Started my car up today in 2 degree weather..

Puffed a lotta whitish/maybe bluish smoke that smelled a little like sweet gas.

I immediately thought cooland seal... however, after driving down the street (trailing a HUGE cloud of smoke) it went away once the car had warmed up to operating temp.

During this time, even though i was in 4th at 2000rpms, when i let off the gas it'd backfire..

was the ecu just massively rich cuz of the cold?

 

At this time I wouldn't worry about it, unless it happens again, except the backfire...was it fully warmed up when it backfired? Did it ever backfire or do the smoke thing before?

 

Your coolent seals might be on the way out.

 

I think backfiring is pretty common with a modded exhaust so i wouldn't be worried about that.

 

true true but i wonder if its ever backfired before...

 

sounds like the coolant seal to me too, did you pup the coolant cap and take a look while it was running (and cold) for bubbles or old faithful?

 

Geez isn't that normal? As long as it went away when the car reached normal operating temp i think ur ok. And did the smoke linger or did it dissipate quite quickly?

Also did you remove the cold-start assist system? Maybe thats why you were burning coolant.

God only knows everytime i start my car i get some white smoke...but it goes away and it passed the geyser test the last time i checked...

 

once the car had fully warmed up, it stopped smoking and backfiring

it was too cold and i was in too much of a rush to stop and check the coolant while it was cold. right now its -7 out where i live so ill do it in a few days when it warms up enough for me to take the car out

 

I had the same problem last weekend, but now my car seems to be fine. *knocks on wood* I believe that it was just my car running extremely rich, combined with condensation in the exhaust and possibly coolant from the sub zero assist system. Once my car warmed up it was fine, and it hasn't done it since. It doesn't seem to be using coolant, so hopefully my motor is ok. :-/

 

So, when you started the car, it acted as if it was flooded? And then it backfired right away (couple of seconds after startup)? And on top of that it smoked really really bad for like 30 seconds or so?

If so, your seals are on their way out

 

It isn't necessarily the coolant seals...when was the last time u did the geyser test?

 

Honestly I think ur alright, after hearing all this. Try the "geyser" test tho to be sure. But otherwise I wouldn't worry...just gives you more grey hair .

 

Do you have the cold start assist?