Hello my ranger sometimes (not always) in cold startup it smokes white smoke, sometimes A LOT sometimes a little, after a few seconds of starting it stops and everything is fine.

I read its cause by a slow coolant/water leak, and i believe its that since every 2 days i have to refill the water deposit with 3-4 liters of water (i have not changed it for antifreeze ill do it soon but im afraid ill go poor buying that stuff over and over again every 2 days cuz of the leak)

Therefor im here asking what is the fix on this, and if its easy and cheap or expensive and hard

The engine otherwise runs perfect...

 

check your oil...if the oils milky you have bad head gasket, cracked block/head

 

Thanks for your reply.

Is there a way to check this withouth having to drain all the oil?, im about to change the oil soon but this i want to check it ASAP.

PS, if you can see if the oil is milky using the oil meter then no, the oil looks fine (just a dark since i havent change it) when checking the level of oil using dipstick

 

the oil dipstick

 

Thanks, the oil looks normal.

 

well all cars will "smoke"a little on startup when its cold...its steam... by product of combustion is moisture...you only see it when the truck is cold because the exhaust isnt warm enough to evaporate all of it...when the truck is warmed up you dont see it...its completely normal...might just have a leaky hose

 

do you have a large puddle of water under your truck in the morning?

 

Thanks.

It aint moisture like in cold days that you can see coming out of all cars.

This is actually smoke that you can see not fading out when its moving away from your truck, its a white smoke sometimes smokes a lot sometimes smokes very little, when i read about a collant/water leak being a suspect on making engine smoke at cold startup in another post well i got worried since the engine "drinks" 2/3 or more liters of water every 2-3 days.

I havent noticed but neither i have looked around for that and i cant recall seeing that, ill check it later tho.

 

Take off your oil fill cap and look at the bottom of it. Is there a snot looking goop in the underside of the cap? If so you've got a coolant leak that's internal to the engine for sure. Bad head gasket, or cracked/warped head..

EDIT: Since you're only using water and not coolant, you probably won't have the snot looking goop under the cap.


GB :)

 

I dont know what you meant, but i looked there and found nothing (well you said becuse of me using water instead of coolant)

Any other thoughts?


And if i had a bad head gasket or a cracked block would the engine run so good like it is? im doing even 500 miles trips every month or so

 

Sounds to me maybe you have a valve seal thats slowly leaking when its cold and when it warms up it doesnt leak.

I have seen brand new cars smoke with oil smoke not water vapor after they sit for awhile.

 

And sometimes that snot crap is normal if any water vapor makes it inside trough crankcase ventilation (your crankcase is not a sealed environment)

 

The smoke is white not blue i believe, and i cant do the smelling test since im not using any coolant.

 

False alarm guys.

Im sorry but the smoke is indeed blueish not white

Now i have 2 problems the Blue smoke (wich btm575 said its prolly a valve seal) and the dissapearing of my water/colant