DennisMitchell

Good point. White smoke = water.

MurrayA4

Typically the Cat.scrubs the oil and it's not unusual to see white smoke left over.I've seen cats that were glowing cherry red when trying to fight against excess fuel or oil coming down the stream.Nowadays the rare vehicle I see blowing blue smoke are Mitsubishi's for some strange reason.

Redd

"White" smoke often is oil smoke and the color is too subjective. If you hold a clean handkerchief over the exhaust for a minute and then take it away, water smoke will evaporate and leave you with a damp then dry but unstained cloth. Oil smoke will leave a clearly oil residue and odor. The color of the smoke can be deceptive.

JasonJ

We always used to believe that "White Smoke" meant you had a head gasket leak...meaning there was water coming into the combustion chamber.

Head gaskets are relatively cheap to replace, at least on race cars, considering the alternatives.

Jason
New York

MurrayA4

Head gaskets aren't so cheap to replace on an Audi.When you're talking "race cars" fill me in, I'm intrigued.

Anomious

White smoke is water. My 300SDL smoked for a few minutes every time that I started it. After it warmed slightly the crack in the cylinder head would close. I traded it off at 302K miles, still wish that I would have kept it!

DennisMitchell

The white smoke = water would be confirmed by loss of coolant. The OP would need to coolant reservoir.

Anomious

Yes...White smoke is water.

Anomious

White smoke is water.

Alar

Have you seen a car with blown turbo? There is a lot of white smoke behind it, that is oil, small quantites of oil burning and you can say its blue/gray smoke but in large quantities its gray-white. And Im sure that connor is abel to tell difference even by smelling the smoke.