Morning smoke show

[Mudeprived]

I leave for work at 3am and my truck has been making a smoke show as I reverse down the driveway. It is a pretty noticeable cloud and does it even when it is warm outside.

Not sure what to make of this since it does not do it after I start driving. I do have a 10 second or so rough idle when I first start it up and have been trying to diagnose that. I am not sure if it is related.

Any ideas?

Thanks

99 Limited 170k

 

[turbo8]

What color is the smoke?

Sounds like a leaking head gasket\cracked cylinder head.

 

[sakoluvr]

That is a shame with only 170K miles. Sounds like a textbook head gasket issue. Check your coolant?

 

[curryT4R]

I leave for work at 3am and my truck has been making a smoke show as I reverse down the driveway. It is a pretty noticeable cloud and does it even when it is warm outside.

Not sure what to make of this since it does not do it after I start driving. I do have a 10 second or so rough idle when I first start it up and have been trying to diagnose that. I am not sure if it is related.

Any ideas?

Thanks

99 Limited 170k

Like the others asked, what color is it? and what does it smell like?

 

[JWaldz]

Like the others asked, what color is it? and what does it smell like?

This.. Color and smell are critical pieces of information to know.

Any recent or past thrown codes?

Could be running rich, could be burning oil, or could be burning coolant.

 

[gamefreakgc]

Blueish smoke is oil (smells terrible) and white smoke is coolant (smells almost sweet).

 

[curryT4R]

Blueish smoke is oil (smells terrible) and white smoke is coolant (smells almost sweet).

and black smoke is fuel - smells like fuel

 

[Mudeprived]

Coolant is clear and pink. Oil looks like oil always does. I have a valve cover gasket leak and my oil level is a tad bit lower than normal after 2k miles. Still in the safe zone though.

The smoke appears to be white but it is hard to tell because it is dark out. I am not sure about the smell. It only does it while I am backing down the driveway. It does not do it after work or any other time except early morning. I will focus on it tomorrow morning to see if I can snap a pix.

I have a fuel pump thread that I started recently and I think running out of gas has damaged my pump, causing that rough idle in the morning. I think it is not holding pressure but I cannot check due to no port on the rails. Still looking into this.

 

[gamefreakgc]

Coolant is clear and pink. Oil looks like oil always does. I have a valve cover gasket leak and my oil level is a tad bit lower than normal after 2k miles. Still in the safe zone though.

The smoke appears to be white but it is hard to tell because it is dark out. I am not sure about the smell. It only does it while I am backing down the driveway. It does not do it after work or any other time except early morning. I will focus on it tomorrow morning to see if I can snap a pix.

I have a fuel pump thread that I started recently and I think running out of gas has damaged my pump, causing that rough idle in the morning. I think it is not holding pressure but I cannot check due to no port on the rails. Still looking into this.

Don't try for a pic of the smoke, chances are the camera will not accurately capture the color anyway. Really just start the car, jump out and smell the smoke exhaust (in a safe manner of course, don't poison yourself) and observe color, if any.

 

[thecole1098]

Thin whiteish smoke is just condensation burning off in the tailpipe, however if it is pretty thick white and smells sweet like coolant then you're in trouble.

 

[turbo8]

You can look for bubbles in your radiator too. Do this when the coolant is cold though..

 

[fourwd1]

If it's bluish oil smoke and primarily when starting after it's been sitting, probably worn valve guide seals.
The oil drains past the seals into the cylinders overnight, then quickly burns off when started.

 

[thegipper]

You need to do a leak down test if you want to know for sure if its a bad head gasket. When my HG wen't, it had a rough idle at start up, blew varying degrees of whitish smoke for a min or two and was slowing loosing coolant. I tried using one of those dye test kits, pulled spark plugs and so on but had no solid evidence until I did a leak down test. Leak down test was the only test that actually worked and 100% confirmed I did have a bad HG (cylinder #3). I had no bubbles in my radiator/reservoir and the plugs all looked pretty much the same. It was a small HG leak but a leak none the less.

Ended up swapping in a different motor since I already had a spare on hand.

Check your coolant level and keep an eye on it.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[nevada]

it might not be smoke at all. if it only does it when its cold, its probably condensation.

 

[Mudeprived]

You need to do a leak down test if you want to know for sure if its a bad head gasket. When my HG wen't, it had a rough idle at start up, blew varying degrees of whitish smoke for a min or two and was slowing loosing coolant. I tried using one of those dye test kits, pulled spark plugs and so on but had no solid evidence until I did a leak down test. Leak down test was the only test that actually worked and 100% confirmed I did have a bad HG (cylinder #3). I had no bubbles in my radiator/reservoir and the plugs all looked pretty much the same. It was a small HG leak but a leak none the less.

Ended up swapping in a different motor since I already had a spare on hand.

Check your coolant level and keep an eye on it.

Good luck and keep us posted.

That is pretty much the same deal with mine. I did notice the spark plug in Cyl 3 was discolored compared to the others.

I have an appt at a trusty local shop next Wed and will find out then.


If it is a head gasket then I'm gonna be buying a new (used) truck sooner than I expected. I am not putting any more money into this truck.

 

[PRG3K]

If you're not burning through coolant, my first thought was worn valve stem seals and probably not a huge problem.

 

[19963.4lsr5]

Water vapor out tail pipe in middle of summer on a cold start to me is the head gasket. I'm in the process now on my 97 SR5 Build and Repair and just replaced them on the 97 Puppy Hauler.

Waiting for the heads to get finished.

Total is 385 for the head replacement kit and 360 for the heads to be given a once over and install new valve stem seals. Plus whatever it costs in valve shims.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WhiskChef]

I have a SEVERE oil leak on my 95 4Runner (v6 3VZE). I put a quart in every day or two. Yesterday I felt she needed extra love so I put in two quarts. Now she's billowing huge plumes of white gray smoke on startup and acceleration with no hint of quitting.

There's no way it could have been OVER filled as there was only about a quart +/- in it before I added to it. Should mention that a few days ago a buddy put ten gallons of "older" gas in my tank and she's been running like crap since, but no snow till now.

In an attempt to counteract the possibility of overfilment and burning oil rather than gas I immediately filled the rest of the tank (about half) with high grade chevron techron. Didn't make a difference.

The oil leak is so bad (rear main seal) that her undercarriage is completely blackened and caked with oil making it look like she's leaking from like 10 different places. However, I’m pretty sure it’s ONLY three .

Any Advice for this girl who s her runner but is clueless when it comes to the many maladies that plague her??? (Pretty positive Not a head gasket issue, which have already been replaced twice.)

 

[heat]

Well, the rear main seal leak isn't going to fix itself, so someone's gonna need
to pull the transmission and replace it.

I'd consider dumping the bad gas entirely. Hard to tell what damage it's doing
to injectors, etc.

You also might get more help in the Classic T4R section. This one is for 3rd gen
'runners.

 

[Mudeprived]

So I have been paying close attention to the symptoms this week. The smoke show is white mostly with a hint of blue. It does not smell foul nor sweet but is not a normal exhaust smell.

It smokes when I start it up during the day but it is barely visible and not a cloud like in the morning.

The start up idle has gotten a little rougher lately but still ends after 30 seconds. The normal idle is no longer "normal". You can sense that the idle has a bit of a rumble to it if you focus on it.

Coolant level still going down.

I am dropping it off at the shop 2nite and will have results tomorrow.