White smoke from exhaust

[hanna.melbo]

I notices this morning when i fired up the old girl that there was white smoke coming from the exhaust, i thought it was just because it was a cold day and the engine was cold, however when the engine got up to normal temp it was still happening even after 30mins...
I wouldn't be worried however in summer 2017 when out and about the cooling fan failed and i drove it 2 miles home with the temp gauge in the red!
It does smell fairly sweet indicating a potential problem but from what i remember it usually did smell like that!?
My question is, is a blown headgasket / cracked cylinder head obvious to detect just from the white smoke? As all the youtube videos show more of a cloud of white smoke rather than a small amount like mine (after 1 - 2 feet away from the tail pipe its dispersed into the atmosphere)
Anyone else having similar problems in the cold weather?

[GT_II]

Well, funny enough I followed an "M" reg Jaguar Sovereign or similar for several miles this evening and noticed plenty of vapour coming from both exhaust pipes. Water is of course one of the main combustion by-products of fuel along with carbon dioxide. I doubt what you saw is likely to be anything to worry about - probably something to do with the air being quite cold and the humidity being quite high.

[mark1gls]

Normal for white smoke from exhaust at this time of year even when the engine hot after a drive.
If the head gasket has blown you will be losing coolant so if that’s not going down it’s just the cold weather and condensation in the engine/exhaust system.

[mr.brown]

Stick your hand in the smoke and smell it after - if it smells of coolant then you need to worry. Otherwise, as above, it's perfectly normal for this time of year.

[hanna.melbo]

Ah my worries are somewhat subsided thanks fellas! I will just keep an eye on the coolant level i guess, i did try the hand in smoke sniff test but i couldn't distinguish between coolant smell and normal lethal gas smell!

[mark1gls]

Are you doing lots of short journeys?
Take it for a good run to get things nice and hot to and clear out all the water in the exhaust.. aka “an Italian tune up” if you don’t know what that means ...... drive it like you stole it and give some revs..

[hanna.melbo]

yeah unfortunately lots of short journeys, over the winter period i rarely use it so its sat outside (no garage ) but ran the engine for 20 mins to get it warm just so its not sat there for weeks on end not being driven or started up!
Might have to try the italian tune up idea i think....