My Escort, the one I

To me this sounds like just the normal condensation build up inside the exhast/manifold and being evaporated as the engine warms up. Some cars seem to be affected by this more than others and sounds like youv'e got one of 'em!. If 'smoke' persists after the engine has warmed through thoroughly then this may well be more serious, head gasket or cracked cylinder. If you are still concerned, I suggest you get it checked out by your local garage/mechanic.

Edit: Don't push the car too hard from a cold start as this won't help, let engine warm through be for you put your foot down!.

I had this prob with my vectra 2.L ( T REG )and the prob was all my ports were blocked up as the pervious owner never changed the oil on a regular basis,so it could be that

I would think its mainly condensation in the exhaust (especially from the rear silencer) evapourating off. But if the smoke is slightly blue in colour then I would be looking at the valve stem oil seals.I had an escort with the same 1.6 CVH engine and similar mileage which smoked blueish smoke on start up. The valve stem oil seals had hardened especially on the exhaust valves and allowed a thin film of oil to run down the stem of the valve and go into the combustion chamber, collecting overnight. On cold startup the oil is burned off giving a blueish smoke for a short while. Once the engine has warmed up the smoke seems to disappear.

Unfortunately if you need to replace them on the CVH engine you will need to get the head off. probably about £80-100 for full gasket set and new head bolts (shouldn't reuse the old ones) and you might as well do the cambelt while you have the head off (might 'sweeten' the deal if you are selling it)

Touch wood its only condensation

if the smoke presited past the warm up point id say you could have a more serious problem... but as it doesnt id say its just water vapour too... however if its blankets off it coudl it be a duff CAT??

Joel

Unfortunately if you need to replace them on the CVH engine you will need to get the head off.

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with the CVH you dont need to take the head off to change the valve stem oil seals ,you need a tool to compress the valve spring and some string ,take out the plug on the cylinder you want to do ,pass some of the string ( sash cord is good )into the cylinder turn the engine by hand until the string is compressed between the valves and the piston and holds the valve in place when you remove the collets

Unfortunately if you need to replace them on the CVH engine you will need to get the head off.

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with the CVH you dont need to take the head off to change the valve stem oil seals ' date='you need a tool to compress the valve spring and some string ,take out the plug on the cylinder you want to do ,pass some of the string ( sash cord is good )into the cylinder turn the engine by hand until the string is compressed between the valves and the piston and holds the valve in place when you remove the collets[/quote']

True , technically you don't have to remove the head , you can use a spring compresser that screws into the top part of the head to compress the valve spring but I have heard a few stories of this method being used and a collet has dropped down one of the oil galleries ...big no no..and too risky IMHO.

My Peugeot 505 did this. The white smoke/vapour was very noticeable on cold days until the engine had warmed up. The problem was due to the head gasket developing a crack in it allowing coolant to get into one cylinder.

My Peugeot 505 did this. The white smoke/vapour was very noticeable on cold days until the engine had warmed up. The problem was due to the head gasket developing a crack in it allowing coolant to get into one cylinder.

If it is a slight weep in the head gasket you would expect to have to top up the coolant expansion tank more often than normal.

If valve guides you might expect higher oil consumption.

As to head off or not, if it is valve guides, that could depend on the mileage. I had some smoking and pinking (the oil getting in to the combustion chamber can cause pre-ignition under load) on a Manta GT/J. Head had to come off to do the guides. Once off serious cylinder bore wear was also apparent - the mechanic reckoned the car must have been clocked :( He warned me that having the head off would have disturbed the ring of carbon round the top of the bores and that I would probably start to use a load of oil. After a few thousand miles it then began to smoke again worse than before. Finally had to have a recon engine.

So I would keep a close eye on coolant and oil levels for a while. In this cold weather some engines/exhaust systems need a few miles to warm up enough not to create 'steam'.

White smoke from diesel is another story

I've never topped up any coolant; it's fine but oil its 3L every 6 months! It's got 86k on the clock also.

This car is worth nothing really, just mean I’d be forced to get another one and with my wife's recent redundancy it's a little tight right now.

How many miles do you do in 6 months to get through 3 litres of oil (ignoring oil changes naturally)?

Sure the 86K on the clock is genuine ?

Some types of engine get through a fair amount of oil anyway.

Could be bore wear or valves (loss of oil past the valve stem oil seals through the valve guides).

If the car does not do a high mileage or a lot of high speed motorway work I would not worry about it too much unless the smoking gets worse. My Manta still started and ran OK even when it got to the point that it was smoking incredibly badly.

I do around 3.5k in 6 months, only around town with my foot often to the floor due to it's crap auto box with no kickdown and poor power. I wouldn't dream of overtaking a granny uphill for example! It's always eaten oil! i'm told it's often a charateristic of old cars. I think it's a ford EFI engine.