white smoke

[95firebird]

my buddy has a 93 camaro 3.4 127k on it every time he starts up the car a puff of white smoke comes out but that it nothing while he driving or anything just when he starts up what could this be

[97cavalier]

it is the valve stem seals, they go bad on the 3.4. my dads 95 camaro 3.4 has 99,000 miles and does the excat same thing. You just need new seals.

[95firebird]

do u no how much it will cost and is it hard to replace

[97cavalier]

well you have to tear the top part of the motor off to do it like intake manifold and valve covers, and get to the valve. I think the "Dealer" said like $800 for every thing, but a local shop will be MUCH cheeper. What it does is the seals on the valve that go into the cylenderare bad, so they let oil get through there and that oil sits on top of the pistons, and when u go to start it up, it burn that off real quick. So it does not hurt much until you actuly start to use alot of oil. But a local shop will be alot cheeper.

[95firebird]

ok so the only problem i will have is that it will start to use alot of oil

[97cavalier]

it may not, just keep a eye on it, if it starts to use alot of oil, get it fixed, but if does not use any, i would not worry to much about it.

[hotrod_chevyz]

Instant white smoke usually means a leaky head gasket>

and also, you can do those seals without removal of the heads.

With the use of a valve spring tool, an air pressure regulator, and the hose of a compression gauge, with the schrader valve removed. You will need an air compressor tho.

What you do is:

1: Set the regulator to 70-80 PSI but NO MORE.

2: Screw the compression gauge hose into a spark plug hole .

3: Hook the output side of the regulator to the compression gauge hose.

4: With the valve spring tool close by, Hook the input side of the regulator, to the output hose of the air compressor. It will fill the cylinder with enough air pressure, so you can get the two little retainers off the valve, with use of the valve spring tool. If you put more than about 80PSI to the regulator, you take a chance on blowing a head gasket but this precedure works very well.

5: Remove the valve retainers and the valve spring. You can now replace the seal and reinstall the spring and retainers. Tada! Youve just replaced the valve seals with removing no more than the valve covers. Unless for some reason you have to pull the intake first, wich i dont think so..

:note: On each cylinder you do both valves will have to be closed in order to do this. No biggie just roll the engine around by hand if possible, or get a tool on the balancer and turn it until the valves are closed or close. You will notice the pressure will cause the motor to turn a little as the piston finds the bottom of the cylinder.

[95firebird]

but if u say it a leaky head gasket y would u change the seals

[hotrod_chevyz]

I say that because i saw a price quote earlier in the thread saying 800 bucks for a job thats only a set of five dollar seals and about two and a half hours worth of labor at 60 dollars per hour. Seemed to me you would have to be insane to spend that much on somthing as simple as that.

I mentioned the white smoke might be steam because i think thats what it is, but i didnt want to directly downplay what anyone else was saying. Ive been wrong before.

But if it is a leaky head gasket and your going to have to pay the cash anyways, might as well change those seals using the more conventional method while youve got it torn down, considering they are probably no good and the labor for the job is almost already payed for in the head gasket part of the job.

If you get behind it and sniff the cloud of smoke, you can smell burning oil distinctly, but its harder to detect the smell of water vapor. Somtimes you can catch the odor of antifreeze in the smoke if its coming from the coolant system.

When you shut an engine off and the water stops flowing, for several minutes before cool down, the temperature actually rises, somtimes over 20 degrees. When somthings wrong where its passing coolant into a combustion chamber, this is the time the leak is most active. And thats also why the next time its started is the only time you see smoke. Cause the coolant has settled into the combustion chamber after it has been shut off the last time.

I would pull the plugs on it after its been ran a bit, but has cooled back down and is still warm to the touch. At this time you have a better chance of further diagnosing a leaky head gasket by reading the plugs. See if one has signs of a leaky head gasket, such as moisture on the plug, or signs of having been steam cleaned. Even if the plugs tell you nothing, that doesnt really mean its not leaking though. I wonder if it loses water or oil over time>?

[95firebird]

i idk when i do shut the car off i notice that the engine does get hotter but i have had the water change in like a year now and i havent had to add water since then but i do start up it smells like oil so idk what it is if it is a leaky head gastkets will the gasket blow after awhile

[hotrod_chevyz]

If you can smell oil burning than 97 cavalier has the thread on lock down and its not a head gasket. Especially since it doesnt lose water. This all is further pointing straight towards the valve seals.

[heidi ho]

white smoke? doesnt sound like oil. blue smoke... oil. black smoke...gas. white smoke... coolant. if the head gasket is starting to go, it may be leaking so little coolant that you might not notice the level going down for quite a while. it could just suddenly go from not that bad, to completely blown in a hurry. watch your oil. if it looks foamy on the dipstick, its probebly the head gaskets, but depending on where the gasket is leaking it may not get in the oil. Id just keep an eye on that.

if im wrong, its not white smoke

[97cavalier]

well my dealer even said $800 was to high, i am just going to run GTX high milage oil and some lucus oil treatment in it and that should control most of the oil burn off. I will probly also put a catch take where the pcv valve is to catch the oil going trough there.

[95firebird]

what i have noticed is that it does not do it evey time only every now and then

[97cavalier]

it only does it when it sits a while right? like in the mornings? that is because it takes a while for the oil to run down to the valves and past the seals and sit on top of the pistons.