Blowing white smoke, now being sold as a project.

[Boris]

Ok, we'll see how it goes.  I'll get to drive this car properly yet. 

[Boris]

Changed the coil, dizzy cap and rotor arm.  Took all the charge pipes and the intercooler off and cleaned them of all oil.  Checked the timing which seems to be spot on.  Still no difference, still misfiring and throwing out smoke.

Do you think it could be a fuelling problem?

[G40supercharged]

Check you have put the dizzy leads on in the right order. One of your previous posts said 2 plugs were wet and 2 dry. If you put the leads on in the right order but wrong rotation direction on the dizzy (1243 instead of 1342) it will fire on 2 only. I've done that before on a Triumph Dolomite and it took a while to work out why it was running a bit lumpy!

[Boris]

I have them running anticlockwise 1342 from the front of the dizzy cap as you look at it.  I'll take the cap off and double check I have them starting from the correct spot i.e. where the rotor arm is pointing when at TDC.

[Boris]

Just occurred to me that I may have mixed up the tappets when refitting the cam.  Do you think this could be the cause of the problem? 

[Boris]

Finally got round to checking the tappets today. Some of them appear to have no travel of the spring inside I.e. Stuck.  Is this the likely cause of the smoke? Valves being held open? 

[Boris]

Tappets were disassembled and reassembled, but were not the cause of the smoke.

Here's a couple of pics as dubstar requested to know how it was done.

Tappets removed and left in a gunk bath to try to free them off as some had no travel of the internal follower.


Didn't really make much difference really, so the previous step may not be neccessary.


After carefully but firmly knocking the tappet facedown on some soft wood, the follower and spring works its way out.


I then re-oiled and refitted the springs and followers and they moved freely.


Shame it didn't solve the problem.  Hope this helps someone else who's thinking of doing this though, very easy to do.

[Yoof]

Pull the plugs and photograph them, you'll easily tell if they're being cleaned with water, or if it's residual coolant in the exhaust.

Did you have the head pressure tested? Quite a few crack or go porous if the incorrect coolant concentration has been used for a period of time- i.e the gasket might be fine...

[Boris]

Will do.  No I didn't have it pressure tested, there's every chance it could be porous, as it had been left with just water and no coolant in it for a while.  However, it did run fine for a day after I did the bottom end changeover.  Two of the plugs are dry and two wet when they're removed and checked, cant remember which offhand.

It seems to run ok when first turned over, but then the smoke appears and it misfires when you rev the engine, putting it under pressure.

[dubstar]

Thank a lot for the pictures - that's great, much appreciated 

Hope you sort it mate 

[Boris]

Thank a lot for the pictures - that's great, much appreciated 

Hope you sort it mate 

Cheers mate, but I don't have the means to remove the engine and fix it anymore, don't have a driveway / garage to work on it, so I'm selling it on. Don't want to break it.