Thread: Mechanics & Diagnostics Experts

I'll start the ball rolling....

My old Camry, 3 litre V6, the boringly reliable one , the Daily Drive... That one. -------The one that at random times lays a blue-ish smoke screen on start-up (from several hours standing). Occasionally. Unpredictably. But always lasts a minute at most, begins THICK, then tapers off.
- Does not affect smoothness & running, nor saps power. Hooning off immediately is impressive... for several seconds.
Sometimes twice in a day, other times a week between frights.

I reckon it's 'oil' and not fuel-mixture.

Hypothesis ATM. is.... "one or more worn out valve stem seals, which leaks oil back into. 'that' cylinder - which burns it off". Dependant on "where". the engine has come to rest in it's cycles. - Plausible ? Possible ? Not even close ???

Where else to look ?


300,000km young.

IIRC blue smoke tends to point to oil, valve stem seals are pro'ly hard after 300K, I think a way to test is to run down a long hill with no throttle which will pull oil through the valve stems, at the bottom when you accelerate you should see the blue cloud. In which case you could try a valve seal additive if you don't want to touch the head, I was surprised how much a rear main seal additive worked on my brother's mostly driven to the local train station car.