pretty much said it all in title, dont think itll make a diffrence but i got a sohc ZC block with a a6 head. smoke/stea, comes out tail pipe at idle like its cold even after warmup. longer you set at a idle the worse it is. not losing coolant so i know it aint water from the block and its running as normal as it can for not having an adjustable cam. just looks like its smoking like a bomb when you drive it and i hate that because this car hasent smoked since i got it

 

and ideas???

 

My LS swapped hatch is doing the same thing. I had a small coolant leak from the iacv dripping onto the header but I fixed that about 3 weeks ago. Still smokes like hell :/

 

Coolant or oil is getting into one of the cylinders and burning. If you are not losing coolant.......then that means oil. But oil burning is pretty unmistakable. So are you sure you are not burning coolant?

 

oil- blue smoke
coolant - white smoke.
pretty simple.
smell the smoke. if its sweet smelling its coolant. also depending on where you live, if its cooler out the exhuast will be visible because the exhaust is hot and the air is cold, same reason fog exists.

 

its this ^ but it usely stops when the car warms up and mine gets worse. plus water drips out...

ITS NOT COOLANT OR OIL!!

 

i think i know what ur talking about. my expedition does it...runs like a champ always wondered y this "water" drips from the tail pipe

 

Water is going to drip out of your exhaust, it's condensation from the hot combusted exhaust that's being pumped out by the engine. Some turbo set ups do it even more therefor they're more **** to rusty piping. Do a compression test and one of them dye test in your coolant. If they're both fine then stop stressing yourself. Everything sounds normal for you, like one guy said, it's winter so the hot exhaust in the colder winter air is gonna be more noticeable. Especially when going down the road (due to more throttle).

 

Water is going to drip out of your exhaust, it's condensation from the hot combusted exhaust that's being pumped out by the engine. Some turbo set ups do it even more therefor they're more **** to rusty piping. Do a compression test and one of them dye test in your coolant. If they're both fine then stop stressing yourself. Everything sounds normal for you, like one guy said, it's winter so the hot exhaust in the colder winter air is gonna be more noticeable. Especially when going down the road (due to more throttle).

 

True, my turbo setup leaves a puddle after I start it up. Its like a slobbering dog. Stainless Steel is your friend

 

Condensation is very common when it's cold outside...

 

if you know its not coolant then obviously theres nothing wrong and its just condensation like was mentioned already.

 

why would i be able to to see trails of water running from under my car if it was just condensation? theres way too much water to just be condensation

 

Then do a dye test dude....if it'll make you feel better. Atleast if you do, you'll get a true diagnosis answer. I mean, all we can do is sit here on the other side of our computers and tell you what we know. It's up to you to do the work or just disregaurd everything we say.

 

If you KNOW it's not coolant or oil, then what can you possibly be leaving a trail of besides water?