Well that's weird...

1949FORD

Senior Member
Okay, so... I start up the 49 today and drive it out of the garage. I let it warm up at idle for a couple of minutes. I open up the hood and i find smoke/steam coming up out of the oil fill cap. I don't know if i should be worried, because i've never seen this before in my life. Any help will be appreciated!
 
Check the level of oil in the engine and the level of water/antifreeze in the radiator. Look for water droplets on the dipstick and is the oil gray in color. If so, you have water in the oil.
 
another quick check is to see if the smoke is blue or white, white is water vapor, blue is oil smoke, but what ever you do dont panic and start taking things apart, retorque heads after engine cools off then see if it happens again after changing oil, put in some cheap stuff because your only trying to see if torquing heads worked, you will need to drain that oil out right away because there will be some water in it from being left over in the engine
 
Looks like i'll have to do what you suggested, ford3. Pulled the dipstick to recheck the oils color and yep, ive got water in there. Thanks guys for helping me out!
 
Springtime brings days of rapid temperature swings around the dewpoint when condensation happens most. Cold nights and warm days. It could be that your engine just needs a good run on the highway to steam off the condensate.

Like Ford3 said, drain the oil, paying close attention to what comes out first. If it's a lot of water or your oil has turned to gray mayonnaise you might have a more serious problem. If it's just a little water and the oil looks good, then put fresh oil and monitor the situation closely.
 
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