White sweet smelling smoke

Hey guys, possibly just getting a little paranoid here. I bought my 2010 TRD OR about a week ago. Drove about 4 hrs to go get it because it was such a better deal than what I was finding around town. There are some cosmetic issues on the truck just from being used as a truck in Wyoming so I figured that must've been the reason for the price. Right before I picked it up the PO got an oil change done. All the fluids seem to be full. Drove it home with no noticeable issues. Once I got it home I started looking a bit deeper and found no maintenance records for the past 40k miles. Went and got the leaf spring recall done and decided I'd change the spark plugs right away. Saturday I changed out the plugs and everything went smoothly but I'm guessing they were original plugs as they were half Denzo, half NGK. Changed out with all Denzos. I did this in the garage and when I started the truck I noticed an exhaust smell. At the time I thought maybe it smelled a little sweet but didn't think much of it and figured it was just because the rig was in the garage. Today I started it up to head to work (again in the garage) and noticed some light white smoke coming from the exhaust and the sweet smell again. Now I'm playing the WebMD definitely have cancer game and am wondering if I have head gasket issues going on. I haven't checked the fluids again or marked the coolant but will do so when I go home today. Looking around TW I don't see a lot of posts mentioning head gaskets on these newer (not that 7 years old or 126k miles is new) models. Thoughts? Just condensation? Just paranoia? Its been pretty warm here recently so I don't know that I would think it would be condensation... I dunno. Don't have a lot of experience with this type of stuff. Thanks for the input.

 

A compression test, will let you know...

 

Check the plugs you pulled out, do any one or two of them look vastly different then the others? I'm talking about color or deposits on the spark end.

 

Head gasket. The PO got the oil change to hide the fact that there was coolant in the oil.

 

Exactly what was on my mind.

 

taste it to know for sure.

taste like water, not head gasket
taste sweet, head gasket, and you are gonna die

 

lol

 

Mine often has steam from the exhaust when it's cold, I assume from occasionally making short trips down the road with it. It doesn't smell sweet though, more like a strong fuel smell. I assume these engines run really rich when they're cold, as most other modern engines do.

 

Decided to go out and take a look since I couldn't work with it on my mind. Coolant level is full as it was a week ago. Oil looks like oil. Figure it probably has ~400 miles on it since the oil change. Doesn't look milky to me. Although I'm not sure how long it would take for a slow leak to make the oil look shitty. Started it up and ran it for just a few minutes. No smoke. Not sure about the exhaust smell. I don't tend to sit around sniffing exhaust and it was in an open parking lot so it was harder to tell. Not sure what I think now. Maybe I'm just being paranoid . Its always hard to just accept a good deal as a good deal. Everyone's an asshole, someones always trying to screw you over.

 

Oh mine definately stinks up the garage when it's cold, my dog has even learned to get out of there when I start it, LOL. When I pull it back in after its fully warmed up I dont notice it.

 

Interesting. yea makes sense the more I think about it... just still having the new used car jitters I guess. I'll just keep an eye on it I suppose.

 

When it's cold, remove the radiator cap and start it up, see if any bubbles come up through the coolant...not a fool proof test but a quick one. A compression check won't be conclusive on very small leaks/failures of the head gasket.
Any good shop can do a block test for you.
But if the P/O dumped some head gasket stop leak in the system, you may never know...not that those snake oil remedies last for any great length of time.

 

"see if any bubbles come up through the coolant"what if there are bubbles? leaking gasket I assume? Is that what you're getting at?

 

This is a cut&dried thing; if the white "smoke" is when it's warming up, but goes away after fully warmed, that would be condensation. And the "sweet smell" would be your cats doing their reburning job well. OTOH if that white "smoke" continues on a constant basis even after fully warmed, the smoke doesn't disspate into the air but lingers like cigar smoke, and that "sweet smell" is a kind of "sickening sweet" like burnt syrup, this could be a blown head gasket allowing coolant into the burn chambers.

 

Ok, thanks a lot. Yea I was kind of in a rush this morning so I didn't look to see if it had gone away by the time I got on the interstate but going back out later this morning there was no smoke. So by your logic I should be just fine.

 

I hope this is the case as well! You'll know the difference between that normal sweet odor most modern engines produce across the board and the "bad sweet" I described. Keep watch on it till you know for sure.

 

Yup.

 

Maple syrup....
hot anti-freeze smells like maple syrup... thats why when your heater core leaks, your always craving IHOP! lol
but seriously Rick...
coolant in the oil will create thick grey sludge in bottom of pan if its bad enough... but dipstick wont show it.. it settles. Also, tan/white gooey sludge can show up inside top of radiator. Hope you have neither.

 

TASTE IT FFS...ends the guesswork

you see that little water drip at the tailpipe on startup ? so, you taste it and spit it out

taste like water or ass, no problem
taste sweet at all ? head gasket for sure

the hobo test never lies