My '89 GTA has 32,7xx original miles. It runs beautifully except that when I first start her up I see white smoke emitting from the exhaust. I didn't think it could be bad rings because of the condition of the car and how well it runs. What is causing this? Someone told me if the smoke is white it's probably coolant.

Thanks for any help!!!

 

You sure it's not oil? My car used to emit a huge cloud of oil-smoke right at cold starts and then not again. Bad valve seals would let oil leak down into the cylinders when it sat there and it would instantly burn off on start-up. New heads fixed the problem (if you like the heads you've got then you could get new seals). May not be right, just a thought...

-Mark W.
<A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/al3/thegreycar">'88 SC Camaro w/ 305 TBI</A>

 

My 86 T/A does the same thing. I was told it was bad Valve stem seals.

------------------
Zepher
'86 Pontiac Trans Am WS6, 5 Speed:
Edelbrock 1406 Carb, Edelbrock Performer RPM 7101 Intake Manifold.
Edelbrock Open Element Air Cleaner: Flowmaster Exhaust, 160* Thermostat,
Grant GT Steering Wheel, MSD HEI Coil, Taylor 8mm Wires, Recaro Seats,
Alpine CD+Changer,Rockford & Soundstream Amps, Premier TS-1040C Subs, Polk Audio highs/mids.

86 Trans Am & Girls

 

If it's white, not bluish, it's coolant. If it's bluish, it's oil. Coolant can be a few things, including bad intake gaskets, bad head gaskets, cracked water jackets and a couple other things.

 

A recent prior post in the last week heavily debated this subject. You might want to check it out. To help you sort this out, I ask the question "Are you losing coolant?", meaning is your overflow reservior always low on coolant? Keep in mind, there are many ways to lose coolant through leaks, which you can't readily find. This would just be one piece of information to use to determine if your smoke is coolant or oil. The valve stem seal issue ususally occurrs only during start up. Coolant leakage into combustion would be continous & probably worse when the engine is at operating temperatures. Have some one follow you while your driving to better define your situtation.
Regards, FJK

 

I was about to type in almost the exact same question. I am pretty positive that I have a bad intake manifold gasket. I am loosing coolant, no coolant in oil, white smoke at idle and I can visibly see some anti-freeze leaking through on the drivers side front where the intake manifold gasket is. My question is how much $ should this repair run me? I work too much to fix it myself and I just wanna know how much I will get taken for when I call around on Monday. Thanks.

 

well im assuming you have a tuned port car because it is an 89.....ive never messed w/ that setup....but on a regular carb car i wouldnt imagine a good shop taking more than 2 hours to change the intake gasket....thats probably about $100 dollars in labor...and a shop will probably charge you $15 for the gaskets...so work your estimates from there

------------------
350, Comp 262, Edelbrock Performer intake 600 cfm carb and exhaust, headers

 

I had a feeling this post would lead to intake manifold gaskets, regardless if coolant was leaking internally & burned, or just leaking externally. Driver's side front was where mine was leaking as well. This was not a case of "oh, the bolts might be loose".
The case was the gasket had deteriroated. Let me tell you, changing intake manifold gaskets on a TPI engine is no 2 hour job. Naturally, when I did mine I took it to an art form, but I would suspect a good 7-8 hour job for a shop. Reason: plenum, runners, fuel rails, & injectors all have to come out before you get to the condition of what most people think is "changing the intake manifold". Now couple that to cleaning all the gasket surfaces (the plenum & runner gaskets are baked on)& marry that to stubborn hose & electrical connections if the engine has signifcant mileage, & you're talking a real time consuming job. Obviouslu it's quicker for a shop that has done some of these before. The first time through, you're spending a lot of time on wrench set ups & understanding methods of attachemnt of the runners to the base intake manifold.\
Regards, FJK

 

Same problem here. Sounds like your valve stem seals. No big deal and won't hurt your performance, just run a little fuel injection treatment every 3k or so.

------------------
TPI 305,
Gutted airboxes,
gutted MAF,
K&N filters,
Corvette Servo.
14.9@93mph

"Speed kills, wanna live forever, drive a Ford."