I'm wondering how concerned I should be about seeing a single puff of white smoke when I started my 1985 fj60 this afternoon. For context I drove down the street on my lunch break to surf and when I got back in the car to head home (roughly 1 hour later) I noticed the smoke. I have been daily driving with no issues and no overheating whatsoever but reading through some of the threads on this forum has me concerned it could be a sign of a head gasket issue. Back at home I popped the hood and noticed the coolant reservoir, which I filled roughly 300 miles ago, was nearly empty. Then I checked the coolant in the radiator. It was full and bright green (whew). I pulled the oil cap and the dipstick and I did not see any signs of milky oil or coolant residue. I thought maybe my reservoir or the connecting hose had a leak but I pulled both out and they seem fine. The only loose bit is the cap on the coolant reservoir, it doesn't really seat properly on the lid, just kinda sits on it loosely.
I started the truck maybe 5 more times in the driveway. First time there was a much smaller puff of white smoke. The next few times there was little to none. Drove around the block and did not see any smoke at all. Am I catastrophizing? This truck is new to me and I'm very sensitive to any abnormalities. Are there other at home tests that can rule out a bad head gasket? I don't have compression testing equipment.
As always, thank you to everyone for their guidance on this forum. You're all legends.
I started the truck maybe 5 more times in the driveway. First time there was a much smaller puff of white smoke. The next few times there was little to none. Drove around the block and did not see any smoke at all. Am I catastrophizing? This truck is new to me and I'm very sensitive to any abnormalities. Are there other at home tests that can rule out a bad head gasket? I don't have compression testing equipment.
As always, thank you to everyone for their guidance on this forum. You're all legends.