White smoke on start after sitting for a hour or 2

There is some very good info on this site for diagnosing this problem, but mine seems to be a little different or not completely progressed.

1997 Windstar 3.8, 253,000 miles. Last week it began starting up a little rough cold for the first 30-45 seconds. You can smell antifreeze on startup, but not too bad. Now on the other hand, when it is shut off after driving and re-started about 2-3 hours later it has WAY too much white smoke coming out and tailpipe dripping. No check engine lights, no acceleration or idling problems once it is in motion and warmed up, and no antifreeze in oil. There is some oil in the coolant reservoir, but only enough to turn it dark, nothing substantial. It does take a few revs to get it to idle correctly before take off.

I have yet to pull plugs, but there are no other leaks or issues besides a small tick (that sounds like a lifter) sometimes on a cold start for about 45 seconds and then stops immediately upon warmup.

Any ideas?

You probably have a bad head gasket, pull all of your spark plugs the one with the leaking gasket will probably be obvious and be sopping wet with anti-freeze or just look very clean compared to the other plugs. But if all of the plugs look ok do a compression test it should tell you which cylinder is leaking.

I would also stop driving it (or limit driving it to essential trips) until you can get this fixed, antifreeze in the oil is not good for the engine's various bearings.

Monitor your oil and water levels very carefully and see if either change from their starting reference marks (oil dipstick level and waterline on the overflow canister). Do the test on level ground and preferably cold after sitting all night.

Does your model have a radiator cap? ... or the pressurized reservoir?

If "no" to the radiator cap and "yes" to the pressurized reservoir ... loosen the reservoir cap a round or two and leave it that way. This won't fix anything ... but it will lessen the amount of coolant that is currently finding its way into the combustion chamber. When you shut down the engine and the coolant is under pressure ... the coolant is pushed into the engine ... by loosening the cap the pressure is reduced ... the crossover is reduced. Voila'.

The head gaskets are most likely fine, unless there has been some overheating situation.
More common is leaking lower intake manifold gaskets, that can leak coolant into the intake....which is then drawn into the cylinders.

Do you have to add coolant to the vehicle?
If a stop leak or "water cool" additive has been added to the coolant, that is likely what you are seeing in the overflow bottle.
I mention this to remove that possibility from the list.....in case you have added anything to the coolant.....other than coolant/water.

Unfortunately I have the pressurized cap so that probably disspells that one notion.

Also, there has been no previous overheating issue....not even running hot for that matter.

I have been keeping a close eye on the fluid levels and the oil has no water at all in it. The coolant loss from the visible reservoir is next to nothing. I haven't had to add coolant and I personally have added no stop leak/Bar's to it, but the smell of motor oil is present when the overflow cap is off.

As of right now this issue is only intermittent (if I had a dollar for every "intermittent" issue with this van...:banghead:)

OK latest update:

While driving this thing on Saturday, I just happened to glance down at the temp gauge which was reading all the way high, just short of the red zone. Strange. I pulled over, popped the hood and sure enough, the fans were on and it was not cooling down no matter what I tried. I said forget it, whatever, I'll drive it home and hope it blows up (getting sick of this van).:sarcasmsign:

Then all of a sudden, on the way home there is this huge hill I have to drive up, once I started up the hill I heard something that sounded kinda like a "click" and the temp gauge plummeted to the normal (about halfway) range. Once home I checked the radiator cap and it was gunked up pretty bad from the last few years (I assume) so I cleaned it off and the CRS hole in the radiator was kind of blocked so I removed the debris and added coolant (it took about 1 pints worth)

Over the last week it only has this smoking/running rough issue intermittently and since I cleaned the cap and hole that feeds the CRS, no more overheating. It seems like this gets stranger by the minute.:shakehead

It sounds like you had some air in the system.
A little bit of air can cause the overheating.
You can tell if there is coolant in the upper radiator hose by squeezing it.....
YES, it is possible to be low on coolant in the radiator and not in the overflow bottle.
Keep in mind, that it is possible to air to leak in....just as it is possible for coolant to leak out.

I have seen posts stating that the cross-over pipe......goes from the water pump to the heater hose connection on the driver's side......It can develop pin holes and leak.

Again, if coolant is getting into the cylinders, it is VERY unlikely to be caused by the head gaskets......however....as I stated before.....lower intake manifold gaskets are known to leak.
Lower intake manifold gasket leaks are an issue on a number of different vehicles.
If you get the FORD/Motorcraft brand as replacements......they will be the improved type.....as FORD figured out why they were failing, and made improvements to them.
By this time, a good brand name aftermarket......like Felpro, should have the improvements as well.....although I would personally get the OEM.....as they are not real expensive......Labor is by far the majority of the repair cost.
I want to guess the cost to be from a low of $400 to a high of $600 to have the job done......include a new cross-over pipe and hoses with the repair as well as a new thermostat as you have access to them at this point.
However, with the improved gaskets, it should be a 1 time repair.

A new thermostat might well be a good idea anyhow.....as it is possible that it is sticking in the closed position (although from your description, you had air in the system.....which I have had cause the same symptom as you describe).

The other known leak point is the front cover (AKA timing cover) gasket.
Again, the replacement part is improved (even most any aftermarket) and it should be a 1 time repair.
HOWEVER, this is a expensive repair.....about $20 for the gasket and may $$$ labor as it is NOT an easy or quick repair.

BEFORE diving into either of the $$$ jobs I mention.....check your radiator and heater hoses......look for any signs of leakage....particularly at the connections.
A slight leak at a connection can leak coolant on the "hot" cycle and draw in air on the "cool" cycle.
DON'T over-tighten as the connections on the radiator are plastic.

Thanks wiswind, you gave me a lot of useful info on this issue. I probably should have mentioned that my van also has no heat, and hasn't since I acquired it almost a year ago. I know it is not the blend door, as I have taken off the actuator and manually turned the door slot with an extra long Flathead screwdriver.

I almost wanna believe these issues are related, or that one triggered the other.

UPDATE:

Ok, so I went to Autozone and purchased a new thermostat and radiator cap. Put the cap on and then realized I didn't have the necessary tools to do the stat myself so I said "lump it".

So I put on the cap, ran the heater at full blast (even though I have no heat still and it blows cold) and after a few hours of driving, no more overheating, no more white smoke, no more antifreeze smell. I also pulled the front 3 plugs and noticed nothing unusual (but I did manage to pull the guts out of one of my wires) The last day it was overheating the temp gauge was fluctuating REAL wildly.

Now on to attempting to fix the HEAT issue.

I would still plan on changing out that thermostat ... they can go crazy.