456 Excessive Smoke on startup/cold

How often do you drive it? Could be condensation in the exhaust system being vaporized by the exhaust heat.

 

Hi there,
Well, if it is not dark smoke, it can only be steam or oil.
Steam could simply be condensation in the mufflers that is coming out as the system warms up, but if the car is being used regularly, the outside temperature is not too cold and the exhaust system has the time to warm completely up, condensation should disappear and not be a recurrent problem.
Try to keep the car in the garage while it cools down, to prevent the possibility of condensation from ocurring again.
You may also want to check the oil colour and make sure you do not have any infiltration of coolant in the oil.
Coolant in the oil will produce a milky emulsion that will tell you you have a leaky head gasket, that needs to be taken care of immediately.
Otherwise, if it is light in colour might be oil being burnt in the cylinders.
You may start by running your finger on the inside of the exhaust tips and see if there are any traces of oil there.
Then a look at the spark plugs may be the easiest way to detect if there is any oil being burnt and in which cylinder.
If you find traces of oil on the plugs, then a compression test will tell you where the oil is coming from: if there is no diffrence from previous readings and all the readings are about the same, then the rings can be ruled out.
If the compression readings are fine, then the oil is most likely dripping down from one or more valve guides.
This happens after you turn the engine off and there is still oil in the camshafts alleys above the valves.
The oil drips down the worn out valve guides and sits there until you turn the engine on again.
It then burns slowly off while the engine is running.
Anyway, the rule of thumb is always to start investigating from the easiest and most likely possibility (the condensation) and then move on from there.
If you live in a cold and humid area that is probably your case.
Good luck,
Saluti,

 

Oil consumption seems high, but then again, it is kind of tricky to get a true reading, since you are not checking the level directly in the crankcase.
You should check the oil level always in the same condition, to make sure the readings you get are comparable.
I.e. always in the morning before starting up or late in the day after you turn the engine off, or any other way you prefer, as long as it is the same way / condition, every day.
Saluti

 

Hi,
Sorry to hear about your problem, but at least now you know where it appears to be coming from.
One detail I forgot to ask was if you had the smoke coming from both sides or just from one.
Good luck with it anyway.
As far as Ferrari being less reliable than Lamborghini, I believe it has more to do with chance than anything else, although I have never owned a Lambo.
Ferraris are engineers' cars and what I mean by that is that you need to become involved with the engine part of it and its peculiarities, in order to understand what they need and how they are supposed to be treated.
If you manage that, then I believe you can enjoy a long, trouble-free relationship; if you don't, you are bound to have problems.
The reason I say that is because I have "studied" the owner's manual as well as the parts manual and through-out you see a great display of "engineers' thinking" with not so much consideration for practicality or even reliability for every day use.
They both begin with the engine section and go to great lengths and into the most minute details about it.
The rest of the car is "condensed" in a much smaller section and receives far less attention.
If you examine other cars' manuals, you would be reading first about all kind of safety and convenience features, liability disclaimers and the likes, with the engine part short and concised, because you are not supposed to mess around with it and you do not need to know anything about it, aside from checking the oil from time to time.
With a Ferrari you acquire a family member instead......
Regards,
A.

 

Yes, I would think so.
Just trying to save some $$, it seems to me it should be possible to remove both heads without pulling the engine out of the car.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Saluti,

 

Top end and belts are engine out on a 456? Had not thought so. Still, FoD knows their stuff, so ....

Best of luck.

 

One correction: 456 engine is a dry sump engine and checking the oil level should only be when the engine oil is hot and the engine is running. If checked when cold and before startup, dipstick will show little or nothing. I have heard of oil being checked this way, the oil tank overfilled and ultimately lots of smoke from oil in the air filters etc and expensive repairs.

 

I am just completing the replacement of the valve guides in a 456 that had a similar problem. I believe the guides a the same construction as the now infamous 355 valve guides. An oil analysis showed very high copper content and sure enough the guides were worn.

 

So, what is the fix? Change valves before it happens? Wait until it happens?

 

I used an aluminum silicon bronze guide that has better dimensional stability than any of the Ferrari guides. If you let this go to long the seats may need extensive work and maybe replacement. Also the oil smoke/residue is not very good for your catalytic convertors and exhaust system, (O2 sensors).