Upon start up, my car smokes like a ****. Smoke is grayish in color. This doesn't happen on my first start up in the morning, just every one thereafter. I also notice a hint of coolant smell in the exhaust fumes. I pulled the radiator cap off in the morning to observe for bubbles upon startup. There weren't any as far as I could see, but the coolant did tend to surge up and down in the neck, to the point where some would spill out and then it would sink back down, then rise, then sink back down. The smoke goes away rather quickly once I start driving, but it won't really stop smoking if I let it sit. Does this mean coolant seal failure? I'm not driving it anymore to avoid any further problems, so what do you guys think? Thanks.

 

I can't remember what seal is done, but it's one of the water seals (obviously) by the coolant getting into the exhaust. This happend to an engine of mine. It still ran good, but burnt coolant and overheated if not careful. I just took it out of my car and still have it sitting around. But ya... a rebuild should be done. If not totally necessary (probably is) then it's a really good idea. Plus it will be pretty cheap since u didn't blow an apex seal and wratch your housings or anything like that.

 

The part where you talk about the coolant going up and down. That is normal..it is the thermostat openig and closing.

 

Ok to get coolant into the combustion chamber, the inner rotor housing's o ring is bad somewhere... To get oil into the combustion chamber, one of the o rings on the rotor is bad, cuz oil travels up and down the ecentric shaft, with a bad ring oil will seep into the engine. Usually they start by leaking into their after the car sits overnight, a little seepage into the rotor housing and when you fire the engine up it burns the oil outta there...When they get really bad they will start smoking all the time while running...

Yeah, I agree to the previous statement, when something like this happens, its kinda a blesing. at least the apex(s) didnt crack and ruin a rotor and rotor housing...