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White smoke on warm start up

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Old Aug 29, 2010 | 08:12 PM
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Default White smoke on warm start up

Got about 1400 miles after rebuidling the engine in my camaro. Bout 2 weeks ago i noticed it started smoking when started up after it was allready warmed up. The car is on a mail order tune at the moment and runs kinda rich at times. Everything except the pistons, rods, crank, spark plugs and block was replaced. Every bolt and gasket was replaced, ported heads, FAST intake, custom grind cam, new lifters,lifter trays, oil pump, heads, pushrods etc. Only reason i didnt change the plugs was cause they only had about 7k miles on them and i was guna change them before i took it to get it tuned. Was talking to my brother and a buddy of his who helped build the motor and they told me to keep an eye on the radiator fluid and oil level. Been watching the radiator fluid and it stays full in the radiator and in the resevior both while cold and while hot. But when i checked the oil both when warm and when cold its been a quart low. I changed the oil from breakin oil to a non synthetic oil (castrol) at 500 miles. I had planned on changing the oil to a sythetic oil at 1500. Only reason i didnt add oil to it was to watch to see if itd drop anymore.

Could it be my plugs possibly fouling out causing it to smoke? I havnt noticed any oil spots anywhere from where i park. Im guna get the car on a lift tomoro and look at everything under it to see if its leaking out. Any other ideas tho?
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Old Aug 29, 2010 | 09:27 PM
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You might check the compression.
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Old Aug 29, 2010 | 11:17 PM
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probably valve seals, but like Darksol said check your compression an post your results
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Old Aug 30, 2010 | 06:49 AM
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You can get a coolant sniffer and check for a head gasket leak very easily. If the smoke is white, it isn't oil. Have you looked to see if the exhaust is dripping at all, could it just be condensation?
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Old Aug 30, 2010 | 07:46 AM
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Havnt checked the compression since we finished it. The heads had a valve job done before they were put on so I hope it ain't the valve seals. I havnt seen any
fluids coming out of the exhaust.
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Old Aug 30, 2010 | 07:58 AM
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Get the coolant sniffed, that takes about two minutes if someone has the sniffer. Not sure if Autozone or somewhere like that has it and will do it for free.
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Old Sep 1, 2010 | 11:11 PM
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Well i havnt got ahold of a compression checker to check compression yet but i changed the plugs. Quite a few were completly black and one had the electrode burnt off of it. Had it at work so it was on a lift and we checked everything under the car to make sure the oil was leaking out anywhere. Didnt smoke when i started it or any yesterday. Went to leave the gym tonight and it smoked. May have been the fluresant lighting outside (it was dark out) but the smoke looked blueish. Went home and the oil had dropped barely any from the previous half a quart low to right under half. Went to look around again to see if any where was leaking and found nothing. Checked the radiator fluid again and it was still full. Me and my brother was talking about adding a catch can for crank case ventalation and such and thought about it catching oil going into the intake. Decided to pull the airbov and as soon as i did i saw a puddle of oil under the throttle body butterfly. Opened the throttle body and the inside of my intake is soaked in oil. Should my intake have that much oil in it or do i have a major problem other then a lil blow by?
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Old Sep 1, 2010 | 11:33 PM
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If it's white smoke it's not smoke, it's steam. A catch can will help, but it will only mask the problem. It will not cure blowby.
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