Sudden white smoke whilst driving

[Emma&Al]

So the van passed its MOT 3 days back and I was SO pleased!
I took the van for a long drive yesterday and about an hour in, suddenly, I could see a ton of white smoke coming from behind the van... I panicked and pulled over onto the hard shoulder and sat for a few minutes, too frightened to turn the engine off, in case it didn't start again. And couldn't get out to investigate because lorries were almost touching me zooming past!
So I drove off again and once again a lot of white smoke....and then nothing. 10 mins later, another lot of smoke lasting a few seconds. Drove all the way home (another hour and half drive) after leaving the van for around 10 hours parked up somewhere - and no problems at all.

Any ideas? I checked the oil and water and levels were OK, temperature gauge was normal. I do have an oil leak which has been on going, could it be something to do with this?
I couldn't feel any difference when driving the van, no power loss, or jolts or anything to indicate anything was wrong.

Thanks all, bit worried about it as I do remember smelling not burning exactly, but maybe oil burning, a little bit inside the van beforehand - but bearing in mind there are lots of holes in my van (made by a previous owner) that let air in from outside, if that makes sense?

[Emma&Al]

Ive suddenly panicked that it could be the head gasket? But the head gasket got changed 2 years ago now, I know this as even though the vehicle wasn't mine, it was my friends and she gave me the receipts for it...I do know that they messed it up and it had to go back and get the gasket changed again.

[kevtherev]

OK I give up...what engine is it?

Might be a good idea to pop it in your sig line..like me

[Emma&Al]

OH!! sorry its a 2.1 petrol injected 1990

Ill try the signature thing

And I took it for a 45 minute, each way, run today and no sign of any smoke...

[kevtherev]

If oil is dumped on to a hot exhaust it will smoke real bad.
Have you checked the oil level?

[Emma&Al]

Ah!! well, it has a long standing oil leak. The oil got low the other day and I topped up..but only a little. I checked the dipstick and it was at a good level.. perhaps it was that?

[kevtherev]

Perhaps...
As long as you're sure it was smoke and not steam.

[Emma&Al]

Christ I dont know! I was on the motorway so it was difficult to keep looking, also my rear window is tinted!! If it was steam, is that worse? It was fairly thick..

[lokisdad]

Hi Emma&Al,
I had exactly the same thing a while back. It turned out to be a porous/cracked cylinder head and water was getting into the exhaust port between the valve and the exhaust pipe. It was intermittent for a short while and then became constant. I hope yours turns out to be something different otherwise it's a partial (at least) strip down. If you filled the water ways with the head upside down on the bench, you could see water steadily dripping out of the side of the exhaust port.
I hope it's something else but best of luck.
Harvey

[Emma&Al]

Hi Lokisdad - thanks for the feedback. Oh, that sounds fairly serious.
Well I've driven it quite far in the last few days and nothings happened. The only thing I did notice is that when I parked up a few days back, I noticed a lot of water running from the bottom of the tailgate, down over the bumper and occasionally running onto the exhaust. I really thought that the engine was overflowing with water or something - so I opened the engine hatch, but no sign of it. I think where we'd had really heavy rain, the water had collected somewhere around the outside of the tailgate and as I'd opened it I could then see it running down directly onto the exhaust pipe. Im wondering if the same thing had happened the day I was experiencing the white smoke...and that is was infact steam?!
I will bear in mind what you've said though - because I am concerned it will come back to haunt me and then consequently go horribly wrong! So, thank you.

Emma

[marlinowner]

I once had a brake servo problem where brake fluid was getting into the servo, it would build up until a certain point when it would be sucked into the engine, giving a sudden cloud of white smoke for a few seconds. It would then clear until the next time. So might be worth checking brake fluid level if no other reason for smoke is found.

[Emma&Al]

Thanks marlinowner, ill do that