smoke in the morning

[88LXI]

in the morning my car makes a nice little cloud of light blue for about 10 seconds and then is done smoking for the day. in the summer about once every 2 weeks did it do this... now its the start of winter and it does it almost every day... what do u think it is? im guessin a bad valve seal... i dunno

[netfreak]

Sounds like ring seals.

[njpeter]

my "gray guy" developed this problem last year..same thing..must be one bad seal..sometimes it happens...sometimes not..but when it does...very very nasty smoke..doesn't burn oil otherwise, but it's gotta be hurting the cat. You can change valve seals without pulling the head..you need a good source of compressed air to pull it off...I've gone with STP smoke treatment for the moment..the engine's got 160k miles on it..and summer left so quickly this year, I'm goning to have to deal with it until spring.

STILL looking for the auto tranny in ny/nj btw...

[shepherd79]

first of all i have the same problem. when the car is cold it is smokes like a bitch. when it gets warm it stops.
two things you need to check.
1. valve seals. they could be gone.
2. valve guides are going shot. a lot of work. i would suggest to get a used head.
that is my opinion.

PS. if it was ring seals. it would be grey smoke.

[79EK1]

I agree with the previous poster. It's probably your stem seals/guides on the intake valves. The intakes usually leak because they see high manifold vacuum that sucks oil past the guides. The exhausts usually see pressure, so they don't burn oil. After shutting off the engine and sitting overnight, the oil drips through the guides and builds up on the back of the valve. When you fire it up the next day, it burns blue smoke. If it were your rings, you would see blue/grey smoke when you step on the gas (You may need someone to follow your car when you do this to get a better view).

You can try changing just the valve stem seals to stop the smoking. If the guides are shot, changing the stem seals will only be a temporary fix.

[88LXI]

then why is it worse in the winter?>

[79EK1]

If it's worse now, it may not have anything to do with the weather. It could just be getting worse.

[njpeter]

say below 55 degrees, the engine contracts to maximum tolerances and more oil can leak in. This engine was overheated once..teh valve cover gasket was so baked on that I had to junk the valve cover..I assume the vale seals are just holding on..it's just really annoying to throw a smokescreen in front of the neighbors

[88LXI]

:flame: thats why im gonna thow that piece of crap away and put my b20 in... i just hope i can get it in ok... with no major problems

[smufguy]

that B20 looks different. It has a Gold valve cover. Which year is it? 86-87 right?

[YK86]

Yeah, the 86-87's had the gold valve cover.

About the oil burning, like the others said, it's probably the stem seals. But, my blue car used to do that after I semi-rebuilt the engine. It had new stem seals and totally overhauled head and it would do it totally randomly once every two or three days sometimes everyday and seemed to be worse in colder weather (distinctive blue smoke and smelled bad). It went away after two months and I never found out what the cause was. I was never missing any oil when I checked after 2500 kms so it wasn't burning lots at all. Accordlx told me he had (or heard of)the same problem and it was something to do with a spring in the oil filter housing if I remember right.

[shepherd79]

how would sping in the oil filter housing affect the oil burning. to burn oil it has to drip from the top.

[Grant2k]

my car does that and i replaced the stem seals just about 2 years ago and it still does it. i get a pretty nasty cloud too but once the car warms up it goes away. mine is sort of white so i put stop leak in the anti-freeze. no effect yet. it doesn't burn oil either.

[88LXI]

yk86: that is the exact problem i have... do you know anymore details about it? its pretty random unless its cold outside.

[YK86]

As vague and weird as it sounds with the spring, who knows, sometimes cars do weird things. Unfortunately, that's all I remember him saying about it. I will PM accordlx and get him to post here if he has time.