Head Gasket Blown????

[trlott]

Smoke coming out of tail pipe, but no milky white substance when looking under Oil Cap. Could this be something to do with the exhaust manifold? or the valve cover gasket?

[WmWatt]

This sort of question gets more views and repsonses when posted in the repair help forum.

Burning oil could mean worn piston rings. The usual way to check is do a compression test which is easy to do at home with an inexpensive compression guage. Or if the compression in two adjacent cylinders is low it could mean a leak in the head gasket between those two cylinders. Froth under the oil cap could be moisture which is common in winter in colder parts of the planet and a drive at highway speeds burns it off. Smokey exhaust is pretty generic so you shouldget lots of suggestions from a Google search of the Internet.

[Icedawg]

Blue smoke: burning oil, probably a problem with the rings, maybe with the PCV valve system, but only if it does it at high revs
Black smoke: running far too rich, fuel pressure regulator, ecu, fuel injector
white smoke: head gasket leaking coolant into cylinder, probably also see bubbles in rad if you remove the cap and rev the engine