Blue Smoke When Cold

hardware_failure · April 10, 2009

I have a fair amount of blue smoke out the exhaust when starting cold for about 30-60 sec. then it goes away. Is this normal? What typically causes this?

Thanks.

alaska511 · April 10, 2009

Valve stem seals leaking.

Zembonez · April 10, 2009

Valve stem seals leaking.

+1

Common but not life threatening. More of an annoying thing than anything.

hardware_failure · April 10, 2009

Is it something I should worry about / take care of? If so how?

Thanks for the reply.

BlackSilver · April 10, 2009

Is it something I should worry about / take care of? If so how?

Thanks for the reply.

It's a pretty benign problem.

Unless it gets bad and you notice you're burning a lot of oil, probably not worth the cost of a valve job. Was real common on the 350's and 4.3L.

bigBP · April 10, 2009

Yup, valve stem seals. As long as it isn't smoking to bad (from your description, 30-60 sec, it sounds like it isn't horrible), I'd just keep an eye on your oil level and make sure that you top it off once in a while. Nothing more than that needed.

If you really start to burn through the oil and you want to keep the truck for a while (several more years) longer you could think about tearing onto the engine to replace the valves and seals. It can get pricey though if you take it into a shop...