White/grey smoke

My Camino has been smoking for a while now. But I've been busy with the lights. I had just changed the oil, and I dunno why, I thought it might help with the smoking, thought it might burn oil or something.......anyways after I changed the oil I drove it some lightly after letting it run for a while. And it hadn't smoked at all since I drove it. I checked the water as I was headed in, and it was just about bone dry. So I added water and as I did, it started to smoke! A lot! White/grey I'd say, so I'm figuring if it doesnt smoke from the exhaust without water, but it does with water, hmm, I guess theres a water leak in the engine? I dont know what else to say, except I'm not sure where to go from there, any idea's on what I can do before having to break down the engine?

Well from your description it sounds like you have a headgasket leaking, bad news the heads have to come off, the motor probably dosesnt need to come out. But its alot of work either way. Good luck.

Your definatly burning coolant/water somewhere.

SOmetimes internal leaks arent the head gaskets. Check you intake/exhause manifold as well. (or whatever you cars is equiped with comparable to those)

Also if you have to take the heads off have them check for cracks.:sunglasse

Pull your plugs. If you find any that are very clean & new looking, that is the cylinder that has the leak. If it is only on one side, you can get away with removing only one head. As stated above, it could also be a intake gasket leaking. Check everything carefully as you disassemble. ~ Jon

if your water level is dropping and you see white smoke , you can bet it is the headgasket , if the intake blows on a sbc engine it just get water in the oil or leaks to the outside, i have never seen one leak water into a intake port like with the newer ford engines, if you have one blown head gasket, they where put on at the same time, if you only replace one, you are asking for trouble!! do them both..