blown piston ring?

[x3cindymichael]

hey guys when i start my car up it shoots white smoke out of the exhaust/tailpipe but then it goes away (only happens every now it then) stopped for a while and started again randomly. Was driving today and then a heap of smoke came out , pulled over turned car off for a minute of two checked bay everything seemed fine. started car again blew smoke then stopped (blew again while i drove down the road then stopped) pretty sure its stopped now. any ideas? i was thinking blown piston ring..

any help appreciated

thankss

[mugen_ctr]

im no mechanic, but from my understanding white smoke = head gasket problems

If its more bluish smoke, than its a seal or piston ring problem, as its the color of oil burning...

[hmetro24]

Check your coolant level everyday, if it goes low, so possible Water is leaking in the chamber which possibly is head gasket.
Do compression test, than do Leakdown test.

[x3cindymichael]

Ah ok thanks guys what's worse but blown head gasket or piston rings ? Um pretty sure my coolant has been on the same level for quite some time so don't think that's the problem . But yeah will get leakdown test and compression test done thanks fellas

[Lukey]

white smoke is usually burning coolant/water

[hmetro24]

Ah ok thanks guys what's worse but blown head gasket or piston rings ? Um pretty sure my coolant has been on the same level for quite some time so don't think that's the problem . But yeah will get leakdown test and compression test done thanks fellas

Piston ring is worse

[Lukey]

either can be bad depending on wear & tear of the engine.

[blabla]

Sorry to hijack the thread what does leak down test do and is one of these hard to perform?

[hmetro24]

Sorry to hijack the thread what does leak down test do and is one of these hard to perform?

leak down test mean, is when they test each cylinder and know where is it leaking(example:intake,exhaust,head,block, pistons...)
compression test is when it show the compression on each cylinder, which can tell if its holding compression or not. Some times compression could be good but but not 100% accurate

[Khuong]

Check ur oil off ur dipstick, if it's milky then it should b ur head gasket

[blabla]

leak down test mean, is when they test each cylinder and know where is it leaking(example:intake,exhaust,head,block, pistons...)
compression test is when it show the compression on each cylinder, which can tell if its holding compression or not. Some times compression could be good but but not 100% accurate

Thanks.

[x3cindymichael]

ah okay thanks guys. yeah i checked dipstick oil is normal color . my mate had a blown gasket and his oil was cofee/milky. but yeah will be getting a compression test done soon (anyone know how much one of these cost? ) put some fluids in from supercheap over the weekend (something about fixing compression of cylinders and stop smoke.. just to help it a bit for now) thanks for all the input guys