Finally got her back up and running after the Head Gasket job. Let her run for a bit to warm up, but she started smoking a lot after a few minutes, so I cut it.

White smoke coming from the back of the exhaust, and tons of smoke coming from under the exhaust manifolds and around the cats. Is this just residual coolant burning off/out? It smells more like burning plastic, rather than anything sweet. I don't see anything rubbing any belts or moving parts.

 

Checking first that you don't have a fire problem, if you had coolant or oil in your exhaust before the head gasket job then it is expected to take 10 minutes or so to burn out that residual.

Of course, you want to insure that you aren't burning *new* coolant or oil, too.

 

 

Yes, I cleaned up the tops of the pistons, but a few still had some gunk I couldn't get off.

I did use plenty of penetrating oils trying to get all the bolts and such off, so that would make sense, too.