V6 is a steam engine

[OldBloke]

Hello team, my 3 ltr V6 puffs steam out of the exhaust. It uses a bit of water, but not excessive. There is no water in the oil, nor oil in the water.
I have not removed the spark plugs yet to see which cylinder is taking water, but I know it's only a matter of time before it will become a serious problem.
I was wondering if this is a common fault, are the heads prone to cracking, or head gaskets blowing etc? An o'ring perhaps?
The radiator had no corrosion inhibitor in it before I bought the car, nearly 2 years ago.
Seems to me that if corrosion was the problem this fault would have appeared earlier.
The engine does fart occasionally, but other than that, it runs with normal power.

Any suggestions would be welcome

[ac1176]

Probably not much use to you, but here in mid-winter Tas my V6 will blow copious amounts of condensation in the cold and/or wet weather on first start, and clears up after about 10 minutes of running. No problems with coolant in the combustion chamber or oil.

I suspect warm engine/exhaust traps condensation as it cools overnight, leading to blowing steam first thing in the morning or after a few hours of standstill on a cold, wet day. By all means have it checked out if it bothers you, but possibly just normal operation if you live in a cold and/or damp part of NSW.

FWIW I've seen brand new Commodores blowing more fog than my 22 year-old TS on cold days.

[OldBloke]

Firstly, many thanks for the reply. Tassie eh? Bet it's ccccold down there right now!
You raise a good point about the 10 minutes of running, I should take it for a decent run see if it still puffs.
It generally only ever does very short trips, just long enough to get the water temp up to normal .... 'course the engine & oil will still be cold.

Still haven't pulled the spark plugs out yet, back 3 is a bugger of a job, and it's cold here too!
My old girl is a '94 TS as well! The occasional fart throws me a bit, because I keep on top of all filter changes, and regularly change engine oil etc, spark plugs are what I suspect is the cause .... I use old plugs that have done 10K klms in my Falcon.

[flyboy]

Highly doubt it's from the cooling system. If it was, you'd be losing coolant fast and there'd be other symptoms.

Burning fuel creates water vapour. In winter, the warm moist gas comes out the exhaust pipe and into the cold air - immediately condensing the water to create "steam".

Like ac1176 said, take it for a long drive and get it right up to operating temperature and problem should disappear. My 380 and Magna both do this for 5-8 mins until warmed up in winter.

A cracked head or leaking head gasket might manifest as down on power, overheating, milky oil etc.

[OldBloke]

Thanks to you too flyboy, yes, I agree about the coolant, might have to add half a ltr every 3 mths. Certainly not enough to get stressed about.
It's going for 2 x 50K runs tomorrow, I'll post the findings.
Don't have time to change the spark plugs, well the front 3 are easy, but the rear .... you know the story.
Terry

PS Have heard the 380's called a sleeper. Even my 3 ltr TS will out accelerate my 4 ltr Falcon .. but only for a short distance!
The Falcon will catch up real quick.

[OldBloke]

Having done 50 odd k, ... no condensation, apparently these engines produce more heat? thus more condensation unless they are really hot.
Re the miss slash farting, that was a dicky spark plug, all looked ok, but one obviously failed under load .... black art as to why.
I replaced all 6, so have no idea which one was failing, but who cares, it's fixed.
Thanks to all for the replies
Terry