what does white smoke from the exhaust mean??

i was at a gas station and this black z06 wanted to run for the hell of it. so i say why not.....

so as i looking in the rear view to switch lanes while running i noticed when i let off the gas to shift the car pooted out a small ball of white smoke. so i did it again to see if it would do it and it did.

so now my question is what does that mean. a cracked head, bad gasket????
jope its nothing major but just my luck it will be

 

Mine puffs out some smoke all the time.. It will do it with a NLS also i don't know why but i have seen a few do it.

 

yea i didnt no lift shift tho. i scared the **** outta of me. i was like damn just what i needed.....

 

Usually white smoke is a coolant leak. Check your coolant levels. Could be bad head gasket, possibly porous block, that's been popping up lately. Hopefully nothing major is wrong though.

 

Depends on how much smoke if its a lot you have a problem.. But like i said everyone i have been behind has let out some smoke. I'm sure someone will chime in on why

 

He said it happens when shifting wouldn't it smoke all the time if it was coolant or head gasket leak.

 

keep an eye on ur oil level

 

kool thanks for the info. is there a way to tell if its a bad gasket without taking it apart???

 

Good point, I didn't consider that. That or it would smoke more when he hit the throttle.

 

Prob just oil in the turbo

 

mine is stupid about the smoking too, sometimes ill beat the shyt outa my car and it wont smoke a bit but then other times ill put around town and stay under 3k rpms and never hit boost and itll smoke like a freight train for like 10 seconds then stop. its weird mine is def oil though cuz i can smell it very clearly. idk whats up with it my oil lvls are fine so i think its just a way for the car to keep me on my toes.

 

When i put the K&N intake on i had oil residue in the turbo so i know that's why it puffs smoke. When you drive it slow it prob builds up little bit and you go WOT it clears out.

 

Weird, mine doesn't puff any smoke, just makes a gunshot-like pow when I NLS and my turbo was extremely clean when I put my intake on and still the same when I put my charge piping on. Did you ever put a K&N drop in in it before? They're covered in the air filter oil. It could have dirtied the turbo up a bit.

For the OP, Our turbos are water-cooled, it could also be a leak in the turbo. But like Tommy says, White smoke is usually coolant. That's a quicker fix than a head gasket leak or a pourous block problem which I hope is not your problem. If it happens to be your turbo, you can get them for around $300 from resellers.

 

did you guys ever consider that maybe the temps outside were just cold??? when my car runs in colder weather (50ish degrees or lower) i see greyish white smoke most of the time.....HAHAHA JK guys lol. I had to say a stupid noob comment.

but on a serious note i could have sworn i read something about this in another thread. dont remember where tho. and the person it happened figured it out i think. ill see if i can find it.

 

Have someone drive behind you seen 3 TC's do this some are worse then others..

 

I had my girl drive behind me the second time it pooted the point. Maybe its nothing idk but that was the first time I seen. Note when I started it up I ran to the apt cause I forgot something. And when I returned to the car it was sounding like it wanted to cut off. The noise went real low then loud like someone stepped on the gas. I drove it to the station cut it off put more gas in, started it up and it was normal

 

you might need an oil change lol

 

I disagree with this statement, all of the coolant leaks I have ever seen produce a brownish sometimes greenish smoke not white. White smoke is usually caused from a lean burn.

 

Check the plugs. See what the tip looks like

 

never attempted to look at the plugs on the tc. is it the same as a 2.2? i dont have the tools to do so anyway

 

ding ding ding.. winner winner chicken dinner...

like tom.g said, most likely it's a lean condition. Seeing as how this happens BETWEEN shifts (lifting off of the gas), that would only make logical sense to say that's what's going on. I would check the plugs to see what they look like, and possibly run a log or 2 if you have the ability to do so.

We're not talking some extensive tools here. You don't have a 10mm socket and/or wrench, a 5/8" spark plug socket, socket extension, and a ratchet?

 

are yo an lsj????? when i had my lsj it did the same thing on my way home from the drag strip, after treaing my motor apart i found a faulty intake mani gasket where the intake mani meets the motor.... the gasket was bad and had some how leaked oil into the cylinders,but not much at all, just enough to cause the smoke, while driving home my buddy was like dude everytime you get on it you black smoke like a disiel only the smoke is white!! lol so hope this helps

 

I had white smoke from a blown HG on a Neon. Same on my brothers 68 Cutlass convertible when he bought it.

 

^^^^^^^ I agree white smoke is burnt coolant most likely a head gasket or blow turbo, blue smoke is burning oil engine internals ie cracked piston land or something of that nature blue could also be turbo...... just my auto experience that's what I've learned in school and years of experience

 

i noticed a white cloud when i left my house the other day and hit a bit of boost... scared me since i just broke my new motor in. i think it was just moisture in the exhaust because after a while it stopped... but it does smoke a bit when im getting on it... but the weather is colder out and i never really took the time to look and see if there is a bit of smoke when i get on it before. just keep an eye on your coolant. you should be fine unless you can't see the cars behind you anymore :P