i had someone explain my white smoke issue and they said it smelled like my piston rings were bad. OK, now this is a major repair and will it be worth it since i got the car for 2 grand? does anybody have a clue on the cost? I'm freakin out man was this car worth it?

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

White smoke is usually a blown head gasket, not rings. You have to do a wet/dry compression check to see if your rings are bad... Ive only seen maybe 1 LS in my life have the rings go bad.. are you losing coolant at all?

Stop panniking! White smoke at start up points to the valve under the power steering pump. Your engine is burning PAS fluid not oil. Oil would be blue smoke. There are lots of threads around so have a search.

leaking valve on the power steering pump, not a difficult fix.

not loosing any coolant and not having any overheating issues at all. but its also knocking a bit which i heard was the lifters. is this true? if so how much for repair?

i really doubt there is anything wrong with your car at all...

You should also notice any issue with your acceleration, since with any worn piston rings, you can also feel a lack of torque.

i do have an issue with my acceleration and experience a lack of torque, most of the time. very rarely will it run smooth.

before you start moaning about how you've blown this or broken that, do what several of us have suggested and CHECK THE PS SYSTEM.

take a read through the nice big Power Steering Bible stickied at the top of the page and troubleshoot.

Yeah- headgaskets are almost unheard of problems on the LS400.

Now if you had a 1990-95 4-Runner or a Cressida, or a 1991-95 Acura Legend, I would say different.

My LS smokes, white smoke -- Smells rich just randomly. (The IACV (ACV) is plugged) So it isn't PS fluid. For instance, one day on cold start it might smoke for 3 minutes then stop.

Next day, not at all.

Then 2 more days later,.. It might smoke for 15minutes... again not again for a few days.

Coolant isn't dropping,.. definitely a strong smell to the smoke, and smoke is very light, like the temperature were about 40degrees or so.

I'm sort of stumped on it. Car runs fine,.. just not sure what would cause this. (It occurs even when temps are high enough for it *not* to be steam from the cold surrounding ambient air).

Not trying to hi-jack here,.. just while you are talking about smoking. =)

To the OP:

Best thing I know to do is monitor all your fluids,.. Check them daily or ever other day. Mark the coolant with an erasable marker if you have to. -- Just remember that the coolant varies a great deal on cold and warmed up. Best to measure it completely cold. Then check before you start the car each morning.

#1 check your ps system. the car could be running like crap because it's trying to burn ps fluid along with the intake charge. it's almost never the engine.

the motor runs VERY rich when in closed-loop.

So PD -- Your telling me that when it runs rich, it is WHITE smoke? Does my description indicate simply a very rich environment at startup and sometimes longer at random?

I'm just so paranoid its a leaking headgasket or something, slight leak. Hope to god it isn't.

In any event, I know the car isn't supposed to smoke to this degree under normal conditions. If you do think it is a rich environment causing the smoke (if running rich causes white smoke) -- Then would something like O2 sensors or whatnot be at fault potentially?

Its no big deal to me, except that no one likes to see smoke coming out of their exhaust, and its embarassing lol.

Thanks

when the motor is running a little rich it will spew out BLACK smoke, when its REALLY DUMPING IN FUEL it can be white.

if ur so worried about it being a HG just look in the oil, if indeed it is a HG then ur oil will resemble at least somewhat a "milkshake" or "chocolate milk" like consistency. if ur STILL not convinced then run a pressure test on all the cylinders and/or the cooling system.