my 90 z non-turbo smokes white for the first 2-3 minutes when starting cold. The guy i bought it from said it has lose vlve stems and once the car warms up it is not an issue...should i be worried about this being as the car has 126k? how long can i drive it like this? does it hurt anything? he also said it would run about 4-500 bucks to fix, does that sound right? ok, thanks

 

is it white or blue smoke? White smoke would indicate either condensation (normal) or burning coolant. btw, valve stems are what are on your tires...where you put air into your tires.

 

First off engine valves do have stems.

As far as loose valve stems, that would actually be worn valve guides. Worn valve guides will allow oil to leak into the combustion chamber when the car sits. BUT this will cause a blue puff when the car is first started.

White smoke at start is moisture, this is normal...if it is severe it could indicate a small coolant leak into the chamber, but not likely from worn valve guides. Could be a crack or gasket.

Just compare it to any other car, if it smokes worse than a normal car you may have a coolant leak.

 

thanks for the input. I am not sure yet what it is. The car starts and runs fine, but it really does smoke pretty good for the first 1-2 minutes in the AM. and it is a weird white smoke with a funky smell....then after 2 minutes....its fine. Even if i rev it up to 7k....no smoke. Why would it only do it when its cold?

 

I guess i need to add that i am in colorado and it is kind of cold right now, so it is hard to say what "normal" white smoke should look like because it is cold. All i know is that alot comes out, then it lessens, then nothing after it is warm (about 5 mins)

 

sounds like condensation. my '87 kicks up a pretty good cloud 'till it warms up. my new slicktop '95 on the other hand, barely a puff.

 

It's actually the valve guide seals that are worn and cause blue smoke only at start-up. Generally, if your seals are worn, your guides are worn too. You can put new seals in without pulling the heads and without replacing the guides. It will usually stop the start-up smoke (caused by bad seals) for quite some time.