How mush exaust smoke is too much exhaust smoke?

[LibTimothy]

How much is too much? Having no reference I appeal to you experts out there.

Here is a normal cold start up.





There is no smoke on warm start.

So, OK. On the scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being "Not too bad, just watch the oil" and 10 being "Stop driving now and find a repair shop", where am I?

Timothy

[bernhard]

Both of my pinz do about the same amount of smoke on a cold California morning (45-50) degrees). It goes away rather quickly in about 1-2 minutes.

[Jimm391730]

Mine was about half that bad, but burned half a quart of oil every tankful. Thought it was bad intake valve seals, turns out there weren't any! Replacing them made absolutely no difference. Ultimately turns out it was worn rings/poor cylinder finish.

But I drove it for over 20,000 miles (32k km) before even attempting to fix it and it never changed, never got worse, better, or was a problem. I just had to keep an eye on the oil level. Just drive it and enjoy it!

Jim M.

[ScottishPinz]

Mine 'smokes' at least as much as that. I was very worried as it idled away before its emissions test filling the garage with smoke... turns out its mostly steam on a cold day and passed its emissions with flying colours!

[Kiwibru]

Same here. I have noticed more smoke on start if the truck has been sitting a long time and I have to re-fill the carb bowls. This of course requires a bit of cranking. That seems to allow a bit of extra oil to slip into the cylinders and that has to get burned off when it does start. As the weather warms up the problem is less. I don't worry about it.

[LibTimothy]

OK. Sounds like this is fairly normal exhaust smoke.

My oil usage isn't bad... especially when compared to my old Toyota and old Ford Ranger. They were both way worse. I expect the Pinz to use/leak a little oil. I'm just not sure how much is too much.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge!

Timothy

[todds112]

Yup looks like mine too. Goes away when she gets warmed up a little.