Smoke at startup?

[toby]

Finally got mine fixed back in March. They dropped the engine, replaced the right head but not the early production left head. Car has NOT smoked AT ALL since. If anyone wants the details, pm me and I'll fill you in.

 

[01cobravortech]

If its blue you are OK. If its white you are totally screwed. If the smoke is dark, 50/50.

 

[03MUSCLE]

mine did it after the car sat for a while 2-8 hrs, took it to the dealer they replaced both heads for free warrenty!!!

 

[adrenaline rush]

All of you that is complaining about smoke at start up, your car is burning oil. As of yesterday, my 2003 Cobra that's 1 month out of warranty is dead. I need a whole new short block. Even though you complained to the dealer about the smoke, MAKE SURE THAT THEY RECORD YOUR COMPLAINTS VERBATIM. Now I'm stuck with a car payment for a car that won't go anywhere and has only 27000 miles on it. I don't know what to do. Ford SUCKS!!!

 

[01cobravortech]

Wait a minute. What kind of mods do you haveon your car? There has to more to the story. And blue smoke has been very common in all brand new Cobras from 96 to now. Lets here about your mods.

 

[adrenaline rush]

Mods
FR500
CAI - Tuneable Induction

 

[01cobravortech]

There has to be more that you're not telling us.

 

[adrenaline rush]

I've complained about excessive smoke on startup since I bought the car. I was told on numerous occassions that the tick is normal and the smoke is normal. I was burning oil which is why everytime at startup I saw smoke. I started hearing a tick on Friday of last week. I take it into the dealer to see what was wrong and I was told that it was burning oil. As a matter of fact I burned 3 quarts of oil from my last oil change which was in June. So now I need a new bottom end.

 

[toby]

You shouldn't have any problem getting you're car fixed. Everything sounds within reason. GOOD LUCK.

 

[adrenaline rush]

Thanks, I'm gonna need it!

 

[LoveThoseSnakes]

I have just over 30,000 miles on my '03 Cobra and it would send up a huge plume of blue smoke after sitting over night. The car is currently dissassembled. The heads were sent over to PowerHeads and the dude from PowerHeads called me a few days ago about the condition of my heads.... "Although all the valve guides were intact (as far as he could see), they crumbled like chalk once removed." Ouch!

 

[spyne]

I've had my Cobra for three months and seen the smoke at start up just once. Scared the S*** out of me. That was two months ago and haven't seen it since.

 

[whippleblown03]

mine does it after it sits! my 99 lightning did it also. not worried i think its a pcv / venting into the intake problem on supercharged motors!

 

[SteveChris]

mine did, it started after the first oil change. its kinda hard to tell now because with the cold wetaher there always some smoke..vapor i should prob say. but late summer i had ford perform tests, they took the car did a compression test, consumption test, leak test. all came back good. they said to switch to regular oil, i thought they were just giving me a crap answer. but after i took it back it let out one last big ass puff then never again. they topped it off with regular oil 5w-20, but regular.

 

[SteveChris]

oh and id like to try that seperator thing. im not sc'ed but oil can still get through same way and pool cant it? i know for 03+ it pools in the sc but maybe it pools in my intake and i burned it at startup?

 

[mangrumm]

Had the same problem with blue smoke since April of 2003. Bought my 03 Cobra November 2002. Ford finally dropped a remanufactured engine in my Cobra last week after about 4 or 5 consumption test. My warranty expired November 2005. they still did the work because i had the problem before the warranty expired. Blue smoke is not normal with these Cobras..they said my O-rings were worn.

 

[gmynko]

Mine does it at start up after its cooled and I notice water condensation at the tips. It stops after it warms up and after I drive it. Its not burning oil

 

[WOMACK03]

Mine smokes sometimes. Runs fine and doesn't eat oil, I'm ok with it as long as it doesn't go BOOM!

 

[rmgtc01]

sticky

 

[I8URZ28]

I may have a solution for ya'll. Synthetic oil is a great lubricator because of the fact that it breaks down very slowly and also dosn't tend to loose it's viscosity as quickly. Therefor engines that come with synthetic from the factory have already been broken in or in the Corvettes case the engines come from Delphi with a breakin period already performed in order to lubricate all of the seals. Now in the Cobras case it comes with a sub par oil 5w-20, and that dose one thing and that is it thins out quickly in order to condition those seals and stop potential oil leaking past the guides or any other gaskets. My sugestion is this there may have been a posiblity that all of your engines have not been given enough time for all of the seals to seat and or become lubricated sufficently. Therefor when you switch to a better oil (synthetic) it still has enough play in the seals to allow for minnor amounts of oil to leak down into the cylinders. This could be intermitent for any myriad of reasons. So here is what I use as a general rule of thumb. If it burns oil switch back to a regular non synthetic, try out 20w-50. A think regular oil will be very good for a high performance engine and especially for that supercharger. The catch is that you have to wait a little longer for the car to reach operating temp and this oil can only be used by cars during the summer because of heat. Now use that oil until the engine dosn't burn any more oil ,this should be after about two changes or so, then go back to your synthetic. Hope that helps.

+1 on this, that is why I haven't switched to full synthetic yet, probably a little paranoid seeing how I now have 21K on the car. However, my car does not smoke, at all, I will be switchcing to moble 1 synthetic next oil change I will see if it smokes then