white smoke coming out of the exhaust ( 2013 5.0 modded)

BuiltToughF350

New Member
Apr 14, 2013
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Hi everyone, new member here. I posted this same question on another forum but its not geared towards cars specifically so I thought I should ask here. I got a new 2013 Mustang GT 5.0 last summer. I love the car. Right away it got new wheels, and Roush mufflers. With just this setup I ran a 13.10 @107MPH on the 1/4 mile ( the car is an auto, i just didnt want a stick for this car )

Since then, the car has: 3:73 gears, upper and lower control arms, BBK cold air intake kit, X-pipe cat converter delete kit and a custom tune from BBR uploaded through my SCT tuner.

I would love to know what it'll run now, I will be taking it to the track in 5-6 weeks

my question is, and forgive me for such a dumb question, but I have white smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe now. Ive never had a "car" before, always diesel trucks that I straight piped and tuned... never a car. so I was surprised when I noticed all the other cars on the road on a cold day didnt have white smoke coming out, just mine.

I am assuming this is simply because I no longer have the catalytic converters in it ? or is the tuner pumping too much gas through it ?


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Sounds expected granted (1) you are specifically referencing cold climate plus cold starts and (2) you have a less restrictive exhaust.

On a cold day in California with a cold start I get white exhaust smoke, and I have stock exhaust except the Ford Racing GT500 axle back mufflers. The smoke is white, but it is no different than any other car I have had in California with a cold climate cold start. It goes away after it warms up.

I wouldn't worry about it unless you are experiencing knock, ping, rough idle, poor mileage, or poor performance issues barring any codes you might retrieve from your SCT device.
 
the white smoke is consistent. coolant level looks fine. I had it out a few days ago on the warmest day we have had in a while here and the smoke was gone after driving for a bit, then at idle when I stopped somewhere. I will still keep an eye on it for a while though, but im assuming its from the cold.
 
Yeah it is either consuming coolant (ie head gasket) or incomplete combustion (ie fuel). Does the exhaust smell rich or like fuel? If so, the emissions equipment is made to reduce reduce hydrocarbons significantly, so you have a big problem if fuel is coming out of the exhaust.
 
Yeah it is either consuming coolant (ie head gasket) or incomplete combustion (ie fuel). Does the exhaust smell rich or like fuel? If so, the emissions equipment is made to reduce reduce hydrocarbons significantly, so you have a big problem if fuel is coming out of the exhaust.

We just got MORE snow. this is nuts. anyways I did get the car out for a while again a few days ago and there is no loss in the coolant reservoir. The exhaust has a slight unburnt gas smell. Still the temperature is pretty low here so its tough to say that it ISNT just the cold temps outside adding to this, but a buddy of mine thats one of the top mechanics I know is going to look at it later this week or early next week when it supposedly hits 60 degrees here and tell me what he thinks. until then its parked due to this weather

as far as the "emissions" equipment, remember the cats are gone now and the mufflers are aftermarket roush mufflers.

im placing my uneducated guess that its the tune running the car a bit rich.
 
Pretty sure that smell is to be expected with the cats gone, at least to an extent. Your tune could be causing it to run a bit rich though. I'd rather be a bit on the rich side as opposed to lean, especially with the new Coyote motors. Did they fix the issue with the #8 cyclinders yet? There was an issue on early 5.0s with a lack of coolant to that cylinder, which once tuned, was leading to some problems.
 
I had no knowledge of the #8 cylinder issue before you mentioned it so I couldn't say. But if its running a little rich that doesn't hurt anything other than my fuel bill right ? The previous custom tune was so rich it would backfire at w.o.t. and I had them email me a new tune.