I'm a new camaro 95 z28 owner and i have been reading about blown head gaskets and stuff. Well just recently my car has been blowing white smoke out my exhaust pipes. I’ve checked the coolant and its at normal levels and the oil is perfect i never loose oil I couldn’t see and coolant in the oil when i did a oil change. I hate to sound stupid but is it because its cold out right now it’s about 30-45 here in Ohio. The white smoke goes away after the car warms up for about 10-15min Can someone please respond to this



Thanks, Ryan

Car info
Stock motor LT1
flowmaster exhaust with no cat
cold air intake
computer upgrade madz28

 

every car on earth blows white smoke out the exhaust on startup when its cold out.
There are two reasons for this, A. does your mouth blow steam when its cold outside? yes...thought so...

second, condensation of water in your exhaust pipes and muffler will create little pools of water, which is why you see water vapor escape out your tailpipe and eveyrone else's until their car has been driven a few to several miles...


the only POSSIBLE problem that could exist (I doubt it in your case) is the head gasket is leaking water into the combustion chamber until the cylinder temperature heats up significantly enough for the gasket to reseal (yes gaskets leak when cold going to hot, or hot going to cold), if not installed and torqued correctly, or just if they are going out. Once again, I think your just noticing water vapor, or coldness...but there's a simple way to figure it out....start your car, stick your nose in the exhaust and sniff....smell coolant?

 

Thank you for replying so quickly. No i do not smell coolant at all. Everything seems to be running smooth with the car though. The only thing is there is a ticking sound on the passenger side of the car. I gutted out the stock converter and it’s been smelling really bad and sounds like crap after i did that. My friend said that i need to get that cat off completely and put a pipe in its place so i can have some back pressure with that big a** cat off. Is that why its smelling so bad. Those cats are hudge.

 

gutting the cat vs a straight pipe won't make a tremendous difference. I'll let one of the people who know the gens better answer whether or not the '95 has a sensor in the exhaust post-cat.

The smell is carbon monoxide, spent gasoline, et cetera ad infinitum....to me it smells fantastic, to you perhaps not. the sound is based on no backpressure before the mufflers and happened due to the lack of catalytic converter in the setup with your muffler, changing it to a straight pipe won't change that....changing mufflers will.

 

If you think your problem is not related to cold weather. I would check the valve guide seals

 

What would you guys recommend for a good exhaust without cats. And also what kind of oil would you use for a 95 z28 with 80,000 miles on it.

Thanks again

 

I'm still a huge fan of flowmaster 40 and 60 series mufflers dependant on the application, really that's a personal preference, decide what you like based on sound files from the site from other peoples rides that have a close displacement/mods.

As far as oil there's only two types I trust and run and one type of filter I ever run based on years of use and several studies regarding their abilities.
Non-synthetic - Rotella 15W
Synthetic - Mobil 1
Wix oil filters

 

Yeah, could also be a valve seal. If it's a valve seal, you'll get a puff of smoke at start up, but should be fine after that.

Oil has just a hint of blue tint to it when it burns.

 

Best bang for the buck would be Mac shorties while using a striaght pipe in place of the cat. A gutted cat sounds like total ***.