leaky valves?

[1fast97gsx]

Sometimes when I start my car and let it warm up ( I always let it fully warm up before I drive it ), it blows a little white smoke out of the exhaust. Once I start driving it it's fine. It did it once at idle too a few minutes later. Just once in a while during warm up it does it and that's about it. Would this point to leaky valves or what are my other options? Headgasket is good. I wanna do a leakdown test ... but I don't know anyone with a tester. Thanks.

 

[sonicnofadz]

If its truly white smoke, then it sounds like your headgasket is bad. How do you know your headgasket is ok? Is the white smoke steam? Try doing a compression test and compare the results to the haynes/shop manual specifications. Maybe your valve stem seals are old and crusty and are leaking oil into the cylinders? Do you know what type of smoke is coming out of your exhaust ?

 

[1fast97gsx]

well it's white color smoke, however it's not a lot of smoke at all and I guess you could say it's kinda "steamy". I don't think it's headgasket because I have no oil in coolant and compression was around 170 in all 4 cylinders. I'm leaning towards the valve seals because it's a used 1g head that was supposedly freshened up but I'm not so sure anymore. The wierd thing is the car only does it sometimes.

 

[pneumo]

It could be condensation in the exhaust pipe/O2 housing. How's the humidity there?

 

[1fast97gsx]

well it hasn't been very humid lately at all. I have decided to jsut not worry about it for now. I basically just did a 1g headswap so the extra 1g head I have at home I'm going to put cams, springs, retainers, OS valves and so on in and then swap it on in the winter. I don't think it's anything to worry about.

 

[1fast97gsx]

well I checked my oil level today ... somehow it got overfilled. It was like 1/4" above to full mark. Not sure how that happened?!?! I drained it back out to the right level. wonder if that had anything to do with it?

 

[91orangeGST]

when you drained your oil was there antifreeze in it?

 

[sonicnofadz]

I've had these same syptoms before and when I tore my engine apart I found the headgasket was blown. Make sure that there ISN'T ANY WATER IN YOUR OIL, this may be why your oil level seems high, because there has been water mixing into your oilpan. If you are still not sure, then just run your car for a while and very carefully monitor your coolant level. If you notice excessive coolant consumption then you most likely have a leak and its time to tear everything apart =) I know autozone also sells a chemical you can mix in with your oil or coolant to determine if you have a blown gasket (it changes to a different color if oil is present).

 

[1fast97gsx]

when you drained your oil was there antifreeze in it?

no there wasn't.