91ChevyRS

this afternoon I went outside to start up my car when the puff of white smoke came out again as it started up....

Just a puff of white smoke passing through and then after that it stopped....

One of my friends told me it smelled like coolant or what not...now, I know of this problem and it has been going on and off since I bought the car, and I dont find it that big of a deal.


I understand that its common to see smoke come out of the exhaust tips on start up...now my question is....just what the hell is it for a final time...I have been told it may be my valve seals but that should mean my smoke should be bluish...and I have others telling me its a bad gasket or blown gasket....I dont wanna get a compression test done on the car, it drives more than well now, I may need to get an oil change done as I am running slightly low on it (last oil change was August 4, 2005) now I have asked several mechanics to take a look at the car to see if there's something wrong with it. And when you have a bad or leaking head gasket, generally water, or coolant seeps into the engine which eventually condenses into this white smoke I see on start up sometimes. I took it to a few close mechanics of mine and they pulled out the oil checked it out and he assured me that there was no water in your engine and the oil is just the right color. Then I took it some other people before that and I asked about the smoke on start up, he also assured me "its completely normal if the car does it when its cold, you'll only have a problem if it does it non stop as you're hitting the gas and driving it all the time" Now the few times the car does it, is when I just start it up after about 1-6 hours of sitting. It doesnt always do it on every fire up mind you, it does it on occasions.


So please anyone, I am thinking it has something to do with valve seals, but if the mechanic reassured me it wasnt a bad gasket just what the hell else could it be...its kinda embarassing starting it up in the middle of a parking lot and having people overreact and say "OMG! Bad gasket, your car smells like coolant." Unfortunately I have nothing to say except I know, and quite frankly nothing is wrong.


EDIT: Btw, I am not losing any coolant whatsoever, it has remained the same basically, I havent checked under the radiator cap (that damn thing is so hard to pull off, the tabs are slightly bent thats why)

flaming-ford

iTrader: (7)

sounds like valve seals to me. If it's only on startup and cold startup it sounds even more like valve seals. They cost almost nothing so you might as well buy them. Stock gm valve seals of this era were known to be crap.

Btw if your burning a slight ammount of oil it sounds even more like valve seals.

If you smell antifreeze though you may want to check coolant hoses, radiater, water pump seals that sorta thing. Also these engines were know to start a mild leak between the intake manifold and heads at the front right edge if you were staring directly at the engine from the front of your car.

Dialed_In

iTrader: (3)

Yup, sounds like valve seals. They're easy to replace. While you're at it do a pressure test of the coolant system. You may have a small leak somewhere, hopefully where the coolant crossover in the intake meets the head. Perfect time to do valve seals, springs and top end gaskets Clean the injectors real good, cap/rotor, plugs, new egr.. It's all got to come off anyway. Perfect time for a tune up

91ChevyRS

I did do a minor tune up on the car and since I got it here's what I have done with it.

-Brand new O2 sensor
-Entire Cooling system change, radiator, radiator hoses, thermostat, everything changed in May of 05'
-Brand new spark plugs (platinum tip)
-brand new EGR valve, and EGR vacuum solenoid (SES light came on cause of this)

EDIT: These are the things I still have to do

-new tranny mount installed
-potential valve seals
-my O2 may be faulty which is causing my car to hesitate slightly at first gear acceleration, it does this only when its hot


The oil is a little low as I checked it today, I'll get it changed out on Friday. It makes sense the oil is almost done (it has just a smidge below the half mark) because I have 110,400 on the car now and the oil is due at like 110,710 or something like that.

The coolant tank like I said has remained intact and untouched, although I must say, when I changed out the spark plugs a few months ago, there was some slight coolant seepage from somewhere, I dunno if this was some after drops that I accidentally spoofed on the engine when I missed the tank (it wasnt that bad though just like a small doup)

But after going under the car again last month to change out my O2 sensor, there was no sign of coolant/antifreeze anymore...Kinda weird.

But yeah, I dunno the car drives just fine, its not overheating (it never goes over 220 degrees) It always stays within the 190-205 degrees range.

Dialed_In

iTrader: (3)

You may have the beginings of a leak somewhere. Take the hint and do a pressure test of the coolant system. Catch it early before it does any damage.

SLEEPER 86

could just be water condensation in the exhaust.but if it smells like coolant,better get the cooling system pressure tested.

xlwhellraiser

iTrader: (1)

The oil level tells you right there, that its your valve seals.

For your final answer I am 100% sure its your valve seals, since I know that oil mostly burns white. I had the same problem and belive it or not, it was the seals, but pop out your valve covers and check to see if the passages for oil are not stuffed up.

You'll see why you have soo much low oil. Over years, if bad oil was used the car will gum up around the passages and stuff them. Than the only way for the oil to come back is through the valve seals, and poof smoke on start up.

Your coolant can be just leaking out of radiator, or out of overflow tank. Maybe even the thermostat housing.
Check all of your hoses and, as I think you already did, check to see if your oil looks like milkshake. I highly doubt that your oil looks like that since you already checked it and did not complain about it.

Valve seals, and check to see if your passages on the heads are fine (just pop the valve covers off and check on the ends of the heads).

Since you are running 220 and nothing more leads me to belive that your stock cooling system is still doing fine, so nothing to worry there, yet.

parks911

I wonder if that is my problem. Mechanic say it may be, but he doesn't see the smoke at start up & only when the engine & exaust are cold.

It goes away after a few minutes when everything warms up & I don't experience the problem until the next morning again.

The smoke doesn't linger around either, blows out the exaust & then gone ~ evaporated.

I have true dual 3" exaust from the headers to the back of the car. I am a little concerned with hopes that it is just condensation. 11K motor with just a little over 200 miles, Yeah ~ I hope it is just condensation.