Long I know but would like a second or more takes on this if you don't mind.

Everything I've searched points this being the HG but I wanted to ask the more experienced guys here incase I'm missing something.

This weekend, I started getting white smoke on start up that would clear after about 2 min of driving. I'm talking smoke screen smoke that is only present when cold. It's white which leads me to believe coolant. However the plugs are dry. Completeyly dry.

At the same time, the car is having difficulty holding an idle for about 30 seconds after starting then holds fine at 800rpms.

Once the car warms up and the smoke stops, I can leave for up to a hour or so and then restart it without any smoke. It only seems to do this when the engine really cools down to ambient temp.

This developed on Sat while I was drilling with the reserves (2 hour drive south of Indy). I went ot work Sat with everything fine. The smoke appeared for the first time when starting the car to go back to the hotel that night. It did not smoke at nor did I drive hard that morning.

I do not seem to be losing coolant volume nor can I notice anything mixing. I'm not getting a milkshake appearance in the oil or on the filler cap.

Driving home Sun night, theonly problem I could notice from the instruments was that when I stopped at a red light the temp would rise rather quickly approaching the top mark but could by brought back down with a brief rev to 1.3k or so. While moving, the temp never rose the middle between the two marks. This was over ~2 hours which has me question the HG as I can't account for mixing or coolant loss.....

I also read a post about the crankcase vacuum line causing smoke but I didn't really understand that concept.

I'm not sure if this is reated to this problem or not but after driving for a while (over half an hour) the oil pressure is dropping slowly to settle at 2 bar under throttle. I recently had some the oil lines changed when the belts were done and suspenct the mechanic in put in a lighter oil than the 20w50 I usually use (I still need to call about this).

If you made it this far, I greatly appreciate it.

TIA,

 

Sounds like a headgasket to me. Car heats up fast and smokes in the beginning, exact symptoms.

Try a hot and cold compression test to verify before taking the head off.

 

What you describe is very close to symptons my car had. The rise in temperature at idle cured by raising the rpms is probably due to some combustion gases in the coolant system causing air pockets which seem to disrupt the cooling flow at idle. Raise the rpm and the water pump gets its suction back and you have flow thru the radiator again. If you bleed the system and then go drive it hard the symptons will probably return.

Try driving the car without ever getting into any boost after you have bled the coolant system. Tough I know, but you might find that your symptons won't be there. After a couple of days of no boost, and if your symptons have gone away then drive it normally and it is a good bet you will start seeing the same symptons.

It doesn't take much coolant to create a puff of white smoke. The slightly rough idle on start up could be several things but is most likely just the time it takes for everything to expand and seal off.

Best of luck but I would plan a head gasket replacement party.

 

Thanks guys and thats what I was thinking.

 

Streck, I have a nice leakdown (and a compression) tester if you can get ahold of an air compressor. That should tell you exactly what is up.

Let me know if you need it.

 

When the HG leaks, it can blow combustion gases into the water jackets, creating air pockets and pressurizing the cooling system. Air pockets can make the temp rise at idle and fall very quickly when you rev -- at idle, air prevents the pump from moving coolant and let's the coolant that is in the block (where the temp sensor is) get hotter and hotter. At the same time, the coolant in the radiator is getting cooler and cooler. When you rev it, the pump catches the coolant and gets it flowing again. The coolant that has been in the radiator is now sent flowing into the block, making the temp gauge fall like a rock. With the cooling system pressurized like that, coolant leaks back into the combustion chamber (especially after the car is turned off) past the leaking HG. The coolant level appears unchanged, but only because you now have air taking the space coolant used to occupy.

You should run tests before pulling things apart of course. The coolant overflow tube can be a pretty good test device. Put it in a plastic bottle. Warm the car up fully and vent the coolant completely, then drive around calmly (off boost) for a while and see if you get any overflow. Then go out and do plenty of full boost runs. If you get no overflow off boost, and lots of overflow on boost, then you probably have a bad HG. A cooling system pressure tester (Sears) can also be used to see if you can get coolant to leak into the cylinders (careful to pull the plugs and look, rather than risk hydrolock). Compression and leak down tests are the norm, but I've never found them all that conclusive.

 

I agreee with Tom, compression tests and leak down tests have not been that definitive and in my case seemed to show normal readings across all cylinders when in fact the HG was bad. If you are pressurizing the coolant when driving hard and you know you have the system bled properly then you have a bad head gasket.

 

If you are running standard ethylene glycol antifreeze (i.e. not just Water Wetter and water) the white steam at start-up will have a sweet smell. Think cheap German/Austrian wine. That was the most definitive symptom of my head gasket, which had similar symptoms to yours. Also, does one or more of your plugs look cleaner than the others? My #4 plug had a steam-cleaned appearance; definitely not fouled. Good luck.

 

Sweet offer. Greatly appreciated. If I can't borrow a compressor, I may rent one. I will probably get back to you on this.

 

Thank you for this good info. It seems the perfect explanation for what is happening to my car.

 

Honestly. I too concur with what they are saying. My HG failure was definately easier to diagnose. Think of it as an opportunity to freshen the top half of the motor. Great time for new valve guides and possibly some machine work. My valve guides at 170k had more play in them than a freshman living in Broward. Late.

 

What else should I do at this time? I can have the head freshened up and am thinking about Raceware head bolts. Are these necessary or a 'nice to have item'?

Has anyone bought the head gasket kit from Paragon?

 

Raceware studs are nice to have, but they require you to remove the old head studs, which is not always easy or risk free. Once in a while a stud will snap, which will really ruin your whole day. The right tools (snap-on stud remover) helps, but is not a guarantee. Factory says not to re-use studs, but lots of people do so without problems.

While you're in there things include:

valve job
timing and b/s belts
p/s and a/c belts
most coolant hoses and the heater valve
vaccum hoses under the intake
re-seal throttle body
cleaning the grounds on the bell housing
new cap, rotor, plugs
injector o-rings
new oil, filter and coolant
gaskets in head gasket set

 

I'll probably re-use mine to use the money elsewhere.

Out of the above, I probably won't to have a valve job done (angle grind) but will replace the valve guides and seals; all belts have been changed in the last month; coolant hoses and heater valve have been replaced in the last 3 years; I'd like to replace the vacuum hoses under the intake; Cap and rotor should still be good but will be chaecked; injector o-rings will probably changed; I'm looking at the gasket set from paragon.

Has anyone had Lindsey do their head work? I don't need anything more than thier level 1.

 

Something I would seriously consider is having the exhaust system coated with the heat retaining coating of your choice. Well worth it in my opinion. Head porting probably doesn't do anything for you over and above a good valve job unless you are planning to run high boost levels.

I would look closely at your idle stabilizer and the associated hoses. I would suggest you ask whoever does your head to make sure the guide seals are secure and tight and if there is any doubt then clean them and glue them in place.