Smoking!

[E-LAD]

Good evening, I had HGF at the end of May & due to overwork its only recently that it has all gone back together.Myself & Jeffb rebuilt it but had problem sealing the rear nearside inlet manifold, but was hoped that a bottle of k seal would cure that. This weekend I put on the camcovers using the silicon gaskets but when started up the oil shot out of cam covers ran down onto exhaust which I thought was causing it to smoke.We had lost one of the brass nuts that held on exhaust to manifold, I replaced that today along with the one next to it which wasn;t holding it right. I also dropped the plain water out to replace with water/ antifreeze & some sand also came out with it! I had replaced hoses etc earlier this year & flushed it out.( I have flushed it out about twice in last 6 years) On start up this evening everything seemed ok so took out on a run.After about a mile it started to emit grey smoke mainly out of the nearside exhaust(or so it seems).The oil light & round red light in centre of dashboard now comes on at tickover at 500rpm,oil pressure gauge is showing around 10psi,lights going out about 750rpm & oil pressure at 20 psi. I have always used Valvoline vr1, but this time I used penrite 20/50. When we did the heads I also scrapped very carefully the carbon off the pistons.................any ideas what I have done to cause it to smoke? The plan was to use the stag to go away on hols very shortly bur now looking like an impossibility!! Dale

[stagmuffin]

don't think you have to much of an issue dale as the pressure is coming up with the rpm but 500 is low to get good oil pressure so maybe tick over at about 650 and it will be fine . change back to vr1 I think all will be well. sort out the leaks and make sure all is tight I run the silicon cam cover gaskets with no issues and I often rag it also on vr1.
steve

[E-LAD]

don't think you have to much of an issue dale as the pressure is coming up with the rpm but 500 is low to get good oil pressure so maybe tick over at about 650 and it will be fine . change back to vr1 I think all will be well. sort out the leaks and make sure all is tight I run the silicon cam cover gaskets with no issues and I often rag it also on vr1.
steve

Thanks , Steve. I gave up with the silicon gaskets & went back to cork ones in the hope of a better seal.Maybe my car is used to VR1 & is protesting! Beginning to think damaged piston s or something.Will increase tickover & get some VR1 to see what happens! Cheers! Dale

[wilf]

Are you sure this is oil smoke?

Could be steam, from an inlet manifold leak. Take a look at the plugs - if one or two are suspiciously clean on that bank, it will be a water leak.

Nothing you might have done to the piston tops should affect oil pressure.

[E-LAD]

Thanks,Wilf. Will check plugs when I get back from work.
. Dale

[wilf]

BTW, isn't tickover at 500rpm too low anyway? Not surprised the old girl can't summons up much oil pressure at those revs.

[staginhiding]

Hi Dale
It all sounds too coincidental that the oil pressure has dropped since the rebuild.
I see a lot of debate on here about makes of oil.The 20/50 that you used will not really affect the pressure.
If you had used a 10/40 then maybe..
You need to address the low oil pressure problem before any more damage is done..
Look at what you did on the oil change.Is the filter in the bowl with all the springs etc and seal properly in place..
Hope this helps

Sam

[flying farmer]

When you say oil leaked onto the exhaust it is possible it has wicked its way through the head/manifold join and is now burning off as the exhaust gets up to temp.

Neil

[E-LAD]

Hi Dale
It all sounds too coincidental that the oil pressure has dropped since the rebuild.
I see a lot of debate on here about makes of oil.The 20/50 that you used will not really affect the pressure.
If you had used a 10/40 then maybe..
You need to address the low oil pressure problem before any more damage is done..
Look at what you did on the oil change.Is the filter in the bowl with all the springs etc and seal properly in place..
Hope this helps

Sam

Hi Sam. thanks for reply i will retrace steps & see if i can see anything amiss.

[E-LAD]

When you say oil leaked onto the exhaust it is possible it has wicked its way through the head/manifold join and is now burning off as the exhaust gets up to temp.

Neil

Hi Neil, thanks for reply, that is what i wondered at first as oil was seeping out of cam covers directly onto head/manifold join, but how long would it take to burn off? i guess i may have travelled about 20 miles.Tonight i wondered if when i used flushing oil if all of it drained out, if some remained in sump & got mixed up with the Penrite oil then would it be weak enough to seep where it shouldn't and cause this smoking? Dale

[E-LAD]

BTW, isn't tickover at 500rpm too low anyway? Not surprised the old girl can't summons up much oil pressure at those revs.

I will increase tickover, thanks for replying. Dale