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Jesse Holden · 21-05-2007, 14:52

Remove the cap from the surge tank and with the engine running look for bubbles on the surface of the coolant, and when the tank is cool imerse your finger in the coolant and look at it carefully for oil residue. The presence of bubbles and oil in the surge tank will usualy indicate a leaking head gasket. But please remember what Wheels pointed out earlier in this thread, these are old tech engines and they smoked at low temperature and low RPM when they were brand new. They smoke a bit, They make a little noise too, but they are great engines. Jesse

CSY Man · 21-05-2007, 17:29

Quote:

Then re-torque them back down to the correct tension and in the correct sequance. DO NOT remove or even disturb the head. Just loosen and retighten the bolts. The gasket may be well sealed and you don't want to break that seal, or it will mean a new headgasket.

Hmm, I thought ya were not supposed to touch the head bolts after the first 50 hours of engine time..

You trick may work, but ya may have to change the head gasket if there is any kind of vertical "movement"??

avazquez · 22-05-2007, 04:04

This is amazing...thanks to all for the help.......

Well first of all the engine has about thirty hours after the rebuild.

The engine has an expansion tank so I can see the level. It is one of those plastic expansion tanks about 6" x 6". After replacing the thermostat I replaced the coolant and used the engine for less than an hour and I noticed it did lose about a centimeter of coolant. It may be that trapped bubbles moved around maybe.

I think re-torquing the head is a good idea considering that it was rebuilt. I will post the results.

I guess a small mpeg video of the engine smoke would help....is there a way to post it here?

CSY Man · 22-05-2007, 10:54

Quote:

I guess a small mpeg video of the engine smoke would help....is there a way to post it here?

Post it on YouTube.

(May not get the most hits....)

SkiprJohn · 22-05-2007, 13:13

Be very careful not to over tighten the head bolts. Don't ask me how I know. : )
JohnL

**Alan Wheeler** · 23-05-2007, 13:24

Arrrr, it's amasing what a little more info can bring.
OK, yes you will have a small coolant lose like that. It could even be due to expansion and then not quite sucking enough collant back in through the cap on contraction. Panic when the coolant level disappears compleatly from view.
Yes you need to retighten the head bolts. Normally about 50-100hrs you should retighten on a Cast/Cast engine. Ally/Cast engines you usually only do the once. Modern engines can use special gaskets and special bolts that only require one torque down. These older engines need a second tighten. The bolt twists as it is torqued. But it does not "untwist". As the head expands and contracts with use, the twist can work its way out and loosen. So a second pull down ensures the bolts are home really tight. That's it in a very basic nutshell. It's actually much more complex than that, but this will do fine for explanation.

avazquez · 13-06-2007, 05:40

The other day I had some spare time and decided to re-torque the head bolts. Thinking it was as easy as when I did it in my Alfa Romeo I removed the cover and found out that it requires some more disassembly of the cam etc. I stopped and put it back together for another day. But the smoke has subsided quite a bit after the installation of the thermostat. Now as I turn on the engine it smokes white and as soon as I put it in gear for the initial warm up the smoke goes away and when the engine reaches 180 and goes back to neutral very little smoke comes out.

SkiprJohn · 13-06-2007, 12:16

Avazquez,

I believe what you see when you take the valve cover off is the rocker arms and shaft? What you should see is the rockers not the cam. Remove them and you should be able to get to headbolts. When removing the rockers make certain the push rods don't lift up. Hold them down in place. It shouldn't be hard to hold them down because its just a little bit of oil that is holding them to the bottom of the rocker. You don't want them coming up off their seat. When reinstalling the rocker shaft you will want to back off on the valve adjustment screws so that you don't put too much pressure on the push rods and possibly bend them. Torque the rocker shaft mounting bolts (15lbs for my Mercedes). Now all you have to do is adjust valve clearance and reinstall your valve cover.

Good to have an engine manual handy for all the torque values and valve adjustment clearances.

Regards, JohnL

avazquez · 14-06-2007, 06:55

Thank you........Like I have said before, this site is simply amazing.Yes I do have the manual and will proceed as per your suggestions and the manual. Maybe this weekend.

MikeNZ · 29-01-2009, 13:24

Hi Avazquez

Just keen to know if you ever solved this. It's been ages since the last post and I'll bet a lot of us would like to know how you got on and what the final solution was.

Mike

avazquez · 29-01-2009, 17:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeNZ

Hi Avazquez

Just keen to know if you ever solved this. It's been ages since the last post and I'll bet a lot of us would like to know how you got on and what the final solution was.

Mike

Yes!

I solved the problems. 1. I rotated the injection pump a bit more and the smoking went away. 2. Found an air leak in the fuel supply right before the hand pump. 3. One of the rubbers at the end of the heat exchanger was allowing the coolant to leak into the exhaust.

Now it runs great....