tester123

Well, that's why I always suggest: When the car is working fine, fill some exhaust in a bottle and cap it as sample for future reference. You just never know the difference otherwise!

tester123

Yes, this almost true but not always correct. For example: 2.7T turbos have "oil bearings" another words, they are sleeve bearings that run on a layer of oil. If the shaft seized or any blockage on return, oil shoots straight out to exhaust and it will produce loads of white smoke. How do I know this? Sadly, this is exactly what happened to my car, TWICE, and that's why I am not so fond of turbos (for now). Granted, mine is an exception as many others are very satisfied with their 2.7Ts. Besides, who needs all these boost lags, leaks, diverters, intercoolers etc., when the 4.2 is a power house; smooth all the way! So, I traded up.

johnkk

Headgasket leaks can produce white smoke at startup from coolant leaking into the combustion chamber(s). Along with the white smoke, you usually get a rough idle until the coolant burns off. Sometimes the coolant leak is not enough or not connected to an oil passage to get the milky oil on the dipstick.

A good test for a headgasket leak that is causing white smoke, is to check the spark plugs. If you find one or more that are ridiculously clean(cleaner than new) you definitely have a headgasket leak and the clean plugs indicate where the leak is. Basically water injection, but not metered. If the leak is bad enough, you can get enough coolant in the cylinder for hydrolock to blow the engine(con rods, pistons, head, block), but this is very rare.

I have not had good luck with leak sealers, but some have.

GTA_Driver

Wouldn't it produce blue-ish smoke? Oil doesn't burn white...

SloopJohnB@mac.com

What…you channelling 'If I could save time in a bottle….'

Airbag

actually not always. overfilling a 911 is an all to common issue to newbies as people dont understand the dry sump system ...

when they overfill and dump oil into the intake it looks like a mosquitto fogger going down the street , but it is always grey/white .. strange i know ..