White Smoke at idle - new head, new pcv, etc.

[ojdorson]

Okay... at idle, while the car was doing the smoke I checked the coolant expansion tank. There were very occasional (not many at all) champagne sized bubbles coming up from the bottom hose. Is that normal, or a sign of something wrong?

I haven't taken off the IC pipes yet, but will this weekend.

[misha]

Assuming that engine is at operating temperature and thermostat is fully opened,then YES,sounds like you have a small head gasket leak.

[Swedish Chef]

Were the bubbles consistant? If so then its one or more of 4 things #1 cracked cylinder #2head gasket #3 warped head #4 cracked head ,now i know in your mind your thinking about a massive crack but working as a machinist in the past ive seen very minute hairline cracks that would cause this to happen, however i dont know or have ever seen Volvo cylinder sleeves/heads in the machine shop so im only assuming that they are reliable ( dont crack), this may just be a leaky head gasket and i would seek a machine shop or equipped mechanic to pessurize each cylinder individually as they watch the expansion tank!

[copandengr]

Were the bubbles consistant? If so then its one or more of 4 things #1 cracked cylinder #2head gasket #3 warped head #4 cracked head ,now i know in your mind your thinking about a massive crack but working as a machinist in the past ive seen very minute hairline cracks that would cause this to happen, however i dont know or have ever seen Volvo cylinder sleeves/heads in the machine shop so im only assuming that they are reliable ( dont crack), this may just be a leaky head gasket and i would seek a machine shop or equipped mechanic to pessurize each cylinder individually as they watch the expansion tank!

Amen to this entire post. It is right on. As much as you do not want to believe it could be your head or head gasket, that is the only place where there is a vacuum that would draw in coolant into the combustion process. I say this because the bubbles you are seeing in the expansion tank would confirm the problem. There are sniffers that will test the tank for combustion gasses. They work just like a freon sniffer. Any well equipped mechanic should have this device. Also, white smoke is usually steam created by the engine, but in older cars of American make there were instances where a modulator on the auto trans would go bad and suck trans fluid into the manifold. A very small amount of auto trans fluid will create a very large amount of white smoke. I do not know enough about Volvos to say this is a possibility. Maybe someone here can say for sure.

[Keith19851985]

Hey I have same issue had 2 shops inspect head got new Volvo brand hg and bolts and still smokes like freight train it runs 2 min no smoke then I guess heats up and pours smoke a lil smoke looks like it’s coming from turbo but it could be the crack in exhaust elbow but I inspected piston jackets when it was apart didn’t see any visible cracks the reservoir water after running 5 min was extremely hot whole engine got pretty hot any recomendations