crosswound

Sometimes when I start up my car after it sits over night it has a lot of white smoke maybe for about 2 minutes. Then sometimes it only does it 30 seconds or less I have no idea why either.

afterburn27

iTrader: (5)

A lot of white smoke could mean that your coolant seals are shot. Are you losing coolant? Are you sure that you are not mistaking it for the condensation on morning starts?

crosswound

I thought it was condensationt also theres this water type residue in my exhaust thing is, its a lot of white smoke. I notice it clears up quicker if I clean out my exhaust. and no I'm not losing coolant. I thought it was my coolant seals also I so I checked for coolant leaks and been checking my coolant like crazy both are good.

charlies7

iTrader: (4)

mine did the same thing then it blew up 100 miles ago....buzzer never went off or anything...HAVE FUN!!! lol jk
btw i did blow a coolant seal

oorx7

iTrader: (2)

Didn't you just have that rebuilt?

Brandon

crosswound

Guys seriously stop scaring a fellow FD owner I love this thing. Maybe it is condensation because it has to basically sit overnight and I fire it up anytime next day it does it. Then it will never do it again the whole day no matter how long it sits. I also think I over filled the coolant since I was kind of paranoid you think that made it worse?

charlies7

iTrader: (4)

yeah this was before the rebuild...lol just sharing hte info.....my new eninge is beautiful 17 vac....thanks to banzai racing.

Thatas how my engine blew in the first plce to get a rebuild.

charlies7

iTrader: (4)

well.....ill telll you this i start my car up every morning and not the slightess puff of smoke comes out the *** end of the car....mauybe it is condensation maybe not....but if the smoke is jet white it could be a bad coolant seal....stand behind the car and see if it smells sweet or bitter kind of. If it does im sry.

oorx7

iTrader: (2)

It scared me when you said 100 miles ago.

Any way, back to the thread topic.

charlies7

iTrader: (4)

sry.....the story waws i bought my car in feb with alot of white smoke...noob of course didnt think anything of it then about 100 miles later the engine blew...thank god the internals were ok.

crosswound

i've driven way over 100 miles even after it started doing the smoke. and my vac is 16-17. thing is like i said it does it after sitting over night the next day when its fired up. it doesn't smell sweet or anything far as i can tell.

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

Does the smoke "linger" around or does it dissipate up into the air?

kraked

Mahjik, please elaborate a lil on that. My guess is that if it was coolant burning, it would "linger"?

sonix7

coolant burning smoke is thicker and white and does not disapate as quick. Condensation is like steam almost, it evaborates quickly. That's what Mahjik was getting at. Just a sign of coolant seal failure or regular warm-up condensation. From what it sounds like its condensation. Where do you live? Is it humid, dry? that could determine how much condensation you should expect?

tdazmansFD

iTrader: (1)

Do you still have the twins? How many miles on them? Mine did that before I ripped them out. My primary turbo was shot and leaking oil into the housing over night. Every time I started it cold it would smoke HEAVY white, then after 2-minutes or so it would clear right up almost instantly.

Another good sign of bad twins are when you drive it hard and your car puffs smoke between shifts. Good Luck

crosswound

I don't have the twins boss, I have a single and I think maybe my single is leaking like how you said whats the fix a new turbo? Thing is it boost pretty good it spools up quick and my vacuum is good. My car doesn't puff smoke between shifts either.

I live in massachusetts, its pretty cold in the morning but when its later in the day about 9am its kind of hot humid now. The thing with the smoke I have no idea if its evaporating quickly and it smells like exhaust. My rx-8 had the same smell every morning start up it wasn't turbo or anything thing is the smoke didn't last that long nor was it that thick.

I checked my coolant again its not going down quickly or anything the turbo seems to spool quick.
I have no idea what else to try or to look for I just don't want to blow up my baby.

crosswound

It sounds like my problem thing is I have a single turbo, does it matter if I turn on my turbo timer right before I let it sit overnight?

I was just thinking I couldn't have that problem because the day before it didn't puff that thick white smoke. It just smoked a little when you turn it on and it revs to 2-3k soon as it was done smoke gone.

But the day before it yesterday it did do the thick white smoke. Guys I really appreciate your help thanks a ton. I just want to figure out if I have a serious problem or not before I do any more mods to the car.

sonix7

I think you are getting yourself all worked up, which believe me, I can understand. A good way to test if you have coolant seal failure, would be to do the champagne bubble test, or I think you can pressure test the cooling system, can't remember so don't hold me too that. Do a search on champagne bubble test, here is one thread on the issue https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...cooling+system
another
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...cooling+system.
I urge you to search on this for yourself you will probably find a bunch of useful info.

iron4jones

Dude you live in MASS. You have nothing to worry about. Im 100% sure its just condensation. If it dosent do it any other time than in the morning when you first start it up, its just condensation that sits in the exhaust. And as for how long the "smoke" lasts it just depends on how how humid and how cold it was that night. Dont worry yourself.

BLKTOPTRVL

I have the same problem in my Vert. In my case it is NOT condensation... The smoke is so thick you can't see through it. It only happens if the car sits long without starting (three days or so) it smokes like it is spraying misquitos... Very thick white smoke.

It may be seals but I don't think so, I am more inclined to believe that my oil injector or fuel injectors are leaking after shutoff, and when the car is stated, it's smokin time.

I would think that is this were a seal problem, I would get it anytime the car is restarted after it has cooled - not after several days of sitting.

I've lived with it for over 50K miles... and as long as I do not kill my neighbors, I don't worry much about it.

joeyz87

If it smokes only when it starts up for a few minutes its nothing to worry bout. Could be water of gasoline. Check the plastic coolant container to make sure it's not consuming coolant. Also look in your rear view mirror for clouds of smoke while your driving. Strange you say this happen after you put to much coolant in it, that is not good.

tt2323

Nice to hear you bought an FD...do you still live in town? White smoke isn't normal, i just started my car after a week and nothing. I can't see the air being any thicker down the street...

crosswound

I'm still in town and I honestly think its because I'm idiot and did a couple of things that oil dipstick is hard for me to read lol. I still have the stock oil gauge which works when it wants to. I checked the oil before and I thought it went down a bit so I added some.

Now I'm reading if you overfill it'll smoke I think maybe thats what did it because thats one of the last things I did before it started smoking. I don't drive the car hard for long periods of time either.

crosswound

Yea I'm not going to lie i'm a idiot sometimes but i'm willing to read and learn at least . Thanks for the help guys its probably just the condensation or something dumb I did. Like overfilling the oil a little bit or when I panicked and added in some more coolant later to check that my plastic coolant tank was full when I took it out lol.

I can see i'll have a lot of fun learning a lot of things. Who knows what crazy things will happen next to me. This is my only my 3rd car and my other two cars where new which I had everything done at the dealer but I am willing to learn.

Thanks again.

sonix7

its cool. as long as you learn as you go, thats what counts. Goodluck.