Recently when at a longer red light I get a large white cloud of smoke when I accelerate. What is the cause? Could it be a coolant leak? What needs to be done to troubleshoot or fix it?

 

if your losing coolant then i would say yes. it may also be the valve guides and seals are worn and letting oil get by at idle. mine was doing that and the intake was lose, so bad the oil was getting through to the intake ports. when i took it apart the gasket was soaked with oil on both sides.

 

hmmm

white smoke and not blue smoke?

Well, seems to me that a non petroleum based product is making it out your exhaust.

Have you ever changed a head gasket before?

 

Not really losing coolant, losing some oil as always, have not changed the head gasket since I have owned it. Changed the valve cover gasket. Its pretty thick white smoke I don't see any blue. I did seafoam it a few weeks ago, but that should be pretty much gone.

 

did you put it in the oil. if so probly be a good idea to change the oil. a blown head gasket will sometimes add oil with water to the cylinders. what motor you have? notice any water in the oil or on the bottm side of the oil fill cap.

 

I only did the top engine clean with seafoam, I have a V6. Use synthetic oil and have never noticed anything bad in the oil. Did put Red Line Water Wetter in the coolant cause it has been running hot lately, maybe that could do something with smoke?

 

well so far everything is pointing to a head gasket. including tig. one of the 6's weak points is the head gaskets, i think the 3.8 also is known for leaks in the intake. you could do a pressure test on the cooling system so see if itll hold pressure and a compression test.

 

will do and let you know what I find, thanks Craby!

 

hmmmm

I'm still messing with the 3rd gen i bought (and will for a year)

Since i only run it a little bit, and Sea Foamed( is it a verb?) it a week ago, I really got good white smoke from it today as i ran it for 5 minutes at higher rpm's..How long have you run the engine since the sea foam?

If the white smoke cleared a while ago and now it's back, then it's not sea foam residue but if you never saw it, and ow do, there is a possibility that it could be sea foam.

You know for certain but it sounds like a head gasket. Now, since you also say that you've been using a bit of oil, I know it's a pain but perfom a compression test on all the cylinders. if they are good, then since you'll be removing the heads, get them cleaned and put on new valve seals and take care of that oil consumption.

 

I seafoamed it over a month ago, alot of smoke at that time then it went away that day. This smoke just recently started last week. How difficult is changing the head gasket? Never done it.