Smoke from tailpipe

[jmowrey]

Started up our 85 Dolphin today to take it into town for it's annual checkup at our mechanic. White to blueish smoke was coming out of the tailpipe as I drove up our ⅓ mile-long driveway. I almost wasn't going to drive it in. But then it stopped smoking and was fine for the 15 mile drive into town. Temp gauge was normal, drove and sounded normal, no loss of power or anything unusual. The mechanic said it's probably the valve seals getting old and letting some oil settle in the cylinders while the engine was idle. It has been several months since we actually took it out and drove it, but I did start it up every few of weeks over the winter and had just done that two days ago. I usually let it run about 5 minutes or so. I didn't notice any smoke coming out of the tailpipe two days ago, but I can't say I actually looked either. I just started it up and went into the house for about five minutes. So if it was smoking briefly the other day I may not have noticed.

My mechanic seems to think its just the engine getting old and said not to worry unless we see black smoke, or huge amounts of white smoke that doesn't stop pretty quickly.

This engine has been perfect since we got the Dolphin four years ago. Never burns a drop of oil. It has about 110,000 miles on it. It had 103,000 when we bought it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[vrocrider]

Oil for high mileage engines supposedly has additives to help things like valve seals stay more flexible. I'd switch to that if you haven't already.  

[Maineah]

Yep valve seals I don't think I would loose sleep over it with 110K on it you probably won't use much oil and it probably will only smoke on start up. Just keep an eye on the level. The only thing that will fix it may involve a cylinder head overhaul guides and seals there is no miracle cure.