Lots of smoke on first start of new/rebuilt engine (1 Viewer)

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Mar 1, 2010
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Roseville, Ca
Hey all. I just finished building up a 1FZ-FE starting with a new short block, and a rebuilt head. I filled it with fluids last night and checked this morning. No signs of leaks or anything. This morning I pulled the coil wire, let it crank a few times to build oil pressure, and then plugged in the coil and fired it up.

It pretty much started right up, and sounds like a normal 1FZ, but almost immediately started smoking. It looked like it was coming from the exhaust side, but not really from any seams that I can tell. It looked like the headers themselves were smoking. They were off the truck for months, and I cleaned them with degreaser so maybe it's residue? There are new exhaust gaskets on the block and at the y-pipe as well. I mean, there's new gaskets everywhere, but again the smoke looks like it's coming from the exhaust side.

So I wanted to ask anybody who has experience with first-starts of a new or rebuilt engine: Can smoking like this be a normal thing (especially with reused headers/exhaust) when first running in an engine, or is this major cause for concern?

I didn't let it run for very long to see if it would sort itself out for fear of damage.
 
Hey all. I just finished building up a 1FZ-FE starting with a new short block, and a rebuilt head. I filled it with fluids last night and checked this morning. No signs of leaks or anything. This morning I pulled the coil wire, let it crank a few times to build oil pressure, and then plugged in the coil and fired it up.

It pretty much started right up, and sounds like a normal 1FZ, but almost immediately started smoking. It looked like it was coming from the exhaust side, but not really from any seams that I can tell. It looked like the headers themselves were smoking. They were off the truck for months, and I cleaned them with degreaser so maybe it's residue? There are new exhaust gaskets on the block and at the y-pipe as well. I mean, there's new gaskets everywhere, but again the smoke looks like it's coming from the exhaust side.

So I wanted to ask anybody who has experience with first-starts of a new or rebuilt engine: Can smoking like this be a normal thing (especially with reused headers/exhaust) when first running in an engine, or is this major cause for concern?

I didn't let it run for very long to see if it would sort itself out for fear of damage.
If it's smoke like you're cooking burgers on the grill, its from new parts and gaskets and crap in the cats from cleaning up.

If it's smoke to the pint you can't see in the room, is it white, blue, or black?
 
Hey thanks for the reply! Yeah it's white smoke, but it's coming out of the engine bay, which is the concerning part for me. Not 100% but it looks like the headers themselves are smoking. And it doesn't exactly smell like exhaust either
 
Hey thanks for the reply! Yeah it's white smoke, but it's coming out of the engine bay, which is the concerning part for me. Not 100% but it looks like the headers themselves are smoking. And it doesn't exactly smell like exhaust either
If it's kind of a sharp smell that really burns your nostrils, it's light, and under the hood on new exhaust parts, it's typically the oil and plating and paint from the new parts and a new engine.

It should dissipate and stop smoking within 15-30 minutes.
 
Gotcha, and that all seems to track. I'm going to roll with that and hope I didn't miss something really stupid. This is the first time I've done a full-ish engine build, so it's all new territory for me.

I'll be sure to update when my engine blows up because I forgot to add wiper fluid :)

Thanks again, cheers!
 
Gotcha, and that all seems to track. I'm going to roll with that and hope I didn't miss something really stupid. This is the first time I've done a full-ish engine build, so it's all new territory for me.

I'll be sure to update when my engine blows up because I forgot to add wiper fluid :)

Thanks again, cheers!
Make sure to capture the smoke so you can put it back in later!
 
Make sure to capture the smoke so you can put it back in later!


Haha......! :rofl:

Sounds like he is fine. Paint and shipping oil burning off of parts.

But it IS bad to 'let the smoke out' of electrical parts. ;)
 

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