I've noticed my car creates a ton of condensation on startup. While condensation/steam coming out of the exhaust isn't unusual in cool Northwest weather, the Camaro seems to make a lot of it. Eventually it goes away when the engine gets warmer.

My first thought was, "uh-oh, a cracked head". But the car never seems to lose any coolant.

And then there is the exhaust smell. I know what coolant smells like. This isn't a sweet smell, nor does it smell like burnt maple syrup. It smells like mothballs. The car doesn't seem to burn any oil, and the valve seals were just changed (although the exhaust smelled like mothballs before that too). I'm not getting any raw fuel smells from the exhaust, either.

When I first bought the car (about 2,000 miles ago, last year), it had bad gas in it--holy hell that's a strong smell--and the tank was supposedly flushed out. But, the first few times I started it, I'd get a hint or two -- probably stink still in the evap lines, etc. After running a clean tank of gas in it, I changed out the fuel filter.

The car runs fine. It has all the factory smog equipment. I'd assume if an O2 sensor was bad, the "check engine" light would come on (CEL is working). Or maybe it's a bad cat?

Any ideas on if there's a problem, or if this is normal?

 

It is fairly normal. The moisture collecting in the exhaust and cat are forming sulfuric acid. Until that is fully heated up and driven off by exhaust flow the water vapor (visible or not) and aroma will persist. It's another good reason to avoid short trips which never let everything achieve full operating temperature.