Texas5.0

I recently had a piston replaced and had new heads put on. I noticed the other day that my car is smoking on start up. It does not do it all the time and its not very much, however, it did not smoke at all prior to the parts swap.

What would cause the intermittent smoke puff on start up? Where should I start looking for the source?

psyche116

where is it smoking from? and what color of smoke?

5.0stanger

It could just be fuel...maybe you have a leakey injector.

93 LX FiveO

probably just oil burn off

valve seals i think they're called

Texas5.0

white smoke, out both tail pipes.

cleanfitty

Are you loosing any coolant???

It could just be normal condensation, bt if you are loosing coolant, then it could be something worse.

Texas5.0

I'll need to check the coolant... any other things to look for and possible explanations?

93 LX FiveO

sounds like condensation

put ur hand over a tail pipe and smell it

if its sweet and smoke is thick, probably cracked a head gasket somewhere

does it smell like gas? maybe running lean.

we need some more info

302f150

white smoke is coolant. blue smoke is oil, black is fuel. Sometimes blue can look whitish, its common for valve seals to leak some oil onto the intake valve, which gets burned when you start your car. They arent hard to change with the heads off, never done it with the head on the car, you'd need a way to hold the valve from falling, and compress the valve springs. White smoke means your leaking coolant, and your head gasket would probably be the cause. Which would require pulling it all back off and putting a new gasket on. If you didnt clean it prefectly, or maybe ground a low spot in the head, it could be not sealing right.

cleanfitty

He had the problem where his mechanic dropped a bolt down the intake port and ran it... so the mechanic repaired it and had to replace one of the pistons.
My advice would be to find out if it is coolant getting burned or if it is normal condensation and if it turns out to be coolant, take it back to the shop and have them fix it right - and have them check for any missing bolts before they fire it up this time. It is possible that the bolt that got smashed into the head may have damaged it.