White Smoke

During stop and go traffic the other day I noticed a substantial puff of white smoke from my tailpipes as I accelerated from a dead stop.

Now, I have been trying to track down what I thought was an ignition misfire for about two weeks. It starts fine, but definitely is running a little rough - symptomatic of a misfire, though I have replaced the following to rule out ignition:

Coil
Plugs - not fouled and look normal
Plug Wires

Seeing the smoke makes me wonder now if I perhaps have a bigger problem than just ignition. I have had the following thoughts as possible causes for this:

Worn valve seals
Intake/Cylinder head leak
Worn piston rings

Any other thoughts? I should note that it is not consistent - the majority of the smoke seems to occur after the vehicle starts from a dead stop, such as in traffic or at a stop light.

I'll likely get the compression checked next week...

Thanks in advance for the input!
 
  • Sponsors (?)


If your sure its white the thats coolant getting into the cylenders. Blue smoke is oil burning. Most likely you have a leaking head gasket. While you have the heads off look for cracks. Look for bubbles in your radiator that dont go away, keep coming.
 
Tom is correct, white is water.

If you only see it when you start off, it's probubly only because while your driving it's evaporating before you can see it. While your stopped it's building up in the pipes.
 
If it's an automatic tranny, don't forget that a leaking vacuum compensator on the tranny can inject tranny fluid into the intake manifold and cause white smoke at high vacuum conditions. My car is doing the same thing, but I think it's my pcv valve as I have a top loader tranny.