87 300td smokes till warms up

wierd deal, my trusty 300td wagon that i love has started smoking untill it warms up. white smoke. is this the injector pump or some such ?

Reply to
billemery
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White smoke is coolant burning out of the exhaust manifold as it heats up.

Check the coolant level - white smoke often is the symptom of headgasket failure or, worse, a cracked head.

Reply to
T.G. Lambach

Sometimes if it's not very dense, it could also be steam as the humidity depending on atmospherics. This would be a happy situation compared to a head gasket or worse...

Marty

PS Usually if it's a head gasket or crack you will get a good amount of white smoke. I mean a GOOD amount. It doesn't take much coolant to produce a huge cloud.

Reply to
Martin Joseph

No, it's burning coolant.

Roses are red, oil smoke is blue, fuel smoke is black, it's bad news for you.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

Could it simply be condensation being burned off from the exhaust system???

Reply to
Tiger

Could be. Assuming you have somethibng other than just waterin the rad then you would be able to smell a sickly sweet odour from near the tailpipe if you'e burning coolant.

Burning coolant will be a denser smoke and won't go away just after startup.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

dunno, i think its the head gasket, it has an alum head and iron block and it's got over 350000 miles on it. the local mechanics school is doing gaskets right now so i may drive it over and let them replace it. ive never let it get hot so i doubt that it's got a cracked head.

Reply to
billemery

Is it loosing coolant?

Reply to
Chas Hurst

just when i thought it might be the head gasket, im not sure again. it's starting to get warm here in texas now and sat morning i started it and drove it a little and it didnt smoke abnormally like it does when it's cold. this is definately a temprature related problem. i think ill take it to someplace where they use uv lights etc. to find leaks. if it's the head gasket, it will show up.

Reply to
billemery

It's NORMAL for a vehicle to emit white (steam) vapor when running from cold on a cold day. This is ambient moisture vaporizing.

It's hard to tell from here if there is really an issue at all or you are just being paranoid.

That said, it's also quite possible that the contraction of the metals during cold temperatures allow for some AF to leak into the combustion system.

Are you loosing coolant????: If not, you don't have a problem.

Marty

Reply to
Martin Joseph

Reply to
billemery

IS IT LOSING COOLANT??? If not, you are just losing your mind...

Marty

Reply to
Martin Joseph

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