Hello all

Earlier today I drove my Z up to the school for a meeting. (~2miles). As I sit at the light I see a distinct trail of grayish smoke coming from my exhaust. I've had this before, but now it seems to be a bit more prevalent. When I rev the engine the smoke disipates but will return a few seconds later at idle. When I returned home I took a close look at everything in the engine bay with the car off/on. The coolant level is at the "full" mark. The oil is right on the money on the H mark. All fluids are where they should be. I restarted the car and examined to exhaust. It smells (I put my hand in it for a moment or two) like regular car exhaust. Does not smell like oil (which would increase with RPM would it not?) and does not smell like radiator fluid (sweet).

Here's what I've noticed in the past couple of days. 1. My timing was advanced by me to about 17 degrees. No real reason for it just seeing how it'll act. 2. When I release the gas pedal occasionally the RPM will drop to ~600 and then pop back up. The car in general "feels" like sometimes it struggles but most of the time it runs like it did the day I bought it.

Thanks for all the help

Jan.

Sorry i missed you the other night.

Hello all

Earlier today I drove my Z up to the school for a meeting. (~2miles). As I sit at the light I see a distinct trail of grayish smoke coming from my exhaust.

From what you have stated, here is what I think....

If your engine was smoking you would notice the Bluish-Acrid smoke (Smokey at idle = ~Rings; Smokey when you let off the pedal = ~Valves.) But this is not happening.

If the engine was leaking coolant into the intake, then it would billow steam -especially when you throttle up. At idle it would look like steam from a Dry Cleaners shop....

With it being fall - my best guess is that you are getting condensation in the exhaust from the daily heat fluctuations -especially in AZ. The smoke is really steam from the condensation burning out of the hot exhaust. Has the weather been funky over there??

Another Clue for me is that you stated that you drove ~2 miles to your school when you noticed the smoke. Does the condition continue after you have driven, say for thirty minutes or longer?