Smoke at start up - Help!

[Bobby C]

2004 Yukon with Jasper 5.3. About 80,000 miles. Just started smoking intermittley at startup. White smoke. Changed engine at 118,000 because of Castek head crack destroyed motor with coolant. Runs fine and no engine noises.

Any thoughts?

 

[CountryBoy19]

We just had this discussion a couple weeks back. Lots of good info posted by multiple people. Look around and see if you can find it.

 

[LionsGuy]

2004 Yukon with Jasper 5.3. About 80,000 miles. Just started smoking intermittley at startup. White smoke. Changed engine at 118,000 because of Castek head crack destroyed motor with coolant. Runs fine and no engine noises.

Any thoughts?

Could be condensation. My 01 does this time to time. Just monitor coolant levels just in case

 

[Bobby C]

Thanks. It uses a little coolant, but as it started, it stopped. That scares me even more! I'll keep monitoring.

 

[SnowDrifter]

Was the coolant by any chance some air working its way out? I've found the level will stop an inch or so in the days following any coolant system work, even bleeding it before hand. There's always a couple small bubbles that work their way out over the course of several drive cycles.

White smoke on startup is rather puzzling, as these vehicles have a dry intake. The only place coolant can possibly interact with combustion is through the head gaskets. If you have a concern of anything making its way into the combustion chamber, pull the plugs and take a peek in there with a boroscope. Any problem cylinder(s) will show up quite clean and free from the normal layer of carbon. Clean, in this case, isn't good.

 

[afpj]

You could send an oil sample to blackstone labs, that would tell you if coolant is getting into oil.