Having a tough time completing the drivers manifold and whole Y pipe replacement and could use an opinion here..
Just spent a couple absolutely miserable several long days on it but got the replacements bolted up and there are (i think) no more spotty exhaust leak sounds (pff pff pff pff pff pff) after a bunch of re-bolting, but I've still got LOTS of smoke coming directly up from the new exhaust and a little smoke coming up the other manifold Y pipe connection (the new-ish passenger manifold which has been there working great for two years now).
I'm basically having trouble figuring out if it's Deep Creep and Super Clean burning off, or if it's actual exhaust spewing out from imperfect seals. You'd think that once you bolted something up to the point where there are no more exhaust Pff Pff sounds, that there'd also be no more exhaust smoke coming out.
Also... you'd think that if it IS just the Deep Creep and Super Clean burning off, the smoking would only occur when the engine is hot enough, and also the smoking would keep burning after shutting down the engine and last until the engine cooled down enough. Both of those symptoms are true in my case... No smoke at cold startup, smoking starts once engine is hot, then after shutdown it keeps smoking until engine cools enough, maybe like 5 minutes.
But here's the question... could that still be just plain exhaust? Does the truck not create as much exhaust during startup, and create more once warm? Or does it maybe take time to accumulate inside the exhaust pipes? And after the engine is shut down, would there be enough exhaust smoke sitting inside Y pipe to keep spewing out for say 5 minutes without engine running and eventually it's all seeped out? If not, then i suppose it's just substances burning off still.
I'd love to lean towards this being Deep Creep and Super Clean burning off, but holy hell it does not seem to stop. I mean it was a long project and I've used Deep Creep a ton when doing both the valve covers and the drivers manifold, but how long will it take it all to burn off? It's misleading my whole diagnosis of whether it's exhaust I'm seeing or it's just substance burn off i'm seeing, so i can't really determine if the exhaust is sealed fully. Driving me nuts.
I've started up the engine like 5 times and let the fumes continue for around 5 minutes each time, and it has not slowed down one bit. Just smoking and smoking.
So i guess my only real option is to just take it for a long drive and see if it's stopped eventually. But that really sucks, potentially driving with a major amount of smoke spewing up from engine bay on the road. It's not as much as an overheated engine, but it looks similar to it and I don't want to deal with police. It's also just scary, the thought that it could be something real bad that I'm not realizing. I'm weary of letting it idle forever too. Is it in some way possible that Deep Creep residue could ignite? I still have no fan, that's the next install. Truck seems to stay in mid temp pretty well though, new thermostat is doing its job. It's not hot enough weather for idle overheats, really.
After doing this manifold, I think i should have just pulled the whole top end and done the head gasket job for the sake of it and re-drilled the bolt holes on heads while off the engine, and done the top end rebuild including lifters. I just wasted so much time removing the manifold and doing holes from the horrible angle. :/ Most of that time could have been done puling the whole top. However, it still would have been a bear of a task removing the manifold, even with head off. I may have ended up buying two new performance heads just to be done with this manifold bolt situation forever, and maybe benefit in some other ways.
Once i have this exhaust completed, I'm doing to just conclude that my original reason for posting this thread, the wild lumpy startups, is not solvable by anything other than pulling the engine and doing a full rebuild. I've tried just about everything peripheral, except for replacing the oil pump. Startups are identical still, although engine seems to keep getting quieter every step of the way. Referring to AFTER crazy startups/warmups. I suppose I could do one last big project before pulling engine and try propping it for the oil pump. Anything sounds easier than this manifold business.
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