amontez

Sometimes when i start my car a bunch of whitish smoke comes out and other times it doesn't.

Does any one no how to fix this or what is causing this....

it is pissing me off

SMKNGTA

When my head gaskets went my car would blow white smoke. The white smoke is caused by your engine burning coolant, atleast thats what my engine was doing. Does the smoke have a sweet smell to it?

Nasty_Bird_'90

He's right. if the smoke is white, then its most definitely a head gasket. sometimes if you get lucky, they will only leak and burn a little bit of oil when they go, but white smoke is the burning of coolant leaking into the combustion chamber through the hole in the head gasket. sory bro, you better hope its on the drivers side, because the passengers side is a B***h to change.

amontez

well yes i kid of does have a sweet smell.

but i had my head gasket just changed

and it does not blow any smoke when i'm driving it

mtccl

If you had it changed then they may not have torqued it properly (or something) and you may have a small blow in it. The smoke when you first start up is because the metal is cool and contracted. As the engine cools off a small amount of coolant is leaking in and being burned off at start up. When the engine heats up the small leak seals because the metal expands. Eventually the gasket will weaken and blow all the way. Sorry.

Bort62

whoa hold on now a second.

If its a small amount On initial start up wich goes away once the engine warms up, That can easily be attributed to condensation in the exhuast Boiling off as it warms.

Steam, Not Smoke.

Nasty_Bird_'90

this is true, but if it has that sweet smell to it, then chances are that the shop may have messed up a bit. it could go either way really. it takes a while for the condensation to build up though, so if he turns it off for an hour or two then starts it up and sees the white smoke it could prove to be a head gasket. still hard to tell though.

are you leaking any oil or finding oil in your coolant or on the dipstick? if the oil is mixing with your coolant somewhere along the lines, then its definitely a gasket

transform

would a blown exhaust manifold gasket cause the same problem? (white smoke)

bjankuski

Hold on guys, this is a small block Chevy and they have a reputation of bad valve stem seals. The smoke you see at start up is oil that has leaked into the combustion chamber while the car is parked. The oil leaks down the valve stem and ends up in the combustion chamber. Most small blocks with over 50,000 miles will blow a puff of white/blue smoke at start up. To fix the problem you need to replace your valve stem seals or just live with the puff of smoke. The little bit of oil leakage into the cylinders will not hurt anything besides your pride when the engine is started.

Arawn

This white smoke, is it coming from the exhaust? Because I noticed the other day on the passanger side, a bunch of sweet smelling white smoke came rushing up. Turned out the flush-fill radiator kit thingie was leaking, I probably never noticed it while driving because it was a slow leak, but when it sat for a while, a small puddle built up on the manifold...

SMKNGTA

When my head gasket was starting to go it would only blow white sweet smelling smoke when I would start it, and then it would go away as the car warmed up, but it got worse and worse as time went on.

Steve89GTA

Pull your plugs one by one. I'd start with the driver side. If any one them have white residue on them, the head gasket/intake gasket will have to be changed. I'd probably go ahead and do both heads but that's up to you. While you have the heads out, get em decked and a 3 angle valve job with new springs, valves, whoooa, see what happens??? LOL