Just bought the truck with 138,000..Very clean truck seemed very well taken care of. Started and ran fine for the first 500 miles I've had it. Went to start it last Saturday and noticed white vapor pouring out of the Exhaust pipe.

Ran it around for about 15 minutes and it seemed to stop. Started and ran it thru the day and seemed fine. Started it this morning and White vapor pouring out again....Ran it around and it seemed to stop. Doesn't seem to smell like Antifreeze but it has the orange stuff in the holding tank, and the level seems fine.

I'm thinking Head gasket and will be taking it to the dealer on Monday...Any thoughts?

 

does it smell like burning oil? If not its probably antifreeze...

 

Does not smell like oil...and it's not a heavy smoke. More like a vapor...Seems as if were a head gasket why does it really pour out in the A.M.? Must be filling the cylinder over night, then burn it all off first thing in the morning.

I wonder what the dealer will charge to replace the Head Gasket?

 

Have you noticed the coolant level going down? Have you added any coolant?Is there any oily residue in the coolant recovery tank? If your head gaskets were bad the temperature would be very high and the coolant would be boiling.I think your lower intake gaskets might be leaking,if you're losing coolant.Pull the first plug on each side of the engine and see if there is any coolant in the cylinder.Check the plugs to see if there is a green tint on them,or in your case orange for the type of coolant in your system.

BTW,the 97 and some 98 4.2 v6s had lower intake gasket and timing cover gasket faults.

 

Coolant level was at the lower cold line...I did notice some brownish granuales around the top of the recovery tank...Maybe someone has tried some Barsleak in it? It does not seem to run hot..I haven't driven it more than 5-10 minutes since this started.

After it smoking this morning..I went out about 3-4 times and started it up and let it run about 1-2 minutes, and there was no smoking.

I will pull the plugs and see.

 

If the plugs look fine and you are not losing any coolant, it could just be condensation. Hold your hand over the tailpipe when it's smoking and see what you get on your hand - and take a good whiff. Condensation will leave clear water droplets on your hand and it should not smell like anything but sulfur and gasoline.

 

My truck does this when it is started. It is like a white smoke coming out of the tail pipe... doesn't last long... but it smells like sulfur and ammonia... it's nasty and it burned my nostils the first time I took a "whiff"... lol

 

You gotta remember that one of the products coming out of a catalytic converter is H2O. This water condenses in the rest of the exhaust system when it cools down. Then on a cold start, it slowly warms up and is driven out as visible steam.

 

No smoke at all this morning...Drove around about 30 minutes and all seems well...

 

Good to know.