White smoke on one side

[71Chevy327]

Delete

[Torrey72]

Most oil that gets in the combustion chamber will burn clean. i.e. Buy the rings or down the intake. However, oil that gets down the exhaust valve guide will smolder on the back of the valve giving you white smoke. This will not show up on the spark plug for it is down stream from the chamber. Engines that sit. Seem to have seals dry up and crack more often then engines that see more usage. Old valve guide seals can be changed with the head on the engine. Though it cheep to do, it is tricky. I have seen crank case ventilation tubes that are tied into a header suck enough oil out of an engine to cause smoke as well. Also, run a heavier straight weight oil and never synthetic in an older leaky engine. Tiny oil leaks are geysers with synthetic. If it is water, though I doubt it. Water vapor out of your tailpipes will be more obvious on say a cold morning. And non existent when the days temperature warms past the dew point. You will just see it dripping from the pipe.

Unsolicited science fact of the day. With the magic of chemistry. For every 100 gal. off fossils fuel burned. 110 gal. of water is created. Sounds crazy I know... but true. That is why you see water out of a tail pipe and Con-trails behind jet airplanes

[R.L.]

Originally Posted by Torrey72

Most oil that gets in the combustion chamber will burn clean. i.e. Buy the rings or down the intake. However, oil that gets down the exhaust valve guide will smolder on the back of the valve giving you white smoke. This will not show up on the spark plug for it is down stream from the chamber. Engines that sit. Seem to have seals dry up and crack more often then engines that see more usage. Old valve guide seals can be changed with the head on the engine. Though it cheep to do, it is tricky. I have seen crank case ventilation tubes that are tied into a header suck enough oil out of an engine to cause smoke as well. Also, run a heavier straight weight oil and never synthetic in an older leaky engine. Tiny oil leaks are geysers with synthetic. If it is water, though I doubt it. Water vapor out of your tailpipes will be more obvious on say a cold morning. And non existent when the days temperature warms past the dew point. You will just see it dripping from the pipe.

Unsolicited science fact of the day. With the magic of chemistry. For every 100 gal. off fossils fuel burned. 110 gal. of water is created. Sounds crazy I know... but true. That is why you see water out of a tail pipe and Con-trails behind jet airplanes

Cool

[67/72junkie]

Blue smoke = burning oil - bad ring, burnt piston, bad valve seal or guide,etc. black smoke= excessive fuel , not burning fuel white smoke= steam-blown head gasket,cracked head or cylinder wall

[Spoof]

Good post Torrey72.

[truckster]

Originally Posted by 67/72junkie

Blue smoke = burning oil - bad ring, burnt piston, bad valve seal or guide,etc. black smoke= excessive fuel , not burning fuel white smoke= steam-blown head gasket,cracked head or cylinder wall

I agree. Another possible cause is a leaking intake (coolant in the intake).

[VetteVet]

Another possibility is the modulator valve on the auto trans lets trans fluid get into the intake but it might not be side specific. Trans fluid burns white and smells oily. I have never seen oil smoke burn white, always blueish. I lean to the head gasket or the intake gasket leak and it should show up on the spark plug in the affected cylinders.
You should see a loss of radiator fluid if that's the case.

[Torrey72]

Burning antifreeze...and Trany fluid. I forgot about them. I did say "most" oil will burn clean, too much will be blue. Blue smoke is oil being burned in the chamber. The oil I mentioned on the exhaust valve will smolder ,not burn, white...ish (IMHO). You know the smoke. The kind 'a smoke you would see rolling out of a green Ford Pinto with a brown door.
In the original question that 71Chevy327 posted. He mentioned that the fluids are clean. That led me to believe that the intake and head gaskets were probable sound. So not likely the coolant. Nice call on the leaky trans modulator, VetteVet. Also, smelling the smoke is half the battle in diagnosis.
When you burn coolant you will get a clean plug in that hole. If say, you have a blown head gasket. Or many clean plugs if it is getting down the intake. The chamber and plug get steam cleaned from the water during combustion. Water will kill the lubrication on the valve guides big time. But yes, it will burn white. Though you should see oil or frothy bubbles in the radiator. If it was a blown gasket. That is why I steered towards the bad valve guide seals.

Random thought... Back in the day. You could buy a water injector setup for your tow rig. When you go up a hill under load. If your engine started Knocking, You could turn on the water injector. The knocking would go away due to adding water to the intake charge. The water will actually increase octane. (Octane = the reluctance to burn) The water however would destroy the top end of the engine in time.

[truckster]

If there's a coolant leak on the intake side, you're not likely to see oil or bubbles in the radiator, as the intake is under vacuum, so the engine will draw in coolant but not allow combustion gases to pass into the cooling system.

As Torrey72 said, smell is a good indicator. Burned coolant smells sweet, while burned oil has a somewhat acrid smell.

Another good clue is, what fluid is going down in your engine without a good explanation? If your coolant is disappearing, but you don't have a coolant leak, I'd look in that direction. If it's the oil that's going down, and you don't have any leaks (the truck is 40 years old, you know) then I'd look in that direction.

You can also pull plugs and look at them. Plugs exposed to coolant will tend to look really clean, although they may be damp. Plugs exposed to oil will have a lot of soot on them.

[Torrey72]

Originally Posted by truckster

If there's a coolant leak on the intake side, you're not likely to see oil or bubbles in the radiator, as the intake is under vacuum, so the engine will draw in coolant but not allow combustion gases to pass into the cooling system.

Touché


I wish 71Chevy327 hadn't deleted his question. It was a good one and if everyones replies didn't help him. They might have helped someone searching out a similar problem.

[truckster]

Just trying to cover all the bases, because in -well, let's just say a lot of years turning wrenches, I've had plenty of head-scratchers.

Hopefully this thread will help other people who are having problems. Torrey72, VetteVet, and 67/72junkie all had really good information.