Rotaree

My RX7 is been taken care of religiously and only has 10k on it. I know the difference between condensation in the exhaust, and something else, and this appears to be something else upon immediate start-up. It only happens when the car is started for the first time after sitting for a day or so, and goes away almost immediatly (maybe 5 seconds at most). I just had the compression checked on the engine and it registered almost perfect at an average of 9.0 on the front rotor and 8.9 on the rear rotor. Would some compression be lost if the o-ring was going or already bad? The climate here now is typically 40 degrees and falls below 30 degrees some nights. Granted there is some oil injected into the housings, would this cause some white smoke upon start-up? My car runs great and doesn't appear to have any leaks whatsoever. I know this question has been asked a million times, but just looking for some extra information. Thanks.

billyrohm

What about coolant level? Are you having to add any coolant? If not you're probably okay. 10k miles, sweet car, when are you giving it to me?

JConn2299

If the O-ring is leaking coolant into the combustion chamber you'll be able to notice the unmistakeable smell of anti-freeze upon startup. The white smoke is also likely to get worse over time. Have someone start the car while you stand behind it and give it a sniff. If you don't smell antifreeze, then you can probably rest easy.

RonKMiller

JConn is right on. You can also pull the filler cap above the water pump and look for tiny bubbles on cold start up. If you see what looks like champagne bubbles percolating up and getting larger as it warms you have a problem. 10K miles? Wow, that must be a record low mileage unless you have a rebuilt!

Rotaree

They are 10,056 original miles...NO rebuild! Thanks for the "bubbly" trick. Might try this tomorrow.

corbet

Shoot, I have the champagne bubbles (80k on the engine). Is the engine going to fail soon?

-Corbet

Rotaree

I started my car today (after sitting for two days) and ran to the back and smelled the exhaust coming from the tailpipe immediately. I noticed that the smoke had a slightly blue tint to it and regard this as normal because of the oil in the combustion chamber that is there to lubricate/cool some of the seals. NO coolant smell. Also ran back up to the front of the car with the hood popped and the filler cap off, and no bubbles...nice to know so I can rest a little easier.

JConn2299

That's good to know. I, for one, would have found it alarming if the coolant seals had gone on a meticulously cared for car with only 10,000 miles on it.

Nathan Kwok

If you suspect "something else", then I'd say it was a mix of condensation and oil smoke. This is quite normal if you don't drive the car much, as long as it doesn't keep going after the car is warmed up you should be fine.

badass7

You really have to consider the weather as well. If you look around, all the cars on the road are blowing major smoke before fully warming up. If you are paranoid about the smoke...you tend to notice it a lot more. Sounds normal to me especially after experiencing first hand what happens when coolant seals go out. I drove my car to the ground when I found out the coolant seals were going. Just drove around town with buckets of coolant and watched as my car blew smoke for a good 2-3 minutes or so upon start up.

badass7

BTW, I think it's pretty damn hard to tell white from a bluish white smoke. Dunno....maybe I'm just colorblind.

RonKMiller

It won't get any better. Time for CRC Copper Block Weld before you spend $5K on a rebuild. Do a search, there's quite a bit of info on it.
If you are lucky and caught the leak while it is still small there is a good chance it will work, if not, all you've spent is $7 a bottle. Try several bottles, you have nothing to lose. Mine has held for almost 6K miles.
The key to success with it is to flush your system completely - heater core, overflow bottle, EVERYTHING, several times with distilled water and drain it completely including the engine drain bolt. Flushing it three times would not be overkill. It's a days worth of fooling around but worth it!

corbet

I assume you mean to flush it before you put in the copper block. Thanks for the advice.
Corbet

RonKMiller

Yep!

corbet

Curiously, when I do a pressure test of the coolant system with the spark plugs removed I do not have a loss of pressure and no coolant in the engine chamber. So I wont be using the copper block at the moment. I'm afraid it would do more damage than good in a clogging-of the-arteries sort of way. I do have exhaust gas in the coolant but I can think of no way that the copper-block could stop that. The flow isn't in the right direction.