When I drive on the highway and idle at around 2k rpm for about 15 minutes when I get back to town speeds or come to a stop when I get back on the gas a good plume of smoke comes out. It does not evaporate so its not water vapors, it smells like exhaust (burnt gas and oil), I couldn't smell any coolant burning with my nose, there is a bit of oil in my coolant but it never got into the oil and I have compression tested the motor maybe 5-8k miles ago and it was fine. Another thing I found out today, I decided that I would run it WOT a few times to see if it did it worse and it almost eliminated the problem, when I got back into town there was very minimal smoke, almost not enough to see. It will also happen slightly worse if I keep running in town at 1-3k rpm a lot and have a couple of warm starts. The fluids all seem fine, doesn't seem to be burning any or much oil, and the trans fluid seemed fine, I had checked it less than a week ago. I am at a loss for the next action to take. Has anyone else had this problem?
There is also no error codes that might help. The only code I have had is for the O2 sensor heater, which I don't see why an O2 sensor needs to be heated up moments before the exhaust but that is the only code.

 

If the smoke is white it could just be moisture in the exhaust turning into vapor, or it could be coolant getting into the combustion chamber due to bad intake or head gasket, or a damaged head. You could try another compression test, or pull all the spark plugs, crank the engine and note if any liquid is getting blown out the spark plug holes.

 

^^^ agree and whats your mpg, exhaust or oil smell of fuel, to much fuel can show as smoke. if your burnin oil it could be getting su cked in through a failing intake gasket or valve guides.

 

I get like 16mpg highway, but my left front wheel hub assembly needs replaced so I can't judge how much that has affected the mpg. I will check the oil again to see if anything is apparent. And I might crank the engine over but the spark plugs aren't much fun to mess with, I would like to try some other things first.
Any way to quickly tell if it is running with too much fuel? That would make sense after idling in town after getting off the highway, and the WOT helping the problem.

 

a good way is to look at the spark plugs and 02 sensors to see if they are fouled (all black) you should be getting close to 30 mpg on the highway. you are probly running rich, that does not mean that the white smoke is not coolant, have you checked the coolant level in the radiator to see if your losing any? a failing 02 sensor can cause a rich condition that can go sorta out of control. the extra fuel fouls the sensor causing sensor to see a lean condition when in fact it is opposite, seeing a lean condition the computer will add fuel causing an even richer flow which fouls the sensor even more and so on. take the dip stick out and smell it to see if it smells of gas. that is a sure indication of way to much fuel. i would first test fuel pressure, believe it or not low fuel pressure can cause a rich condition just as much as high fuel pressure. then i would change 02 sensors, spark plugs, fuel filter and consider having the injectors cleaned and flow tested. because the car has run in a rich condition for a long period i would look at as many sensors and i could test, cat can be ruined by a long rich condition which can go to pieces and plug the cat and/or muffler

 

Thanks, I will try a few things and let you know of the result.

 

16 highway? With a v6? Thats pretty bad. I get 23.

 

Yeah like I said the wheel hub assembly is bad so it has a lot more friction to overcome, and it is time for a timing chain. It has done nearly 30mpg before just needs some parts. I didn't know about the smoke though and thought I should figure that out before I replaced more minor parts.

 

If the wheel hub is bad, that should be your first priority, as it can suddenly fail and loose the wheel. Not a pretty thing at high speed or rounding a corner.

 

Thank you for the heads up. It is my daily driver so I have been taking it easy until I get some cash. It only squeaks even when taking a turn at 20 or so, and for daily driving it doesn't even make noise, I will replace it as soon as I can but was posting to find out if my heads were warped or something. Trying to figure out what all the problems were to see how much cash I need.
It has lost a bit of coolant and I don't think the reservoir is flowing because there is coolant in there. I will pull a spark plug later to see if it's fouling. I will also get the O2 sensor, check fuel pressure, and the fuel filter.
I have had plugs and wires in the last 10k miles though. And ran some fuel injector cleaner through it a few times and not even 1k miles ago I cleaned the TB. Could the coil packs have an effect on my problem? One of them went bad a while ago and I replaced just the one.