Smokin on start up.

Alright, my car smoked on start up. So, taking the advice of all of you, and local mechanics, I canged the valve stem seals. And to no avail, it still smokes on start up. What else could be my problem?

What color smoke? White is coolant and blue is oil. Plugs clean? Did compression test?

I'm thinkin it's REBUILD TIME!!!!!!!!

Does it smoke in the engine bay or out the exhaust???

Cause if it's out the exhaust you're getting oil into the chambers, which is blow-by. You only notice it on startup, because it is pretty much invisible whenthe engine gets to operating temp. Try some of that "smoke" additive for your oil. All this does is make the oil thicker and less likely to leak into the chambers. Also run thicker, better oil with more frequent changes. Even fill it a TINY bit over full if you use oil at all. This will slow your engine from losing oil pressure over time, but it still will need a rebuild eventually. But, i ran my 305 TBI for well over a year just keeping the oil real good. When i pulled it out it was not even really smoking at all anymore.

If the smoke is from the engine bay, then you're in luck! It means you could still have a good engine and just some external leak. But...less than likely for this one :rolleyes:

It smokes out the exhaust, and it's white smoke...I think. Plugs are brand new.

How thick of oil are we talking here? 30w?40w?

White smoke is coolant. You losing any? If so, I doubt oil will help you. If it is not coolant, run a compression test and we can see if we need to take it further.

yeah, i was assuming blue smoke. I dind't think a car would last very long blowing coolant into the chambers.

The "blue smoke" is really a more faint gray, like white with blue tint.

The coolant smoke would be a fairly bright white, think: steam.

What enigne do you have, and what coniditon?



I ran 10W-30 in mine with the smoke additive. Which probably was the equivalent to 10W-40 or more. This is just a "get me down the road" fix, not a solution, remember. And only if your having blow-by probs, won't do anything for the coolant (if that's your prob, which i doubt...)

mine smokes a few seconds after startup then goes away for a sec or 2 then does it for a few seconds then stops completely.this could be dues to old gas sitting for a while or the water vapors in the pipes. once i reach a decent temp. i get smoke from the engine compartment from both sides of the engine.

my hypothesis is that one of the valve cover gaskets is leaking down the y pipe and when it gets hot enough it burns off? i do see oil on the y pipe in that fashion. any suggestions?

gaskets. And while it's a PIA, try to clean the engine. That way after you put in new gaskets/seals (wherever you may think it's leaking from) you can be sure that you got all the old oil off. The cheapo cleaner at advance auto or something will work fine. Just don't put it on electronics or rubberr stuff...and try to only clean the nastiest ares...then i'd run the engine while you hose it off (although this is dangerous 'cause the stuff could **possibly** ignite.) But i think that cleaning is the best way to go after seals, etc.