chris_f

I've been on here for approximately a year (since I convinced the wife to let me get back into driving a 4runner.. my 3rd)watching and searching for symptoms that I've had since I bought my 93 4cyl 22re 4runner auto.

Here they are. When I start the truck up 1-3 seconds no exhaust smoke. Then after that I have some serious exhaust smoke(white) and some condensation but I can't tell if it's sweet(coolant) out the exhaust. Which to me seems like a blown head gasket. But if I drive the truck and it gets close or to operating temperature 2-3 minutes later the smoke out the rear disappears.

Now there's no water in the oil and the antifreeze level doesn't seem to drop. I just changed the plugs and from reading the Haynes manual it seems I have "ash deposits" on my number 1-2 plugs and it had slight oil on the thread's that seemed strange to me. I also have a slight leak in the manifold near the down tube that I'm going to correct but I don't think this would effect anything.

Any ideas? Could it be condensation? but seems excessive..

I don't have access to a compression tester but will be getting one soon. Thought I'd check here first.

Thanks
Chris

RustBucket

iTrader: (1)

Are you sure there's no water in the oil? Did you actually drain it? If it's only a slightly blown HG you won't be able to see it from the dipstick...

Two things:

(1) pull your valve cover and take a peek down inside the timing cover with a flashlight. If you see grooves on the right side (especially) then that means your chain is too slack and is eating away the aluminum. If that goes on, then often a water passage can be ruptured.

(2) If not, then it is most likely a HG. Don't wait long to do it, the little bit of water will get in the bearings, screw up your rings, and the steam in the combustion chambers can cause all kinds of nasty little problems.

I suggest Engnbldr.com for a total gasket kit.

pruney81

I'm no mechanic but if you're not losing coolant and it doesn't smell sweet then it's probably normal. Most cars will shoot white smoke out the exhaust when warming up. Does it do it every time you start it or just the first cold start of the day? Mine does the same thing, no smoke initially then some smoke till it warms up. I've had a blown headgasket it was ALOT of smoke coming out of there.

jagger_snitt

Well I had used some seafoam,to clean my Fuel injection and Fuel tank. I used half in the injection and half in the fuel tank. When I would park up hill or down hill it would puff a lot of white smoke because it would allow that Seafoam to settle at the bottom of the tank. One night while leaving a friends house there was an Extra Large Cloud(SMOKE SCREEN) behind as I left. I did find this to be unusual. Well we did a compression check everythig was fine. I was having akward over heating problems. I changed out my thermostat.Still same problems. The nail in the coffin was when it shot coolant ot the overflow. My Radiator was getting some bubbles in it.
I had just done an oil change. Oil looked great. After all this testing oil was checked,it looked like it had 4 qts. too much!!!!! Water had gotten in the oil! Well we new the it was a headgasket. Other sympyoms are that good ole Toyota heat isn't burning your eyes out like normal. or it isn't defrosting like normal. I got my headgasket blown for Christmas.
I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but it is better to know and begin the healing process than to not know and continue to hurt.
Hope this helps.

CoedNaked

What you are desctribing is completely normal as far as I'm concerned.

ON cold mornings my truck does exactly what you described. About 1 to 5 seconds after starting it blows white smoke and then when it's near warm the white smoke goes away. I am not losing any coolant and the oil is perfect. I'm betting my $$$ on condensation. My truck has been like this for the past 35,000 miles that I have owned it. If it was warped and the head gasket was screwed, do you not think by now the problem might have gotten worse by now? That's another reason I believe it's just condensation.

RustBucket

iTrader: (1)

Right, well, we're talking about a few seconds of white vapor on startup versus blowing white smoke until the engine reaches operating temps. The latter is scary.

CoedNaked

If it's blowing white smoke, how come the engine doesn't run like crap when it's warming up? IF there is coolant getting into the engine combustion chamber and it's being flashed to steam during the poor combustion proceess at a rate to produce white smoke, then the engine should run like absolute crap. It doesn't.

RustBucket

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, you may be right, if the engine is running fine then it's probably not the HG...

I still think draining the oil into a clean container would be the best to look for traces of coolant in the oil.

curtiswyant

You can also do a compression/leakdown test to look for head gasket leaks.

chris_f

Thanks for all the input. Rustbucket I agree with your point exactly and have been checking my oil at least 1-2 times weekly for changes/water and have inspected the oil 2-3 times already at oil changes (remember I've owned the truck a year and it's has this issue since I've owned it).

Could it be the valve guides are letting oil by when the engine is cold and that's were the smoke comes from and then as it warms up they seal up?? The Haynes manual suggest that in the spark plug page at the back. Just a thought...

I agree think next step is a compression test. Off to do some thread searches and buy a compression tester.

I'll let you know what I get... It's nice to have this forum to bounce ideas off. As none of my friends are into cars or getting there hands dirty.

RustBucket

iTrader: (1)

If its white smoke then I'm pretty sure it's not oil burning...

Tdubbs05

when mine blew it was pretty obvious. the smoke wasn't as noticable, probably because it was cold out, but the coolant level dropped like crazy and the car couldn't idle smooth at all.

dcg9381

It's a matter of making a guess until you run a leak down test, as mentioned above. Even overflowing the radiator tank can be due to a bad radiator cap/seal.

pressurize the cylinder. Look for air bubbles.