Blowing white smoke, now being sold as a project.

Boris · July 14, 2011, 10:53:27 PM

Car was blowing white smoke, so water getting into the cylinders. Had head skimmed and refitted it with new gasket and head bolts. Still getting white smoke.

Any ideas why?

PeteG40 · July 14, 2011, 10:57:39 PM

how good is your torque wrench? not done up right?

still water in the exhaust etc?

Boris · July 14, 2011, 10:59:51 PM

You think the torque wrench could be out?

Let it run till the engine heated up, so don't think it was residual in the exhaust

PeteG40 · July 15, 2011, 07:30:06 AM

is the header tank losing water? if so then its deffo using it and something not right... was the block face clean?

If its not then i'd take it for a run and see if it clears

hayesey · July 15, 2011, 08:53:06 AM

Can take a good motorway run to get rid of the water in the exhaust. If there is 1 litre of water in there then it'll make something like 1000 litres of steam

ereeiz · July 15, 2011, 09:59:35 AM

I've had a few golfs that steamed for what seemed like weeks after a HG. It can help if you leave the car ticking over a little higher for an hour or two to make sure the exhaust gets really hot. Try one of those tests you stick in the header tank that checks for exhaust gases in the coolant.

Boris · July 15, 2011, 10:11:25 AM

The car doesn't seem to be running right, as if it's misfiring. Is this a cause for concern? Nervous about taking it for a run and doing more damage.

Doesn't seem to be losing water from the header tank and yes the block face was clean.

Boris · July 15, 2011, 05:54:47 PM

Suspect the last two head gaskets I've used were crap (pressed paper ones) but was told they were the right ones for the py engine, I have my doubts. Anyway, I've ordered a 6n 8v metal one to try tomorrow. Hopefully that'll do the trick.

Boris · July 16, 2011, 09:48:35 PM

Well, the new head gasket seems to have done the trick. No loss of water, no oil in the water and no white gunge in the oil. However, the car is now misfiring badly and blowing out smoke which seems to be a whiteish blue.

Whipped out the spark plugs and found the one's in cyl's 2 and 4 are wet, whereas 1 and 4 are dry and look as they should. Checked all the wiring and firing order etc.. all seem fine.

Any ideas what could be causing the misfire?

Boris · July 17, 2011, 02:21:02 PM

Checked the earths - ok, checked for spark - ok, changed the ht's - no difference, checked for fuelling - ok. Knocking from the engine tells me its probably the piston rings that have gone. Back to square one.

Boris · July 17, 2011, 05:52:17 PM

On second thoughts, I have upped the compression ratio by having the head skimmed and also by using a thinner head gasket. Maybe the NGK spark plugs just aren't up to it. Also, the timing has only been set by lining up the marks so far, not with a gun. I'll get a set of Bosch W5DPO's and also correctly set the timing and see how we go with that.

PeteG40 · July 17, 2011, 08:40:04 PM

ngk plugs should be good bp7evx..

timing light needed me thinks

Boris · July 17, 2011, 09:18:15 PM

Thats what I have at the moment. Hopefully, as you say, it's just the timing needing adjusting.

Boris · July 18, 2011, 01:38:11 PM

Is it worth changing the coil too?

PeteG40 · July 18, 2011, 02:15:01 PM

with g40, preventative maintenance is key.

If its 20 yrs old, chances are it'll break soon!