HELP,97 gmc white smoke from driverside tail pipe

[Juventino Rodriguez]

Ok I bought this truck a while back for cheap off some dude that was into imports and was attempting to get into obs trucks.
Ok well this truck never got any attention until now I turn it on and it smokes white smoke from the driverside tail pipe ,I'm not to familier with engine work so I have no idea what it could be. iv read a little bit and seen it could be head gasket valve seals or bad rings, well my question is what's the best way to find out what my problem is?? The truck does not over heat and oil looks good not milky and no water in it
Any and all help is appreciated

 

[magimerlin]

First off.... look at the exhaust..
Is it a true dual exhaust? Meaning each side of the motor has its own exhaust pipe coming from the motor.
Is it fake duals? Ypipe at the motor to a single pixie to a muffler then two tail pipes outta the muffler....

If true duals you can narrow it down to one side of the motor atleast. As long as it doesn't have a crossover pipe..

How long does it "smoke" after you start it up? White smoke is usually coolant related.


sent from what use to be a great country...

 

[Juventino Rodriguez]

First off.... look at the exhaust..
Is it a true dual exhaust? Meaning each side of the motor has its own exhaust pipe coming from the motor.
Is it fake duals? Ypipe at the motor to a single pixie to a muffler then two tail pipes outta the muffler....

If true duals you can narrow it down to one side of the motor atleast. As long as it doesn't have a crossover pipe..

How long does it "smoke" after you start it up? White smoke is usually coolant related.


sent from what use to be a great country...

It smokes the whole time it's on or being driven.
And it has one pipe and muffler for each manifold no y pipe

 

[slowburb]

White smoke usually means it's burning coolant. This would probably be from a leaking gasket; either intake gasket or head gasket.

 

[magimerlin]

It smokes the whole time it's on or being driven.
And it has one pipe and muffler for each manifold no y pipe

Gotcha... sounds like you may be headed towards a head gasket job.... mainly the drivers side but I'd do both and not just one since your 90% of the way there for the other side too...

sent from what use to be a great country...

 

[Juventino Rodriguez]

Well I had my friend come check it out and he told me he's 90% sure it's the valve seal on the head but he said we can pull it check the seal and if it's the seals I plan on getting them fixed and also replacing both head gaskets while I'm there

 

[magimerlin]

If it's valve seals the smoke would be more of a blue smoke as it would be oil burning.....

sent from what use to be a great country...

 

[Juventino Rodriguez]

If it's valve seals the smoke would be more of a blue smoke as it would be oil burning.....

sent from what use to be a great country...

Yeah it is bluish I didn't really notice till he mentioned it and we watched it closely

 

[Juventino Rodriguez]

I weld for a living I guess my eye sight isn't as good as before

 

[GL1500]

In addition to what's been said above, smoke from oil has it's own smell that I'm sure we're all used to. Antifreeze has a definite sweet smell. I would recommend pulling the spark plugs on that bank. In my experience oil will leave them black whereas antifreeze will turn the bad cylinder into a steam cleaner, and the plug will often be white.

Best wishes,
Steve