6 replies to this topic

[Gazw]

Right then i have a mini clubman on a V reg 1980. totally standard with a 1098cc engine.

The problem i have at the moment is that on start up it blows loads of grey/white smoke and i mean LOADS, but once i've put it in gear and move away and give it some revs all is clear no smoke what so ever.

Now i previously had this problem but with no where near as much smoke and i was told it was the valve stem oil seals. So me and the brother in law changed the valve stem oil seals, head gasket, rocker cover gasket etc...... But whilst we had the cylinder head off I cleaned and checked the valves and bar 1 valve the rest where pitted quite badly and so was the cylinder head. The brother in law told me the valves where knacked but i didn't have the money at the time to get it sorted so just stuck them back in after i spent most of the day grinding them in with some grinding in paste.

Now obviously i know that the pitted valves aren't going to be doing things any good but would this cause the engine to smoke this badly? Oh and since we carried this work out, the engine seems to eat loads of oil and it's not dripping from underneath either.

I've been told to replace the cylinder head, do you think this might solve my smokey problem and oil eatting monster of a car?

This is the first mini I've ever owned and had it 2 years now and it's been just as reliable as all my over cars, just want to solve this problem before it makes anything worse.

Hope you lot can help
Cheers
Gaz.

[Stevee]

well oil is normally blue smoke

but did he fit the stems correctly?

or the head gasket could of gone between oil way and a cylinder

if you take all ur plugs out in order and see if there covered in oil if they are there's a problem

[Gazw]

yep the stems were fitted correctly. I checked the plugs yesterday in order and they were fine barring spark plug 4 which looked more damp than wet if that makes sense.

Oh and i forgot to add that over the past few months the same spark plug (4) keeps blowing on me i have to change it at least once every few weeks. I get a couple of goes at cleaning it first and everything fires up fine but then after doing this a couple of times it's knackered and i have to renew it. It blew plug 2 the other day when i started it up at work and had to replace that too.

[Cooperman]

Does the water level go down slightly all the time? Your symptoms ould be a head gasket allowing water to seep into one of the bores after you switch off and whilst the water system is still pressurised from the hot water. This water can collect in the bore(s) and will evaporate once the engine is next started and it will 'steam' from the exhaust until the water has all gone.
I saw a 998 with exactly this problem and it was running apparently fine once the water was cleared every morning. However, the seepage eroded the surface of the block which really needed skimming. This would have been a mega-job, so the block deck was lightly linished with a sanding block and emory cloth. It was a bit of a 'bodge job' but seems to have worked.

[Gazw]

No it doesn't use water, it's only loads of oil at the moment. It used to smoke like this before the work was done. The reason i carried out the work on it was to try and solve this problem in the first place. The old head gasket I took off was fine but was still blowing smoke. Could the pitted valves be some of the problem?

Edited by Gazw, 06 July 2010 - 02:21 PM.

[Gazw]

Daft question i'm going to ask here but i've just took all my spark plugs out and had a look down at the top of the pistons with a torch and all of them are coated with oil. Surely it should be dry in there?

[Gazw]

come on guys somebody must know something.