Engine Smoke for a couple of seconds after short ideling time

[jbond007]

Originally Posted by ibkevman

Thanks for the follow up. On a related note, did you notice any difference with the addition of the sludge removal additive? If so, what brand did you use?

Soo... here is the longer story...

I had the CCV's replaced which took care of almost all of the smoke issue. I still noticed some, however, and figured it was the valve cover labyrinths that were also sludged up that the mechanic said was probably the real problem. That makes sense as it's the same crankcase breathing system and if one area is sludged up, I'm sure it's the same throughout.

My mechanic asked if I do short commutes to work (I do). He said the oil doesn't get warmed up enough to boil off the moisture that builds up and that ends up being sludge eventually. This happens most in wet or cold climates but also short commutes that don't warm the oil up to temp for long intervals. I'm in a wet climate WITH a short commute!

I did not want to spend $400 ea. for new valve covers until I tried something else to clean it out first. I started with Liqui Moly Engine Flush before I drained the oil for an oil change. I let it idle for 10 minutes, revved it up and WOW - loads of smoke. Then I added Auto-RX to the fresh oil (it's highly touted on other forums) as I wanted to use something gentle to "de-sludge" my engine. I used the Fast Track instructions by adding (2) bottles since our X's hold about 9L of oil. There are much harsher engine flushes out there. They can damage seals, etc. I wanted to start gentle. I am almost to the end of the "wash" phase.

At this point in time I have no more smoke after idling! I'm very happy. My next step was to be to remove the valve covers myself and clean the sludge out if needed but I really didn't want to get that far into my engine. I'm very happy now and my car doesn't look like a junker with a bunch of white smoke coming out the back