hey guys, i have white smoke coming out of my tail pipe.
now i know white smoke means coolant and bluish/white means oil.

this smoke is definitely white.

but heres the deal.
i recently blew my motor and had EVERYTHING replaced. i replaced the valve seals and the head gasket along with piston rings, rods, bearings, crank.

now my first guess was i was burning antifreeze somewhere, but i have been driving for over 400miles since the rebuild and i have yet to loose any antifreeze. the level is right underneath the cap and the resivior tank is half full as it was when i started. the car runs amazing, better than i ever felt it.


the only thing i could think of is that i put a test pipe with a cel fix on when i did the rebuild. is it possible the white smoke is related to this? is it possible i am running too lean? what else could this be, im completely stumped.

 

If it doesn't have a smell - it is just water vapor. You might be noticing it since it got a bit colder and it condenses as it leaves the tailpipe.

 

It depends.

If it's coolant it will have a sort of sweet/candy smell.


But depends where you live ant temps. This really happens when it's cold and humid.

If I let my car idle too long at night I will have a magic curtin of white smoke behind the car. and that's just condensation.

 

it has a smell, but unlike anitfreeze. it does'nt smell sweet at all, could it be the test pipe?

 

You could bring it back to where you got the work done and have them test the coolant to see if your headgasket is messed up. But if your not overheating ever I think your fine with the headgasket.

 

also when are you checking your coolant levels? i'm having problems too..my coolant level is going down but no white smoke...so hopefully it's not the hg either...

good luck

 

Definitely the classic sign of a cracked head, cracked block, leaking freeze plug or blown/leaking head gasket.

Does your motor oil have a milky white residue anywhere? This often forms on the inside of the oil filler cap or the dipstick.

You could also do a UOA:

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/gas-engine.php

Heavy traces of potassium and certain other elements are a very serious sign of coolant contamination in the oil. Wear (especially lead and copper) will also likely be elevated on anything other than the shortest intervals.

Cost is about $25-30

 

I'm betting it's your test pipe. Mine does so every now and then.

 

This