Large puff of white smoke at start up

[s!ke]

This only happens at cold start up..., doesn't smoke all the time. I don't have milky radiator fluid or watery oil. Not overheating, or losing coolant. I was thinking it's burning oil somewhere but don't have the tools or space to pull the engine apart. Any help on narrowing it down?

Thanks!

 

[emericaskater285]

Valve stem seals.

 

[s!ke]

Valve stem seals.

Ha, you're on both forums... yeah that was my first suspicion. Thank you.

 

[s!ke]

I don't have another car, so either this is going to have to be done while the engine is in the car over a weekend or wait until I get another DD. All the articles and videos I see are showing people doing it with the engine out of the car.

 

[Poodles]

It can be done with the engine in the car, but requires special tools and good luck (bad luck and things go very wrong).

It's not a "critical" thing to fix, but it's annoying and it can cause other issues (very heavy valve deposits, etc).

 

[Suprapowaz!(2)]

I did my valve stem seals and swapped to comp cams BBC inner valve springs in a couple of hours while the engine was in the car. You can do it.

 

[emericaskater285]

Yes, I wanted to give you the correct info first

Anyways, if you pull your head or engine for any reason that would make quick work of it while its out. Mine have actually been like this for a little while now, but I am building another engine on the side, so I am actually not worried about it at all. I will be driving with it like this through at least the rest of the season, and am not worried one bit.

Best thing to do would be either to pull the head, or pull the engine then pull the head if you have other work you want to get done.
Good luck to you.

 

[s!ke]

Thanks guys. This is my only vehicle (Why I made a MK3 a DD i Have no idea). SO I want to wait until I have a few days off or a week just in case something goes wrong or I break something and I need to special order a part haha. But yeah, if it's just maintenance type of fix I can wait until I get some time. Other than this, I think the car runs fine. I might want to replace the injectors soon and maybe the spark plugs. So Maybe I'll do those all at once.