2002 360 Smokes white on startup

Did you check your oil level with the engine hot and running, or when the engine was cold and off?

Do you see any sort of rainbow film or oil on top of your coolant?

Do you see any water or "milk" in your oil?

 

Isn't that pretty normal? Sounds to me like water that has condensed in the exhaust system being blown off.

 

i'm having the same problem, i think oils creeps down into the combustion chamber thru the valve guides , maybe faulty seals.

has anyone had this same problem and got around to fix it???

Rolo

 

White smoke =water Blue smoke= oil Black smoke= fuel

 

white smoke, oil

 

White smoke is water. But your problem does sound like bad valve seals. If it's the exhaust ones that'r leaking, the guides are probably out of spec.

 

well , sorry for being stuborn but, most likely has either bad guides or valves and it is burning oil and i see white smoke, not blue

 

+1

 

"Hot" as in immediately after shutting of the engine...or a few minutes after shutting off the engine?

 

To get a good oil level reading on a 360 the engine has to be running.

 

Not that I condone sniffing exhaust for an extended period, but usually oil burning can be smelled. Sometimes, if bad, water / coolant can be smelled.

Blue (whiteish) = oil, white (very white) = water

James in Denver

 

White smoke, blue smoke, oil can do either, white does not always mean water. If you dump in enough oil it blows out white. Dont believe it? Watch an aerobatic stunt plane when they turn on smoke and see what color it is. Thats not pure white steam coming out of them, its oil smoke.

Oil is generally blue when its burned in small amounts, but if a bunch runs down the guides after shut down, and you restart it shortly after when its still hot, they will blow pure white smoke if theres enough of it.

An engine wont usually make steam until after the engine has ran a bit and started heating the manifold, usually at least 30 seconds or so even with a hot engine, whereas oil will combust immediately. And if it was leaking water internally, enough to steam for 20 seconds after startup, it probably wouldnt stop steaming and you would be noticing a loss of coolant at the reservoir and most likely it would be running hot. If its not showing coolant loss at the reservoir and isnt running hot, its most likely oil.

 

thanks
it IS burning oil, alo of people just google up "engine white smoke" and it says that it is coolant. white smoke can be oil and most of the times it actually is. Just drive behind a V12 pre 70s ferrari with out valve seals and you'll see white smoke,

on my case,coolant can't come from the valve guides.

we are not gonna fix it yet, it is too little the amount of smoke for the amount of work. car has over 40K km

 

If this happens only when engine is hot could be a drippy injector, could cause white smoke just like that.

 

I just got the same problem. Only when the engine has been sitting for about 20 minutes or so. Has anyone discovered exactly what this problem is?