white smoke...

[voucht]

Hi,
It is the 3rd radiator I fit on my car, the two first were leaking. Bad luck...

This morning, I fitted the 3rd radiator. After a long run, and a thorough check, it looks like it is not leaking. Finally

But I think I have now another problem. A bigger problem actually. Not the first time I notice it, but this time, I made a video for you to see.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99498333@N06/11840767876/


The video only shows the first 7'30'' of the whole run, but the 5 first minutes would have been enough, and 7 minutes is still pretty long (and boring) to watch, so if you can't watch it completely, here are the key moments:

Time 0. I start the engine, cold, no problem. A bit of steam on the collector and the exhaust pipes is just due to a bit of condensation on these parts (yes, this is Sweden in winter !)

Time: 1 minute. A very thick and white smoke starts coming out from the exhaust. It looks like the head gasket is dead, no? Temperature of the engine is still cold if I refer to the temperature gauge of the dash board (which is working)

Time: 4 minutes. It stops smoking. Exhaust gas look pretty normal now. Why if the head gasket is broken? The temperature of the engine is still quite low, and is slowly rising, nothing looks abnormal when it comes to the temperature.

Time: 7 minutes: water hoses and radiator are still not hot. Which means that the thermostat is still closed, or all the water has evaporated during the 4 first minutes!

Time: 7'30'' : video stops...

Time 12-15 minutes : hoses and radiator start to heat up, which means that the thermostat is now open, and water (or steam!) is circulating. Temperature is still going up, but slowly.

Time 25 minutes: water temperature is at mid range of the gauge.

Time 35 minutes : Fan starts up now, water has reached the trigger temperature.

Time 40 minutes : I turn the engine off.


This was this morning. I checked tonight, when everything has cooled down, and the header tank was completely empty (I had to refill with about 1,5 litre of water). Is this a normal thing, or does than mean that this smoke was actually all this water being evaporated?

What do you think is my problem? Might these 3 minutes of white smoke occur because I put too much coolant in the circuit in the first place*? Or is my head gasket definitely dead?

Thank you.

[alga]

I've heard that Ford TwinCams are prone to head cracking. Do you have any signs of exhaust gasses in the coolant?

That said, my roadster also emits white vapour during the first minutes of a cold start in cool weather.

Albertas

[jason 82]

Sounds like the head gasket has gone, that sounds as if water is getting into the block, & it's burning it off. My rover 25 was identical to that. I took the head for a skim, and was told that it was badly distorted, & was advised to check the block face, and that needed a shave as well. It's a bitch of a job, but it's the kind of thing that you only want to do once. It's very rare that the block face needs a skim, but for the sake of dropping a straight edge across it, it could save hours and hours of wasted time and effort. Good luck !

[K4KEV]

Hi Syl... I defo think most of that is water vapor in your exhaust gases and you most certainly are using it some where if you have to top up 1.5 lt ....is there any white/grey gunge (emulsified oil) in either your coolant or rocker cover if there is, that would defo point to hg issues .....smell your header tank for petrol/exhaust fumes or if it is over-pressurizing , check head bolts
certainly sounds like hg failure.....needless to say it can only get worse if it is

[flyerncle]

Warm it up with correct amount of water in header tank and then run it at about 2500 rpm for a couple of minutes and then turn it off and let it cool for a few minutes,remove the plugs and look to see if one of them is cleaner than the others and that would probably be due to the water in the cylinder giving you more O2 and therefore better combustion and the possibility of HG failure as the plug would be burnt cleaner than the others.

Emulsified oil in rocker cover can be many things,short journeys,crap oil,lack of service,does not always mean head gasket.

most simple and quickest test is to check for HC in header tank but you need access to gas test to do this (mot station).

[twinturbo]

Early DOHC's ( as in the sierra ) had single layer head gaskets. which is prone to failure.

Later Scorpio/Galaxy use a multi layer gasket which is much better.

But the head also does crack between the valves lettign water past and into thebores with no other obvious signs except for possibly full or partial hydualic lock on startup.

If there is absolutly no other sign of a leak then one of the above is the logical conclusion.

TT

[j.brownster79]

I would agree with the other guys sounds and looks like head trouble! U would always get a little white smoke on initial start up due to the cold weather, a few things to look at is 1, look for brown sludge in the rocker cover ( water getting into your oil) 2, coolant system pressuring quickly ( leak across the water jackets) 3, do a hydro carbons test there is a liquid tester you can buy which is not expensive the liquid starts of purple and goes green if there is unburnt fuel in the cooling system! If it proves to be head probs get it skimmed but also pressure tested cos you wouldn't see a crack with ur eyes it could only open up when it gets warm! 1.5 ltrs of water is going somewhere!! Normal engine conditions shouldn't loose any! Hope you get it sorted soon