Ok, so now I'm confused, and not sure about anything
This week-end I have run the engine again. In spite of what I answered to Davidmurray, I thought afterwards that it might be worth to check: perhaps the cooling circuit was just not properly drained, and that is the reason why I had to add so much water after my first run. So I made several runs of the engine, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes and even 1 hour.
And know, I think that David might be actually right. So sorry David, and thanks, you gave me the will to investigate further.
Run after run,I had to refill the header tank with less and less water. 1L to 1.5L after the run on the video as already mentioned, then 750ml, then 250 ml, and after the 3 last runs, I haven't had to refill at all (of course, I checked the lever after collong down (2-3 hours after the run). And theses 3 last runs were respectively 20 minutes, 40 minutes, and more than one hour for the last one. It looks like I'm no longer loosing coolant.
So tonight, I removed the spark plugs and the rocker cover, to check. You can see on my pictures here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9949833...7639704156803/
... that under the rocker cover, it is very clean, it is only oil, and it does not look to me like there is any trace of coolant in there.
There is also a
video (I know the distribution plastic cover is cracked (that is where the engine is leaking oil) and I bought a non-cracked one second had a couple of months ago, so replaced it tonight, as the rocker cover was open)
You can also see the spark plugs, and none of them show the signs flyerncle described.
Yesterday, there was a bit of brownish thing floating at the surface of the coolant in the header tank, but as TT said, this old engine and the second had radiator I fitted were certainly dirty. And today, not at all, as you can (not easily
) see on the pictures.
But... there is still this white smoke at the beginning, when I start up the engine when its cold. It always last 3-4 minutes but not more. After than, exhaust gas are completely invisible. I would also like to say that the smoke looks not as thick as it was last week on the video, but perhaps it is just my imagination.
Is this white smoke really abnormal? If there was a problem with the head gasket or the cracks in the head, wouldn't the engine always emit this white smoke, until there is no more coolant to burn?
So I think I'm back to the starting point, and I don't know what to do
Any ideas ?
Thanks a lot.