Cloud of White exhaust smoke

My '01 started making a cloud of white smoke on start-up about two months ago and now it will occassional make the cloud of smoke when accelerating away from a traffic light.

Any ideas of the source of the smoke, it is white, so it is not oil, and I had the dealer check for a head gasket leak during the recent state inspection.

Also does any make a good Do-It-Yourselfer repair manual for the Intrigue?

White = coolant being burned in the combustion process, therefore you have a coolant leak.

Jeremy

Chiltons has a fair repair guide; Holmes (think that's the name) produces the official (and expensive) shop manual that the pros use. That should be available through gm.com.

It is very likely that you have an intake manifold leak. This is common on GM V6s because the Dexcool coolant reacts poorly with the manifold gasket. If the manifold gasket is not sealing properly, coolant will seep into the engine.

I would check your coolant level (in the plastic overflow container). Is it low? If so, add some appropriate Dexcool coolant and then check it in a few days. If the Coolant level has dropped, you know you are leaking coolant somewhere.

Just by having the white smoke out the back end indicates that there is a coolant leak somewhere. Like the last post said, I would check the coolant reserve tank.

Jeremy

I doubt that it is the intake manifold. If it were, the car would likely not run. My intake (upper) manifold failed, and the car stopped running almost immediately. This happened with a '98 3.8. The coolant circulates around the throttle body to keep it cool and the plastic (yes, GM uses a plastic upper intake manifold!) in that area especially is susceptible to high temperatures (Plastic? Susceptible to high temperatures!? Imagine that!!) and breaks. Anyway, when this happened to me the car would not run. When a large amount of coolant enters the combustion chamber the compression changes to the point that the engine cannot run. Long story short, the leak is probably smaller and therefore somewhere else, i.e. a head gasket.

If you check your coolant level and it is not dropping, it is possible that your car could be burning oil.

I had a 1992 Honda Accord--granted it had many more miles than your 2001 Intrigue--which would do a very similar thing. It used oil and smoked noticably at startup and bursts of acceleration. Also, the smoke was white, not black. I changed the valve stem seals on that car and it did not help. I concluded it was the rings not sealing properly and drove the car until it died at about 200K miles.

Check your oil. If your coolant level is unaffected, does your car appear to be consuming a large amount of oil? If it is your rings, perhaps you could run a high detergent oil for a while and hope that cleans things up.

Given the age of your car, though, it is most likely coolant.

Well after research on this and other automotive sites, I decided to start with the simplest possible source of the problem. So, I replaced the PCV valve and my problem is GONE!

Wow!! Always best to start with the simplest thing first.....that was one bad PCV valve!!