97 Camry Blueish/White smoke when cold

[JohnE1957]

I got a 97 Camry with the four in it and been getting blueish/white smoke in the morning when I start it. Amount of smoke varies with temps outside here in Wisconsin. If it's cold or been setting for days I get more smoke. Leaning toward a head gasket, comments ?. Also, how big of job is it to change out that head gasket. Thanks for your comments, bye !

[Daniel M. Dreifus]

* Dec 26 2003, 6:46*am * * show options
Newsgroups: alt.autos.toyota.camry

Subject: Re: Worn valve stem seals

"Car Guy" <[email protected]> wrote in message <news:RnMGb.14131$d%[email protected] m>...
> I heard that adding Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer will reduce the morning
> smoke puff.

That's been my experience.
Had completely forgotten about the smoke on cold start. I haven't seen
a trace of smoke on start for the last 30,000 miles since I began
using the Lucas.
Also ran one treatment of auto-rx first.
I hesitate to even mention additives because so many are opposed - and
for good reason. Several have been forced by the FTC to cease false
advertising. You can still pay lots of money for plain mineral oil -
re branded - which can actually damage the engine.
The Lucas products do not contain solvents that swell the seals, but
instead coat the internal parts. They also do not contain any PFTE.
Some have speculated that the Lucas product is simply 50 weight
"bright" petroleum. Others have suggested simply using a heavier
weight conventional oil.
At the concentration recommended, the overall viscosity at operating
temperature is raised only marginally, yet the parts are coated at
cold start. I do not believe this is true with conventional oil, since
I run 20W-50 in an older truck, and I don't see the same phenomenon
occurring where the oil clings to cold parts rather than all settling
in the oil pan over night.
I think the Toyota four valve dual overhead cam design with the
centrally located spark plug and lifters that generally never need
adjustment is really well engineered, but I've heard of people
actually replacing the valve seals with new, and then having the smoke
on start return again later.

[Toysrme]

It's the valve stem seals, either take the cams out & replace them, or deal with it until you have more than $2-3 in parts to open the valve covers.


Never use Lucas shit, or any other additive for that matter.
See this link.
http://bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm

That shit causes problems.



Daniel, if someone replaces leaking valve stem seals , and they still link. They installed them incorrectly, or installed the wrong seal & it warped itself from the extra heat - which falls back to installed incorrectly.

That & there may have been more than one leak.

[Daniel M. Dreifus]

Never use Lucas shit, or any other additive for that matter.
See this link.
http://bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm

That shit causes problems.
==============================================
I can see how you'd think that having read the article and looked at the pictures -- but, I've never seen this happen (fortunately). I've run the car hard, then pulled the oil dipstick - oil looks pristine - no foaming or aeration or milky color change. That would be with Mobil 1 and 20% Lucas Oil Stabilizer. As I've said, I used to have that cloud of blue smoke on cold start up only and it has been gone for years now (from apx. 90,000 miles to 145,000 miles).
I do appreciate your informed comments on this group, just giving you my experiece. I'm not a tech, but do all the work on my personal vehicle and just couldn't be more pleased with the way it's running.




Daniel, if someone replaces leaking valve stem seals , and they still link. They installed them incorrectly, or installed the wrong seal & it warped itself from the extra heat - which falls back to installed incorrectly.

That & there may have been more than one leak.[/quote]

==============================================
Seems like this is a fairly common problem - I suspect it is because the oil pools over the lifters and can seep past the valve guide seals over night - just my guess, but lots of people seem to report this puff of smoke on cold start. Had seen someone write in that about a year and a half after changing the seals, the problem returned.