White Smoke on Catless Setup?

[blue5.slow]

I have noticed that my car will blow white smoke at idle and after revving after idling for a bit. I have not had a loss of coolant or a rough idle so I do not think it could be a head gasket issue. Any thoughts on what this could be? Is this normal in a catless setup?
17 GT catless longtube headers, x pipe, borla ATAK axle back

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[andrewtac]

I have noticed that my car will blow white smoke at idle and after revving after idling for a bit. I have not had a loss of coolant or a rough idle so I do not think it could be a head gasket issue. Any thoughts on what this could be? Is this normal in a catless setup?
17 GT catless longtube headers, x pipe, borla ATAK axle back

Could be water, h20 one of the major products of combustion

 

[NGOT8R]

Maybe this ^. Here’s a video of my car blowing water (condensation) after a lengthy idle on the dyno. It looked like smoke, but was actually water. You can even see it dripping from the exhaust tips.

 

[ice445]

Definitely looks like smoke from burning oil to me. It's pretty normal for many performance cars to smoke somewhat when catless though. Any hydrocarbon byproducts are normally catalyzed, so without them they just burn and blow through.

If you don't have noticeable oil consumption I wouldn't worry about it, just the price of being catless.

 

[Jackson1320]

Get to a long hill and keep the car in gear but don’t touch the throttle. Let it come all the way down the hill in gear engine on. The longer the hill the better like at least a mile. Then at the bottom hammer down and see if a sh!t load of smoke comes out. If not then you are good if so you are going to spend some money

 

[NGOT8R]

I forgot to ask, is your exhaust system brand new? Prior to installing my LTHs, I used several cans of brake and parts cleaner to thoroughly clean out any residual oil from the manufacturing process, so that it wouldn’t have to burn off.

 

[velocity550]

My 2019 Camaro SS had catless headers and would smoke a little on start up but then cleared up right away. If your car isn't smoking while driving down the road and you still have oil on the dipstick I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Jimmy Dean]

def looks like oil to me. I would start tracking your oil usage rate between oil changes. If it were coolant or condensate it should not be hanging around in the air that long.

 

[Andy13186]

If the setup is brand new it may just be the protective oils burning off the components. My catless setup smoked for the first day or so but everything burned off and now there is no smoke, occasional condensation though if its parked outside overnight in a storm.

 

[blue5.slow]

I forgot to ask, is your exhaust system brand new? Prior to installing my LTHs, I used several cans of brake and parts cleaner to thoroughly clean out any residual oil from the manufacturing process, so that it wouldn’t have to burn off.

Ive had the longtubes in for a few months and the mufflers are one month old

 

[blue5.slow]

def looks like oil to me. I would start tracking your oil usage rate between oil changes. If it were coolant or condensate it should not be hanging around in the air that long.

I just checked, oil and coolant levels are completely normal, same as they were a few months ago

 

[blue5.slow]

Get to a long hill and keep the car in gear but don’t touch the throttle. Let it come all the way down the hill in gear engine on. The longer the hill the better like at least a mile. Then at the bottom hammer down and see if a sh!t load of smoke comes out. If not then you are good if so you are going to spend some money

No hills here in FL, but that day after idling at a red light, when I accelerated, there was a lot of smoke coming out from the back

 

[blue5.slow]

If the setup is brand new it may just be the protective oils burning off the components. My catless setup smoked for the first day or so but everything burned off and now there is no smoke, occasional condensation though if its parked outside overnight in a storm.

I drove around a lot today and did not notice any smoke. It seems like the days it happens, it's almost random

 

[Jimmy Dean]

I just checked, oil and coolant levels are completely normal, same as they were a few months ago

ok, regardless of the levels that things look. white white smoke is coolant, but it will dissipitate quickly. white blue smoke is oil, and it hangs around.

The only other thing that could come out of your exhaust is unburnt fuel smoke, which is black. That wasn't black.

So, you are burning oil, but you temps/times checking oil are not consistent, so you think you are at the same level as you were before, but you aren't.

Smoke does not just appear out of no where.

Now, it could be residual in the pipes, but if you've been running them for months, thats now the case. AND, a quick throttle blip like that does not raise header or muffler temps enough to vaporize oil.

you are burning oil

 

[ice445]

Oil smoke that shows up on warm start and after idling a while is typically valve seals. (or engine braking downhill) But if you don't notice noticeable consumption between changes, it's not enough to even bother fixing.

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