Engine smoke - Cars & Trucks

Hi Sean, I'm in agreement with Wes, unless you drove through a puddle or river or somehow got water on the hot parts of your engine? When you say there's smoke coming from the engine, where is it coming from? Is the smoke coming from the exhaust tail pipe or is something leaking from somewhere in the engine compartment and dropping onto something hot and burning off there? If its the latter, have a look around the engine where the 'smoke' is most dense and look for dampness from, for example a tappet cover, a leakage in the cooling system or from the power steering system. If the smoke is coming from the tailpipe, as Wes has said there can be several reasons. The catalytic converter converts the harmful gas into water droplets which become vapour and looks like steam from start up until the engine is partially warmed. If the smoke is blackish grey it will usually mean that too much fuel is being fed into the combustion chamber and is not being burned completely. In the event of that happening a fault code should be recorded, but as you have not told us the vehicle you have we don't know how old it is, or if it is fitted with diagnostics. If it has a cat it should have. If the smoke is bluish grey the indication is oil burn. To test that, have someone sit in the car, start the engine and hold the RPM at about 2000. You go to the rear of the vehicle and if the smoke is that colour (bluish grey) suspect either worn piston rings or valve stem oil seals. Don't keep the engine at that RPM for more than 30 seconds, as we don't want to upset the neighbours or damage the engine. Please get in touch with us and let us know more details Regards John (and Wes)

If i could see a picture on the video it might help but i think your right here if the engine is wet then yes it give off steam,try smelling the smoke and see if it smells of anything