white smoke...

[Enoch]

Looks like a new Pope has been elected
If you wanted to try a very quick bodge you could put a bottle of K seal in it. If you don't know k seal, it was developed for the Rover K series engine, which has a dirty habit of head gasket failure. In actual fact it's not always gasket failure and more to do with erosion of the head or top of the block. Some say liner slippage is the cause but K seal often does the trick. It's not massively expensive (about £7 a bottle over here) and may just help you get through your inspection without having to do an engine swap.
Best of luck with whatever way you go.
Dave.

[flyerncle]

Does anybody know you are out on your own ?

Drill a small hole in flange of thermostsat to allow air out,did this on the large amount of Rover h/g I have done in the last don't know how many years.

[voucht]

Thank you for the last replies.

Yes I thought about the Pope thingy too

I'm pretty sure I bled the water circuit properly, I always fill it with the top hose disconnected, and reconnect it when water starts to come out of it, as it is the highest point of the system, I think it was not the problem, but thanks for the input.

As I said, I want to avoid any repair, time and expense if I have to change the engine at one point anyway. I just no longer trust this engine, and I don't want it to become a bottomless well for my time and money. I still have more than two weeks before the inspection, and I think I have time to swap the engine before. Doing it after will be more paperwork, perhaps another inspection, so better to have the final engine before. But thanks for the tip Enoch :-)

TT, the Scorpio engine I might buy is a 8v DOHC for sure, it is from 1992. I would have loved to fit a 16v from a Scorpio or RS2000, not impossible as it is the same block, and it would have solve my under-bonnet clearance problems too. But I would have to change the exhaust manifold which is now adapted to my exhaust line, and buy the right ECU and engine loom. So I will keep it simple, and cheap for now.

Here is the info on the engine if you want to check. ("mileage is in "Swedish miles", which is not a mile, but 10km! So the engine is 150.000km)
http://en.bildelsbasen.se/index.php?...ost_id=8649700

The only difference I can see with mine, is that mine is a N9C and this one a N9D, but according to Wikipedia, they are the same. I will get pictures of the engine early next week, so I will be 100% sure.

Thank you very much for the help

[twinturbo]

It will have the old style gasket though unless it's been done already.

TT

[voucht]

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.

[davidimurray]

Good news that you are not suffering from water loss Shifting air out engines can be quite difficult - my pinto did not not fully bleed itself until I actually took it for a drive.

In terms of 'white smoke' it sounds perfectly normal to me, particularly if the weather is a bit cold. If I start mine at the moment it will blow 'white smoke' for 5-10 minutes. It is only condensation and once the exhaust is hot it will stop.

[j.brownster79]

Agree with David condensation in the exhaust will cause a little white smoke on the initial start up until the exhaust is warm if you want to be sure about the head gasket get one of these testers for a piece of mind!! Look at this on eBay:

UNIVERSAL BLOCK TESTER KIT FOR GASKETS & CYLINDER HEADS BT500

http://bit.ly/18DxniX

[flyerncle]

Think about this,the cat is there to clean up the emissions and is doing exactly that by turning CO and Hc into "Water Vapour" white smoke !

[voucht]

Yep Paul, you're totally right It makes me more confident in the fact that my engine could actually be OK. But I want to be 100% sure.

The block testers are really expensive here (£70!), but I could manage to have one lent by the local garage, I just have to pay for the fluid. So if everything goes fine, I'll do the test tomorrow, and I'll know for sure if the head and/or head gasket have problems.

The spare engine I found looks to be in a good condition if I refer to the pictures I received today, so the alternative is ready anyway!

Thanks again for the help.

[flyerncle]

Hope so Sylvain,get the garage to check in the header tank for HC is the quickest way to test for HG failure with gas anyalyser.