Smoke around exhaust manifold runners?

[radiod]

Okay, I JUST finished my head swap and fired the car up today. Fires up nicely, runs without a hitch, no check engine light .

After running for a little bit I noticed that there was some white(ish) smoke comming up from by the exhaust manifold between runners. I know that there is a very small coolant leak on my thermostat housing (hopefully just gotta replace the O-ring), but that seemed to be dripping down on to the water pump and power steering pump (in the front). Any other ideas on what that could possibly be? Is it normal to smoke a tiny bit on first start after doing a top end build?

I didn't get to run the car much tonight because it's pretty loud in the residential area, but I'll be coming back to it tomorrow. Let me know if you have anything else for me to check and I'll keep ya updated

 

[hvyman]

usually normal to smoke a lil after a nhg repair(head only) but it could also be that your exhaust manifold studs are loose or the threads are ripping out( kinda normal for the 20 yr old alum head) and loosening up.

 

[radiod]

It's a low km head, hardness tested ok. I wouldn't expect the exhaust manifold bolts to be loosening. All torqued to spec with a torque wrench. I'll run it a bit longer today. Like I said, I didn't get a chance to run the car much due to the time, I doubt it was one for even more than 5 minutes.

 

[radiod]

Just for other's reference.

After running the car for an hour yesterday and driving it to work this morning, there's no more smoke or anything. Everything seems happy