Smoking Engine

[E.Hunt]

Hope some one can help.

 

after using my car for a couple of days it started smoking badly at start up from cold. Several people told me it was the valve stem seals leaking as this was common on 1.8 cvh engines. so I replaced the seals.

 

Sunday I drove to Diss for the Easthoods meet (lovely people wish I could have stade longer) and It smoked for the first couple of miles. thinking it was clearing out the last of the oil wasn't to bothered.

 

This morning started it up more blue smoke

 

am I on the right track in thinking this can only be caused by a) a scored vavle or a cracked valve guide if niether is it more serious.

 

 

Thanks in advance

Colin

[johnlrichardson]

It will just get worse It needs the bore honed and new pistons or a rebore

May be cheaper to buy a used motor

 

sorry John

[Longboarder]

I wouldn't be so pessimistic at this stage as John although he may well be right. Blue smoke means burning oil and thus oil needs to get into the combustion chambers to be burnt. The routes are down the valve stems, up the bores or blown out of the crankcase via the breather into the inlet manifold. Thin hot oil misbehaves more than cold thick oil so the problems are worse when the engine is hot. The worse the cause, bad seals or wear, the worse the problem and the more the symptoms overlap and the more difficult to diagnose. Valve stem wear and poor seals tend to give smoke on starting the engine for a few seconds (the oil drained down into the inlets when you switched it off hot last time you drove it) and as you accelerate after running with a closed throttle as in slowing for lights or running down hill. Bore wear or worn rings smoke pretty much all the time, less when cold, worse when hot. Crankcase pressure due to wear or broken rings the same.

I think a compression test on a hot engine is called for. 1) all low would suggest significant bore wear and will come up if 5ml engine oil is added to the cylinder and the test repeated. 2) one cylinder down for a broken ring(s)(or burnt valve). From what you describe it still sounds like inlet valve stem seals. I wonder if you have fitted them correctly or one or more of the inlet seals has failed or been damaged. They should be tapped onto the top of the valve guide squarely and oiled before the valve is gently pushed through. Make sure the valve stems don't have any burrs which could cut the seal. They can be done with care without removing the head if you wish.

Excess crankcase pressure due to moderate bore wear blows oil out the breather into the inlet manifold. Removing the breather from the manifold, blocking the hole into the manifold and leading the breather into a temporary catch tank will stop the smoke temporarily if that's the problem and give you the diagnosis.

Of course all this goes out the window if your engine is an old knacker and all three problems are present. In this case get a replacement. Might be a good time to consider a pinto, XE, zetec, etc.

 

Nigel

[agent_zed]

if you dont have the time or money for a major overhaul you could always add some Stop smoke. We had a van that was putting out a blue cloud, put in the stop smoke and it did what it said on the tin (whether this is because if gums the entire engine up i dont know). It'll get a little more life out of the engine at least if you are thinking of replacing in the future.

What type of oil do you use at the moment, you could always try one for older engines which is normally a bit thicker anyway.

 

HTH

[E.Hunt]

Thanks for the info. It seems more serious as i've just spent 3 days changing the head and its still doining it

 

no 1 plug is still oiling up. Going to take a compression reading as soon as ive wooked out how to use the remote starter. ( 2 wires how hard can it be )