Startup question: what's that white smoke for first 60 seconds?

[jakester888]

I'm running a 5.0 EFI stock with 24# injectors and calibrated MAF to match. Timing dialed in to 12 TDC. Starts right up and runs great.

The question I pose to you is, when I start the engine cold, the exhaust will pour out a white colored, rich smelling smoke which eventually disappears after 60 seconds of running.

Thoughts:
1) Running too rich?
2) Computer auto-adjusting (24# injectors not stock but should be compensated by calibrated MAF)?
3) Oil in the chamber?
4) Water in the chamber?
5) Normal for wet & humid Oregon?

What say you EFI experts?

[Jeff Kleiner]

Condensation, same as the white "smoke" (vapor actually) you see from the tailpipe of your DD on a cold morning. It may smell a tad rich because A) the ECU enriches the mixture when cold (like the choke in the old days) and B) you don't have a catalytic converter to clean it up.

Jeff

[CHOTIS BILL]

I don’t remember the exact number but it is something like for every 5 or 6 gallons of gasoline that is burnt one gallon of water is produced. Sometimes you will see a car that has just started up have water dripping out of the exhaust pipe. The white smoke is water vapor that you can see until the exhaust system gets hot enough to turn the water to steam which you can’t see. Well at least this is the way I remember the story.

Bill Lomenick

[Jeff Kleiner]

I don’t remember the exact number but it is something like for every 5 or 6 gallons of gasoline that is burnt one gallon of water is produced...

Oh no, you're making me have flashbacks to chemistry class... When the air and gasoline mixture is burned in an engine the hydrogen atoms attached to the octane molecules combine with the oxygen to create---(drumroll) H2O! A gallon of gasoline weighs around 6 pounds; burning that in an engine produces around 8 pounds of water vapor.

With that said I can put all of that nearly forgotten information back to bed for another 30 years :)

Jeff

[jakester888]

Thanks for the replies.

It has the look of water vapor. Glad I don't need to worry.

[WIS89]

No, no, you guys have it all wrong. White smoke means we elected a new Pope!

Jeff and Bill are right of course. Your DD is the same, and it generally disappears as the car warms up as already mentioned. I couldn't resist the Pope joke...

Regards,

Steve

[jakester888]

LOL - good one.