26 replies to this topic

[siggy]

Thats better.

Is it all the time, after its warm?

Siggy

[cowboy]

as i say for the first minute it's fine then starts smoking

[siggy]

Is this the same as before you replaced the stem seals?

Did you fit valve stem seals on all the valves?

I would suspect piston rings, OK till the piston expands and traps the rings.

Siggy

[cowboy]

the smoke is as bad as before and we did put new seals on all valves, so it is looking like new rings are going to have to be fitted be fitted.

siggy do you know what is inside the breather, might take one apart to see how they are made up. this is more out of curiosity than the smoke....

[siggy]

If they are the same as Ford breathers it will be a wire mesh

Siggy

[cowboy]

so we'll go for the rings then, do a complete rebuild, or check ebay for another 1275 for now

[Dan]

As siggy said, all that is inside breathers is a bit off steel wool held in with a clip thing. The only thing that can go wrong with the actual breather is that it fills up and needs cleaning out (wash it out with parafin or degreaser but make sure it is properly clean with no degreaser left before you put it back on the engine). Or it can get a hole in it but you'd notice that as an induction air leak. If large amounts of oil are coming through the breather it is due to other problems (normally excessive blowby), usually not a problem with the breather itself. And yes, all the breathers on the Mini are the same and do the same thing, they just take gas from different areas of the engine.
But your problem does sound more like worn out bores or dodgy rings as said above.

[siggy]

If the breathers were blocked, it would pressurise the crankcase and cause oil leaks.

Siggy

[psycho mini driver]

my car burns tons of oil too (its a 1.3spi) and after reading this i disconected the brether pipe which goes into the inlet manifold, it now does not burn oil, and oil is not being draw in i guess. what would have caused it to start doing this, as i have been trying to fix it for ages, and now i have, but do not understand why it was doing it. also, will it cause any problems, or can i just stick a few breathers on and let it all run to atmosphere?!?!?

[Dan]

They don't have to be completely blocked to need cleaning though. The steel wool is there to condense the oil vapour out of the air as it passes through, and once the surface of the wool has a nice varnish built up on it it don't work no more. Also the cannisters have a reservoir in them to prevent the junk in the oil they trap from draining back into the crankcase, and once this is full there will be liquid oil running down the breather walls where it joins the block. Some of this gets picked up as droplets by the air on its way through and won't then seperate out.
Psycho, Try cleaning out the breathers for a start, it can't hurt. Also when was the last time you changed the oil filler cap? ( I assume you did plug the inlet manifold port with something when you did this)

[psycho mini driver]

il try cleaning the breathers. i did clean the filler cap out properly not so long ago. i would have done the breathers too if i had known. i presume it is relativly easy to do?!?!

[Dan]

Yeah, it's easy. Just make sure there's no solvent left inside when you put it back on or it'll drain out and dilute the oil. Doing the one on the timing chest is a bit of a pain though, so try doing the drop gear one first to see if it has any effect. Have new gaskets on hand for any that you do remove. Been trying to think what else could cause this on an SPi. Do you have an oil cooler? If the sump oil is running hot then more of it will evaporate off, or it could be to do with the type of oil you use. Can't think of anything else really. If removing the breather line stops the smoking altogether it must be something to do with crankcase ventilation.