Smoking at start up

stray15 · stray15's Garage

When I first start my car, it smokes a bit until its nice and warm. Someone told me that its carbon build up. Is it? Whats that mean? Can I fix it? How hard is it to fix?

Porsche, through and through
Tim
'83 944
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"Their would be no Porsche today if it wasn't for the 944..."

Roger Hall · 02-09-2002, 04:47 PM

is the smoke white bule or black

stray15 · stray15's Garage

Hmmm, whitish grey.

Rob-O · 02-09-2002, 06:58 PM

Sorry...can't resist myself.

Trash the Porsche and go buy yourself a BMW Z8!!!!!!!!!!!

stray15 · stray15's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Rob-O
Sorry...can't resist myself.

Trash the Porsche and go buy yourself a BMW Z8!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahahaha

cruzermusic · 02-10-2002, 07:19 AM

mine does it also, in cold weather though, my guess is its the cold start injector making it run rich so it will start....its warm today so i'll test my theory.

nice day for a cruz

Roger Hall · 02-10-2002, 08:10 AM

white smoke is water could be condesation how much smoke keep an eye on the coolant level in the tank is it going down

arnebret · 02-11-2002, 09:37 AM

The thing you describe is pretty normal. At start-up all things have to come to a certain temp to function normal. Besides that, if you take a Z8 and start it on a relativly cold day it will also put out the exact same smoke, maybe a bit less due to modern computers etc. My '88 951 is doing it, my dad's '00 Volvo S80 and my mom's '96 Renault Twingo is doing the exact same thing on a day like today (10 celcius, high humidty). Nothing to worry about if it disappears after a while (if not water is burnt somewhere, not good

)

gforces944 · 02-11-2002, 01:57 PM

Yeah, it's carbon building up on the valves. It burns off when the smoking stops. I'm not a mechanic, but that's an indicator that oil is getting into the cylinder. This could mean any of several things.
1. head gasket (unlikely). Check the oil cap and see if there's a white-ish sludge on the inside of it. This means oil is getting into the coolant, which points to the head gasket, which is also leaking oil into the cylinder.

2. dirty fuel system (unlikely). Get some fuel system cleaner (Porsche recommends Chevron brand), and see if the problem is reduced or eliminated.

3. valve seals (most likely). The seals on your valves have hardened, and is allowing oil to pass into the cylinder. A valve job is needed but, there are ways to replace the seals without pulling the head.
Place the crank at TDC. Screw on an air compressor hose (with fitting) into the spark plug socket after pulling the valve cover off. The cylinder will remain pressurized, and you can replace each valve seal one by one with the valve staying in place (and not dropping into the cylinder, necessitating a head pull). Tap the spring retainers into place with a screwdriver and mallet. Once all the seals are replaced, put everything back together (make sure the timing is correct).

Consult a mechanic on this. I haven't done it on my 944, but it is common to do this on most cars. I did it on my Tercel, and didn't have any problems after.

cruzermusic · 02-11-2002, 05:04 PM

well i did my warm weather test ... it does smoke when its warm.... try it yourself.... if it still smokes,, then something else is wrong

cruzin