Smoke under the hood during a cold start

[Calvani]

Hi Folks,

I have been noticing some (white) smoke coming from the engine bay (header side) of my 944 during cold starts. The smoke leak basically disappears once the engines warms up. The smoke does not smell like exhaust fumes or oil burning, but more like it is electrical in nature. Note that I am not able to see any fluids leaking (falling) into the exhaust manifold/header.

Has anyone experience a problem like this one? Any suggestions on how can I further diagnose the problem?

Thanks so much in advance...!

Humberto-

'86 944 NA 155K

[svandamme]

starter engine?
funny noise? does it always engage?

is the main wire to the starter still good? (not the wire to the solenoid but the main heavy lead from battery to starter)could be that someone added a second wire , if the old one didn't deliver enough juice.. and the new one is not good for enough amps.. so it melts the isolation

starter is on the header side, so that might be it..

if not , maybe one of the exhaust gaskets isn't on tight... the heat makes things expand.. so it then seals when warm

[Calvani]

Thanks, Stijn. Actually, yes..The starter did make a funny noise yesterday. I should have mentioned this in my initial post. As I attempted to start the engine, the engine was rotating but the starter had a 1-2 second pause before the engine finally started. Making an unusual sound in the process.

I don't know the condition of the starter main wire but I will check it. ..

I thought about the gasket/seal possibility given their thermal properties/reponse but I did not think this was the cause of the problem give the electrical-like smell.

Thanks again for your comments. I will post another message once I solve the problem.

Humberto-

[svandamme]

my 924's starter has been giving me crap for bout six months now , but to lazy to work on it... did measure the voltage on the starter, it ain't much , so basically , i crank , starter whines a bit , doesn't move much... i stop , wait 2 secs, crank again, and by then the wire heated up(cranking amps do that to a wire)and gives enough juice to start...

could be similar symptom on yours, except that it allready has an extra diy wire.. and now that one is melting...

try cranking while cold , then immidiately feel the wire or starter for temp. do make sure you don't touch any bare metal on it if any .. won't kill ya , but sure will wake you up in the morning.