THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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