First off, thanks to those who've posted answers and information. Car sounds and feels dramatically better than it did 8 months ago.

I'm noticing a pattern in my oil burning.

In the morning i start my car. It does NOT smoke immediately. I wait a minute -- no smoke. But then I rev up the engine. Pretty soon I see big big smoke clouds in the rear view mirror.

After i've been driving for about 15 to 30 minutes I do it again. While coasting very slowly I rev up the engine. Maybe I see a little smoke in the rear view-- but not much. The car does NOT produce big big clouds of smoke after it's been running a while.

The next day i do them same thing and get the same results.

What causes this?

Is this because my vavles seals/guides are bad? (oil has dripped through vavles in to combustion chamber. It's burning off the oil that has accumulated overnight)

Or is this because i'm revving up an engine that's not warmed up yet? (The cold engine has not warmed up the oil. So the oil is thick. The Thick oil has not yet properly lubricated the piston rings or whatever. I will get blowby until the oil thins and properly lubricates all the engine's internals.)


As i writing this i'm realizing that it might be easiest for me to answer my own question. Tomorrow morning I'll start my car before i start my coffee. After it's been warmed up for twenty minutes I'll repeat my experiment. Whether i see the big cloud after high rpms should tell me something.

thanks for reading

 

Do a compression and leakdown test. It's cheap and easy.

 

Its your piston rings. the reason it does it less when its warmed up is the metal has expanded from the heat and allows less blowby, it will do it more when it is cold, and the reason it doesn't do it right at start up is the oil pressure is zilch.


or a combination of that and worn valve guides.

 

sometimes condensation get in your exhaust system and that may explain all the white smoke during start up... but i would do a compression test just to make sure...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by skate1968 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Or is this because i'm revving up an engine that's not warmed up yet? (The cold engine has not warmed up the oil. So the oil is thick. The Thick oil has not yet properly lubricated the piston rings or whatever. I will get blowby until the oil thins and properly lubricates all the engine's internals.)


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oil works the other way its thin when cold and thickens when warmed up duh

 

this was another answer to another post below yours, but it still applies

I am battling the same demon as we speak, I am currently pulling a motor, and swapping in a better one, my problems are much like yours, white smoke, thick, mine doesnt seem to let up much unless its idling, but if i drive, i cloud the people behind me, and it smells like fuel and oil burning, i just put a new head gasket, milled head and valve guides as well as ground valves in there, I suspect the rings are bad at this point. ive tried every thing else suggested at HT as well as my own knowledge, pcv valve was fine, so there really isnt anything else that could cause the issues at hand.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied.

 

Warn out valve guides/seals tend to make burning oil on start up, as oil leaks thru then and onto the valves/into the combustion chamber allowing it to burn. Just a side note.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crx Jimmy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
oil works the other way its thin when cold and thickens when warmed up duh </TD></TR></TABLE>

Are you joking? That sounds incorrect to me. Does anyone else want to comment on what effects the temperature has on an oils thickness?

 

actually, if you really want to get into the physics of oil, let me shine some light for you, it all depends on the viscosity or properties of the oil, upon heat, some thins, some thickens.