First major problem...

[blackcell3]

ok ive had my SL for 4 months, only put about 1500 miles on it, had the 60k maintnence done, its at 132k ish miles. yesterday it was runnin fine, i always got the occasional puff of smoke, usually a blueish, no huge problem just figured valve seals were leaking a little nice project down the road (doubted itd be fun). yesterday i take my car to have a quote done on an exhaust system, they jack up the car, smake the pipes around a little, and are looking for a cool new system. this morning on my way to school i stopped at a light and noticed a lil cloud of smoke go by, thought it was the cold......... so while cleaning out my car tonight i let it idle to warm up te engine, then i reved it up a little and a HUGE cloud of smoke blew out , over and over, not much at an idle but itd get bad when u revved up.... went to get a video camera so i could sho my dad, by then it was doing it at an idle, revved up again, more smoke........ the problem im having now is i cant tell if its white or blue. from the pipes it looks white but almost the instant it starts to hit the air it kinda goes hazy, and makes a blueish cloud, but it is very very white at the pipe.... any suggestions? valves or head gasket? i honestly cant tell. i dunno if i should even drive it im a tad worried just happened overnight, it has absolutely no mods on it (yet, i was redoing the intake and exhaust and puttin a new ignition on it NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!) dunno if thats gunna happen now, thankfully i hadnt ordered the parts yet. plz plz any help is appreciated cuz the mechanics around here dont know a thing, i went to get my 60k maintnence done and they cracked my crank case and had to get that fixed (free of course). so i really dont trust them, they all say "why didnt u get a stang, we could fix that", every time..... thanks for your time, sry this is a very long winded speech but im really worried and think im a lil loopy from those fumes, ich, i got a cold and cant even tell if their sweet or stinky so i kinda have a problem. thanks for your time, sry bout the length.

[blackcell3]

well im almost 100% sure its a head gasket problem, but it just happened overnight i just dunno why it would. my idle has dropped down below 500 and the whole thing just sounds really crappy right now, liquid coolant in the pipes, the whole 9 yards, anybody know how much this costs to fix?

[new2mitsu]

does your car seem to have lost power? it could have started overnight if your car overheated that night. check your oil and your coolant, if there is oil in your coolant, or if it is unusually foamy, its prolly the head gasket.

[Stealthee]

Ive seen headgaskets just let go out of no where. Not on these cars though.

[Twizted_3KGT]

Well sounds 100% like a head gasket. If you can't do it yourself you'll probably get raped paying for a shop to do it. I think you should consider starting your "project" that you had meant for later down the road (VSS) and add in doing the head gaskets. You'll come out of it with a smoke free car at least. Just sucks you only had it 1500 miles...sounds like you got a bad deal.

[blackcell3]

yeah it deffinately sucks, the car was not ridden hard the day before at all, took it to the next town over and back, wasnt doing anything stupid with it. just brought it home washed it and parked. ive never heard of one just going overnight either... i can PROBABLY get enough help to do the job myself, im sure it wont be fun. know how much a shop costs to do it? just curious.

[liquidPunk]

I asked a shop about it, just in passing a little while ago because i need to replace my valve seals as well, and they said prob about $1500. funny because the seals are like what? $20? But id call a shop around you anyway, its tough to find someone that knows these cars at all though.

[Twizted_3KGT]

Yep $1500 and up at my shop usually to do the head gasket or valve seals on most cars.

[liquidPunk]

Well, I want to do my seal job myself, How much is involved really? Ive done a 60k, so im getting pretty comfy with my engine now, but im not that experienced either. is there something on a valve seal job on stealth316? ill check when i get off work.

[blackcell3]

ok well this puzzles me... took the car to the local mechanic and i was told that nothing was wrong, my car wont smoke anything when its as hot as it is today appearently, it was puffing clouds yesterday and not a thing today....... any body know what could be wrong? im still leaning towards the head gasket (how else would i get white smoke and a sweet smell comeing out the pipes?), thx for ur help

[Twizted_3KGT]

Is there any coolant in it?

[blackcell3]

yeah theres still coolant n the car, topped it off today to see how much i loose over time. im not looseing that much oil so i doubt its oil. but the car will not smoke now that its a few degrees warmer today. i dont know whats going on, any suggestions?