smoke out of the left tail pipe.

[Lance-ftw]

Just noticed this morning that my truck is spewing some smoke out of the left tail pipe only. It isn't particularly thick and it's white in color so I'm not sure if it's steam or what but it's only the left pipe which confuses me.

I noticed while it was warm that the left pipe was spitting a little bit of white which maybe was steam and now that it's cold outside maybe it's just more obvious since it's not dispersing as quickly in the cold air.

What sort of things could be causing this? I need to put antifreeze in the truck once every couple of weeks but I'm pretty sure that's because it's blowing out on the road from the little hose on the radiator cap (I don't have a resevoir or a closed system installed yet) and we pressure tested the system and it held pressure fine.

Any ideas?

[Navy Mechanic]

Don't have an answer but my truck does the exact same thing. White smoke from left tail pipe only.

[geezer#99]

If your truck is still stock and using the heat riser valve on the passenger side then till it warms up you'll see no exhaust on that side. Heat riser closes and redirects exhaust under and thru the intake to warm it up.
And stop wasting all that coolant. On your rad the coolant should normally be about 2 inches below the filler lip. That's how it was designed. As the coolant expands it needs room to expand into. The coolant seaks it's own level.

[Navy Mechanic]

Interesting. I have an LT1 from a 95 Vette in mine. Does it utilize a heat riser? The white smoke continues on mine even after it warms up and for a while after shut down...my motor also runs very cool. Can this still be attributed to a heat riser?

Good excuse to post pic of my motor?

[Lance-ftw]

truck isn't stock, and the coolant drops WAY below that level after a couple of weeks.

[Navy Mechanic]

Lance-

Didn't mean to snag your thread. Thought it might be helpful since mine does the same thing.

[68gmsee]

How did you pressure test it?

If you're losing fluid and you have to add water to the radiator as often as you do, chances are you have either a gasket leak or (hopefully not) a hairline crack in the head.

First thing to do is to check the spark plugs to see if there's a discoloration on any of them. Keep them in order so you know which one came out of which cylinder.

If you still can't tell, install some sort of overflow container to insure that you're in fact losing water through the engine. I made one for my truck out of 2" pvc pipe with caps on the end. Total cost: $10

[Lance-ftw]

the mechanic hooked up a pressure gauge thing to the radiator cap and pumped it up then let it sit there. it leaked at first but we found a small leak next to a hose on the radiator, fixed that and it held pressure just fine.

[cdowns]

not knowing the proper way to add fluid to the radiator is a normal cause for adding coolant on a regular basis on old vehicles like these

lots of white smoke comes from condensation and to make it worse is todays gasolines

[dan76]

When you take out the plugs to examine, do a compression check.

[brad_man_72]

if it's not water. Could be oil. If it's mostly rigt after startup it's most likely valve seals after it warms up most likely rings.

if it bothers you do a compression test, or a cylinder leakdown test.

[coloradosean2009]

What does the smoke smell like? Don't need a pressure/leakdown to smell steamin' coolant.

[C. M. Wolf]

Originally Posted by brad_man_72

if it's not water. Could be oil. If it's mostly rigt after startup it's most likely valve seals after it warms up most likely rings.

if it bothers you do a compression test, or a cylinder leakdown test.

I'm going with this one too. Just to be sure. But also check carefully the plugs for any oil fouling. The compression may be good and very uniform throughout all the cylinders, but the valve guides or seals may be wearing and causing the oil into the cylinders on one side of the engine. The plugs should show this as these parts wear more.
When I rebuild my 350, I set in bronze valve guides for that bit more lube in there. These tend to wear a bit faster and one side of the engine slightly smokes when they do.

If for any reason you do pull the heads, I strongly recommend switching to hardened seats and possibly stellite valves so that you can run nearly any gasolines,(E-85s - E-10s), or even pure alcohol without burning the valves. Crane Valve Trains are excellent for this.

IHTH

Michael

[raycow]

Originally Posted by Navy Mechanic

I have an LT1 from a 95 Vette in mine. Does it utilize a heat riser?

From your pic it looks like you have headers. Stock manifolds had the heat riser, but I am not aware of any headers which did. So if you are getting smoke out of only one side, I would say it is caused by something else.

Ray