Before anyone says anything, yes I did search and every one elses symptoms seem to be a bit different. Anyway all winter on cold starts I would get some white smoke from exhaust but just thought this was because it was -40 outside. Lately we have been having nicer warm days and I have noticed a decent amount of white smoke at start up. It goes away once the car is warm and I have not noticed any at wot or even while driving. On decel now and again I do get a bit of an exhaust smell but I think thats just me running a bit rich.

I doubt its a headgasket because I have had a blown HG before and know the coolant smell / burning of coolant which I dont seem to be getting.

My thought as of now is condensation in the exhaust which is just burning off when I start the car, but I could be wrong.

Anyone have this problem? Advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

If your getting white/bluish smoke on start up only more than likely it's valve seals. Oil will leak down past the seals and get blown out on start up and then clear up once the engine is warm.

I had this problem on one of my cobras in the past.

 

+1 on valveseals.

or if you have a catchcan, check to see if the lines are frozen.

 

what kind of dangers do I run with running it the way it is for the time being. Im moving to Germany soon and really dont want to spend a bunch of money that I've been saving for the move.

 

It won't really be to much damage to run it the way it is, if it is valve seals. Most it should do is foul some plugs if it's really bad.

 

Awsome, thank you very much! im going to check my plugs now and see how trashed they are.

 

Np glad I could help

Dom

 

Leaky valve seals will gradually consume your oil so keep checking your oil level.

 

You know, I just had this issue when my car was out over night outside with 0 degree weather. Usually always garage kept. I installed a catch can this summer so I never experienced a frozen catch can line before. So you are saying that if the line freezes to the catch can that this can produce a lot of white exhaust smoke that goes away once the car warms up? Once I drove the car around, eventually the this white exhaust smoke went away. But boy was it a good amount and I was concerned. I looked at my oil and coolant levels and they seemed good. Not indicating either one burning away. So now I am thinking that my catch can line was frozen since you brought this up. I honestly thought someone pumped something into my exhaust and it was burning it away.

 

Now when you say the lines froze up on you how did you figure did you remove the lines and notice an issue with one of them and did u replace them and did that fix your problem? I noticed mine would only blow white smoke whenever I start the car but driving it it doesn't smoke out of the exhaust at all.

 

I had a similar issue with a different car and it was my HG.. leaking a small amount of oil in a cylinder. When it heated up it went away.

Just FYI