Iv been getting some white smoke when I start my gt 2.8 after it's warmed up an I park for a bit. I'm not sure if it smell's like gas or oil. Does any one have a clue what's up? The car run's great has good power in all rpm's an does not run hot. I did change my oil to mobil super an used the ph52 filter so I could put 5gt's of oil in it. Could it be burning some of the oil off because of having a full 5gt's?
Lots of 2.8 engines blow some white smoke at start up. it's the valve guide seals. My car has gotten better over the last few years and I can only guess why. The seals may shrink if the engine sits a long time....or it may be the kind of oil you use? Don't know.
This is as common as the sun rising and setting. I'd be more surprised if you started a thread saying every time you started your Fiero it started up absolutely perfect.
It's typically caused by worn valve seals or valve stem guides. When the car is shut off and oil travels back down to the bottom of the crankcase, some gets past the valve seals. Then you go to start it up the next time, and out it comes from the exhaust. It's happens on Fieros that have anything from 85,000 miles to ones that have 285,000 miles like mine does. If it's plain white smoke and it just happens for a quick bit on start up it's honestly not much to worry about, even in the long run. The proper thing to have done is a complete valve job on the heads.
Still as a precautionary setup, you may want to make sure it is not something worse, like a blown head gasket, which can also show similar symptoms.
EDIT: and beaten to it.
[This message has been edited by Fiero84Freak (edited 01-12-2014).]
Ya, I have 130.000 on it. The motor run's strong an it is blue smoke. So I feel it most likely the seal's an the 5/30wt syn oil I used in it. Thanks. I Will also check for oil consumption. But it is a fiero so one never know's?
Open your windows and sunroof if you have one, and engine brake. When my car had bad valve guides it would puff at start up and every time I decelerated with engine braking (pulling crazy vacuum) I could smell oil burning as it was being pulled through the guides into the cylinders. I never burned oil though (in noticeable quantities) but it still frustrated me so I built a new engine haha
My V6 almost always make a quick puff of blueish smoke on startup from brand new, especially after overnite. It didnt burn enough to need any oil added between changes. Ran like that for 100K. Never got better or worse.
Ok! Sorry for the white to blue change but It's realy a mix of both depending on the sun light an when you see it (if you know what I mean). I think that since I changed to syn/dino blend oil it's found it's way in the seal's. Thank's to all for the info an help.
Colors aside... there's a few reasons you'll get "smoke" on start-up...
- Water / dew collecting in the exhaust which burns (steam) as it's warming up. (to fix this, park the car in a garage) - Valve guide seals are failing, allowing oil to leak down into the valves and burn when you first start it up. (to fix this, add ATF to your oil to swell the seals, or replace seals) - Fuel injector(s) leak(s) when the car is off until line pressure is reduced, causing a puff of smoke on startup. (to fix this, replace the fuel injector) - Rings are worn, and you're getting blow-by during heavy acceleration. (Nothing you can really do except check or PCV valve, or rebuild engine)
Right, so I'll have to take a closer look at the smoke. If it was valve seals I would think it would smoke after sitting a few days, but it doesn't.
Not really... it depends on how worn the seals are. Hot oil is more viscous and will pass through holes much more quickly. When it's cold (unless synthetic), it will have less fluidity between the molecules. After a 6 hours or so... your car isn't going to continue to leak-down oil into the combustion chambers. You'd need to understand what the top of the cyl head looks like for that to make sense.
This is from one of my daughter's videos where she's re-assembling the cyl head on her Iron Duke (similar for the V6 and other pushrod motors).
The valves and the valve seals are quit literally one of the highest components on the car's engine. Any oil that's leaking down in there is going to come from whatever is immediately sitting there on or around the valve seal from having been splashed with oil from the pushrods. Now, this is an Iron Duke motor which stands perfectly vertical, but in the V6/60, they sit at a 60 degree angle (give or take) and the only "other" oil you're going to get is whatever has pooled in the rocker arm once the motor stops, and any of that continuing to drain down onto the valve and the valve stem... all of that should have drained down by the time the car cools off.
So... really, you're going to see a puff of smoke... probably from having the car sit anywhere from 2-6 hours. I'd imagine some of the oil will burn off early while the engine is still sitting at core temperature for 20-30 minutes. But anything after that is just going to pool on top of the pistons.
EDIT: I don't know if this is an "old wives tale," but they say adding ATF / automatic transmission fluid can extend the life of your gaskets by causing them to swell. The automatic fluid won't hurt your engine because it's essentially just formulated hydraulic fluid.
[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 08-13-2024).]
Not really... it depends on how worn the seals are. Hot oil is more viscous and will pass through holes much more quickly. When it's cold (unless synthetic), it will have less fluidity between the molecules. After a 6 hours or so... your car isn't going to continue to leak-down oil into the combustion chambers. You'd need to understand what the top of the cyl head looks like for that to make sense.
This is from one of my daughter's videos where she's re-assembling the cyl head on her Iron Duke (similar for the V6 and other pushrod motors).
The valves and the valve seals are quit literally one of the highest components on the car's engine. Any oil that's leaking down in there is going to come from whatever is immediately sitting there on or around the valve seal from having been splashed with oil from the pushrods. Now, this is an Iron Duke motor which stands perfectly vertical, but in the V6/60, they sit at a 60 degree angle (give or take) and the only "other" oil you're going to get is whatever has pooled in the rocker arm once the motor stops, and any of that continuing to drain down onto the valve and the valve stem... all of that should have drained down by the time the car cools off.
So... really, you're going to see a puff of smoke... probably from having the car sit anywhere from 2-6 hours. I'd imagine some of the oil will burn off early while the engine is still sitting at core temperature for 20-30 minutes. But anything after that is just going to pool on top of the pistons.
EDIT: I don't know if this is an "old wives tale," but they say adding ATF / automatic transmission fluid can extend the life of your gaskets by causing them to swell. The automatic fluid won't hurt your engine because it's essentially just formulated hydraulic fluid.
