white exhaust

[daveid]

I havent started my engine for about 5 months now, give or take, and today i started it and after about 30 secs of running my whole garage was filled up with whitish smoke. Is this normal and if not what might cause this. The gas is about 5 months old too, but i had fuel stabilizer in it, so i dont know if that had to do with it either.

thanx
david

[Fuory]

David,

Mine was doing the same damn thing. When I first got it it would puff out white smoke shifting gears. Well come to find out it needed a wicked tune up.

Tiffinee

[daveid]

hmmm. i hope i dont need one. the motor only have about 500 miles on it tops


thanx
david

[digitalchaos]

The first thing which comes to mind regarding white smoke after a vehicle has been sitting is condensation. Significant amounts can build up in the exhaust & other places... it can burn off for quite some time after starting.

Fuel stabilizer can add to this problem in certain circumstances.

Of course the other common cause of white smoke is burning coolant. Check level, consistancy, color, ect of both oil and coolant. If you see anything strange, you can perform (or have performed) a cylinder balance test. Also chemical test kits are available to check for exhaust emission contamination in your cooling system.

That should get you started...

[UncleBob]

very simple to diagnose smoke. What did it smell like?

If it smells like coolant, you have a blown head gasket or leaking intake gasket.

If it smells like oil, then you had a lot of oil in your combustion chamber or exhaust.

If it smells like raw gas, then you either had a lot of gas sitting in the exhaust/combustion chamber, or it was running extremely rich for some reason.

If it smells mostly like water vapor, then it was just condensation.

Never try to judge exhaust by the color, because the old tail tell's are wrong. Smell is how you know what it truly is.