33 replies to this topic

[il-barba]

if you do find an answer please post it here, especially if its related to not being used for a long time

[tomtic]

if you do find an answer please post it here, especially if its related to not being used for a long time

Nah it was used regularly for 2 years, headgasket went had to run it home on 2 cylinders. Re did the headgasket, ran ok for a short while, started to get some blue smoke until it just got worse by the day. Eventually just putting out clouds of smoke, so had to take it off the road and get a car i could rely on for upto a 50-60 mile round trip every day

At that point I'd just accepted it was pretty much terminal and was looking at replacing the unit for a 1275, or going for a higher spec engine. Though if it is just a seal or gasket then it'd be nice to run the 998 over summer and save up for a decent spec engine to drop in.

Started it though, lots of nice black smoke to clear itself out, followed with the normal blue smoke when revving.

[T.Harper]

are all the plugs fouled with oil? it's a long shot but head gasket may not be sealing around the oil holes, and this could be finding its way into the cylinder. You would probably find coolant and oil mixing here though. Worth checking for the sake of popping the plugs out?

Edited by T.Harper, 28 April 2008 - 09:55 PM.

[tomtic]

are all the plugs fouled with oil? it's a long shot but head gasket may not be sealing around the oil holes, and this could be finding its way into the cylinder. You would probably find coolant and oil mixing here though. Worth checking for the sake of popping the plugs out?

Plugs were pretty ok when it was being run every day, quite a rich brown. When I started it up yesterday for the first time in a while, they were very black.. but that's probably expected.

[Retro_10s]

This sounds JUST like my old 1098, GFood compression, Head had been sorted already so i knew it wasn't that. My Piston rings were shot, It drove beautifully and showed no signs off complaint other than the smoking.

Until they finally broke,.. at which point the rings fell into the gearbox,. and that was that

[tomtic]

This sounds JUST like my old 1098, GFood compression, Head had been sorted already so i knew it wasn't that. My Piston rings were shot, It drove beautifully and showed no signs off complaint other than the smoking.

Until they finally broke,.. at which point the rings fell into the gearbox,. and that was that

Sounds like its the rings then, cheers is it even worth getting the rings replaced or just get a new block (1275 ) and rebuild it?

[minimender]

I would say it was rings, try running the engine on minimum oil level or as near to it as you dare and it should smoke less. Worn valve guides allow oil to accumulate in cylinders on overrun then it burns when you put your foot down resulting in lots of blue smoke. Same when allowed to tick over for a bit.
Probably worn bores/rings if the engine has done more than 70,000 and not had regular oil changes. I once bought a 38000 mile Mini which was genuine but the engine was well worn and the oil was like glue.
Modern engines will go for high mileages where the block and pistons are concerned but the 'A' series needs constant maintainance to even crack the 100,000 without a rebuild.

One thing you can check is that the breathers are clear and free of gunge, this will help.

[tomtic]

I would say it was rings, try running the engine on minimum oil level or as near to it as you dare and it should smoke less. Worn valve guides allow oil to accumulate in cylinders on overrun then it burns when you put your foot down resulting in lots of blue smoke. Same when allowed to tick over for a bit.
Probably worn bores/rings if the engine has done more than 70,000 and not had regular oil changes. I once bought a 38000 mile Mini which was genuine but the engine was well worn and the oil was like glue.
Modern engines will go for high mileages where the block and pistons are concerned but the 'A' series needs constant maintainance to even crack the 100,000 without a rebuild.

One thing you can check is that the breathers are clear and free of gunge, this will help.

When putting foot down yes there is a lot of blue smoke, when allowed to tick over the smoke clears - get a slight amount of very 'white' smoke.
The engine has done around 30,000 miles, and being honest the cylinder head has been off 3-4 times in the past 18 months so I know the engine is pretty good. The bores are good too. The engine has had regular oil changes too. The only problem was the headgasket went between 2 of the cylinders and i had no way to get it home other than drive it, so I'm not sure whether this could have damaged it?

The head was rebuilt and it ran fine again, shortly after i started getting the smoke and it gradually got worse.

[mottyuk90]

i have had exactly the same problem with my mini. i started loosing power on the way home from work last thursday and eventually boke down. i waited for a while and let the engine cool down then drove it about 5 miles. sat i had a look and the head gasket was split between to pistons. mine is putting out blue smoke as well after the head gasket was changed!! i also replace the spark plugs but god knows. theshop said i didnt need gasket sealer on the head is that right? if anyone does find out please let me know aswell!

cheers

Edited by mottyuk90, 29 April 2008 - 10:59 AM.

[duncancallum]

if its been hot you could loose the temper out of the oil control rings

you need to pull it out and strip it i think.

[mottyuk90]

Do you mean just strip it, clean it and look for visual damge or replace everything?

thanks

[duncancallum]

Id pull it out and have a look and mesure every thing up and replaces hat needs doing

when you say you had the block leveled how?

[il-barba]

thin oil will cause blue smoke too?

[duncancallum]

a mini is built with big tolences so running a thin oil 10-40 10-30 5-30 ect will cause more leaks also only run it on minereal as the gearbox acts like a blender and cuts the long chain molecules in fully synth oil

[tomtic]

a mini is built with big tolences so running a thin oil 10-40 10-30 5-30 ect will cause more leaks also only run it on minereal as the gearbox acts like a blender and cuts the long chain molecules in fully synth oil

I run with 20w/50s mineral oil, so its not thin oil. Seems motty appears to have an identical problem to me!

As for the breathers, they seem ok, I have had an odd problem where the breather 'can' is pushing out a lot of smoke (it fills my garage if I leave the breather pipe off!) could this be related?