smoke at start up till warmed up

It seems that it is using just a little bit of coolant.

 

Yes

 

I found the invoice and It said checked engine compression and found all cylinders at 220 psi, ok. no cause to check leak down, compression indicates no leakage. Checked engine vacuum and it is at 20". This was done at 78k miles, engine now has 83k. lol maybe it is just it being cold and condensation.

 

It has not over heated only thing is the p0330 knock sensor went out so i spliced the wire till I have the time to replace the harness/sensors. It just doesn't seem like it used to smoke like that before. It has been cold though

 

I think I'm just being paranoid. The exhaust smells the same my other vehicles, I guess i just thing all exhaust smells sweet.

 

For the record, the answer to this is "not necessarily." If the head gasket is blown between a water passage and a combustion chamber, oil and coolant don't mix. Coolant will get into the chamber and be blown out on startup as white smoke. You will use coolant over time if this is the case - so keep an eye on the levels and your engine temps to make sure you don't overheat.

My 3.4 was blowing white smoke on cold start recently and started using more and more coolant. Tested the coolant for exhaust gases, and they were there. So I pulled the heads to do the gaskets. The test is not that complex - just a little vial of chemical that you put in place of the radiator cap while the truck is running. If the chemical changes color, exhaust gases are present.

In my case, it just turned out that someone who had the heads off long ago hadn't torqued the bolts properly when they put it back on. Two of them were not even finger tight. So I'm going to a lot of work and cost due to someone else's carelessness.

 

My first ride blew a head gasket, massive plumes of white smoke when the engine was running. Imagine whiting out acouple miles behind you amounts of smoke.

My first taco had a cracked head, 0 smoke. But look in the rad while the engine was running and boil city, no need for a test. It's all location location location.

 

Lol I know what you mean about cracked head and no smoke. Mine was cracked in 4 places and there was no smoke and it ran decently.

 

My head gasket is fine. I was losing coolant from the bottom line slow leak so will need to replace hose. It seems that my bottom pan is seeping at a few spots should I just check torque re torque to spec?