White smoke on start up.

My x type on start up puts out white smoke. Cold or hot it does not matter. It is not coolant. It smells like fuel. The car otherwise runs fine. Temps are fine etc. I was thinking of pulling the fuel pump fuse and let it die that way and see if on start up if it us better. I am thinking it is a bad injector.

Like I said otherwise it runs fine.

Anyone have an idea as to how to possibly narrow it down to a specific I hector? I can get at 3 of the 6 plugs the other three are a sob. Another answer is to do the 100k service and while I have the upper intake off I will change the plugs and send out the injectors for a cleaning.

Has anyone tried the in car cleaning's. I have seen them but never seen them used more have I heard if anyone using them.

Anyway suggestions are welcome.

Does it do anything other than smoke? If it runs ok, I'd not worry about it- there is probably a spot in the exhaust that captures some condensation that boils off when it starts.

This car sat at a junkyard for over a year correct? Have you tried giving it the old "Italian tune up" Yet?

No Italian tune up yet. I should have played on it by the end of the week.

Ya this car sat for close to a year. It was ok back in July / Aug of last year when I initially went through it. Now it is doing this. What I don't want to do is kill off a cat. Them are pricy in this car and a real sob to chamge

White smoke? Does it dissipate quickly? If so it's steam, normal on cold start. Fuel should be black smoke.

dean1484 wrote: No Italian tune up yet. I should have played on it by the end of the week. Ya this car sat for close to a year. It was ok back in July / Aug of last year when I initially went through it. Now it is doing this. What I don't want to do is kill off a cat. Them are pricy in this car and a real sob to chamge

Even if it's the starting fuel (or more likely the fuel that leaks when the car is sitting)- it's not enough to burn the cats out.

The Volvo did this. I posted nearly the exact same thing you did. It turned out to be a head gasket even though I swore up and down that it wasn't coolant.

Pretty sure white smoke means there will be a new Pope.

Normally re the head gasket I would agree but this does not smell like it more am I getting any air in the coolant system. I guess the next thing is leak down test of the cooling system.

Coolant burning.

are you sure its not a blue-ish white? bad valve seals will cause a smoke at start up, my old 240sx would do it on every start up, hot or cold, and the smoke sometimes looked more white then blue like burning oil usually is

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Coolant burning.

It does not smell like that. It smells like fuel.

A pressure test of the cooling system will at least help to tell me what is or is not going on. Hopefully eliminate the coolant as an issue.

I am also going to look more at the fuel system. Since temperature of the motor does not seem to change things I am hoping that maybe killing the fuel pump while it is running should drop the pressure in the fuel rail. Then I will crank it over and engage the fuel pump while it is cranking. If this reduces the smoke or eliminates it I can almost be certain that it is an injector problem.

I was also thinking of seeing if I can get a bore scope and see if I can see any of the cylinders are wet. The only problem is that the three rear cylinders are only accessible by taking the top half of the intake off.

Maybe an easier test is crank the engine and kill it before it stops smoking and pull spark plugs. If it's too rich you will know, same with if its oil or coolant burning

chiodos wrote: Maybe an easier test is crank the engine and kill it before it stops smoking and pull spark plugs. If it's too rich you will know, same with if its oil or coolant burning

Not that simple as half the plugs are covered by the intake manifold making it a PITA to check the plugs. Going to try pressurizing the coolant system and let it stand for a while and see what that does. If it holds pressure and still smokes we can assume fuel. If I loose pressure then we have a bigger issue.

A leaky injector will drip fuel into the combustion chamber. After shutdown There is still pressure in the system after shut down and it will puddle. Another option is fuel pressure regulator. does your dipstick smell like gas?

How much gas is in the motor oil?

bentwrench wrote: How much gas is in the motor oil? I need to look at that as well. At the moment the car is at the shop waiting on plates. Once I get those I will chk that change the oil and start diagnosis.

You are probably discovering why it was at the junk yard in the first place.

dean1484 wrote: Normally re the head gasket I would agree but this does not smell like it more am I getting any air in the coolant system. I guess the next thing is leak down test of the cooling system.

Mine didn't smell either, and didn't have any appreciable coolant loss.

When I pulled the head two cylinders were half full of coolant. What happened is as such. Shutting the engine off drops the combustion pressure to zero immediately. The coolant is still pressurized. The coolant has hours and hours to seep into the cylinders and when you first start it up, that coolant gets burned away. The small trickle that's there isn't enough to cause white smoke until the next startup. With mine, it finally got so that it would run really rough at idle, and start to smoke more. It was trying to hydrolock itself.

I originally assumed my white smoke was condensation. Maybe my 305 is dying