noise, probably a vacuum line i missed to plug in. Turned off engine and noticed cyl 3's plug wire popped out too, wtf?

Should I be worried about the white smoke? Could it be a bad head gasket? What about the plug wire popping out?

 

The wires, could be bad wires not seating on the plugs.

The smoke....well could be issues with the HG. A block check test - or other test will tell. It could just be water that has "settled" in the exhaust and is now burning off. For ~$35 you can get a block check tool and the fluid.

 

Is there oil in the coolant? Coolant in the oil?

 

i assumed the oil was flushed out of the engine, so i didn't check. after engine swap, filled up with new oil and coolant. i'll have to check the dip stick later and see how things look.

 

Check that. If there is coolant in the oil then there will be a white milky substance on the dip stick and on the inside of the oil filler cap.

 

all good now. no milky oil. let the car run for 15+ mins and the smoke eventually cleared. There was probably a lot of gunk built up in the engine.