I have a 1996 Accord V-tec. It sometimes develops white smoke when it first starts, then, it goes away after the car has run a short period. Sometimes the white smoke is allot and other times there is absolutely no smoke. I do know the car has over heated (used car) based on what I found after I replaced the head with a rebuilt one. However the new rebuilt head did not fix the problem. The car continues to have intermittent white smoke at startup. There is no water in oil. I occasion have to refill the coolant from time to time (but all the time).

Observations: When the original head was removed I noticed cylinder-1 had a difference in residue in head's underside. This suggested the coolant leak is into cly-1. I replaced the head with a rebuilt one. I also changed the Oil and there was not water in the oil. Could the problem be in the intake manifold? at the cylinder 1 intake there is a coolant feed area. Perhaps a crack had developed within the inner wall between the coolant area and the cly-1 intake chamber. Has anyone seen this type of problems? Any ideas?

I plan to work on the car this weekend and will start with a compression test. Any help in diagnosing the cause is greatly appreciated. (Note: the car runs great after the white smoke clears)

Thanks

 

overheating could have caused the engine block to warp if that's the case replacing the head or head gaskit won't fix the problem. you need to do a compression test to find out the problem.