Yep, indeed, steam. Steam should dissipate quicker than smoke. Bluish
white (oil vapor) stays a bit longer, soot hangs around forever,
unfortunately :-)

Carl Byrns wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 12:11:30 -0500, Don Stauffer
wrote:

There are two kinds of smoke from either Diesel or SI engine. First is
white/bluish smoke. Although we frequently say an engine smoking like
that is 'burning' oil, it is not really burning it. In fact, that is
vapor from hot oil, unburned, and comes from oil leaking into hot
cylinder from bad rings or valve seals, and is the same in SI or CI.

Second kind of smoke is black smoke, or soot. This has somewhat
different but related causes in SI and CI engines. In either case it is
due to rich mixture resulting in incomplete combustion, but the
technical details on exactly how the soot forms are different. In the CI
(Diesel) it usually means misadjustment or problem in fuel (injection)
control.

You forgot white smoke- steam- from internal water leaks.

-Carl
"The man who has nothing worth dying for has nothing worth living for"- Martin Luther King, Jr.

--
Don Stauffer in Minnesota

webpage- http://www.usfamily.net/web/stauffer