White smoke

[Rob Heath]

On starting my Stag lately I’m getting a lot of white smoke, neighbours getting a bit irritated by it.
it seems to reduce after warming up but doesn’t go completely, the car still runs ok but it’s a bit worrying.

I’m getting the car looked at by the mechanic due to a water leak that I can’t locate and I’m hoping that he can fix the white smoke issue but I’m just a bit concerned that this is a major expense waiting for me.

Rob

[NeilR]

With the cold temperatures & high humidity, it's probably just steam.
Mine does it and has no water leaks.

[Rob Heath]

That’s what I’m hoping but it seems to be quite a lot, certainly I would expect some on the cold, damp mornings.

I haven’t pressure tested the cylinders but the engine starts easily and runs well once warmed up, the water leak is enough to answer the loss of water in the radiator so I’m hoping that the head gaskets are still sound.

[Lingen]

Rob.
Steam is to be expected at this time of year, but if you are also losing water, it is most likely to be a failing inlet manifold gasket, which is so often mis-diagnosed as the major problem of head gasket failure.
If the cooling system isn't over pressurising you are safe on that score.
Fortunately it is a relatively simple job to check them out and replace them, but it needs to be done very thoroughly to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Mike.

[Rob Heath]

Mike, I know I have a water leak because water is dripping down on to the offside exhaust pipe at the rear of the engine, I can’t see where it’s coming from though. Hopefully not an inlet manifold but Stags are new to me, if it was an M*B I’d be on safe ground!!

Rob

[DJT]

To find a leak, it is easy to do a cold pressure test on the cooling system using a bicycle pump. Be careful not to cause a leak by over pressurising it. You can't see it in the attached photo, but my bicycle pump has a built in pressure gauge.

IMG_0792.jpg

[Rob Heath]

Hi Dave,
I did pressure test as you recommended a while ago, I found that almost every pipe clip was leaking and tightened up all those I could find but this leak is somewhere at the back of the engine and I can’t see where it’s coming from. I did wonder if pressurising to 20lbs had actually created more leaks.

Rob

[richardthestag]

head gasket fail on the stag v8 can typically be confirmed with a simple block test

Something like this

https://www.drheadgasket.co.uk/bt-1-basic-combustion-leak-tester-block-head-gasket-detector-kit-petrol-diesel-lpg-sniff-tester-dr-headgasket-uk

[petrolhead2]

What about the water transfer housing. Mine blew its gasket (some are paper thin) and had a very impressive leak! Bugger to get at though

[flying farmer]

Mike, I know I have a water leak because water is dripping down on to the offside exhaust pipe at the rear of the engine, I can’t see where it’s coming from though. Hopefully not an inlet manifold but Stags are new to me, if it was an M*B I’d be on safe ground!!

Rob

I have seen head gaskets leaking and dripping water onto the exhaust manifold.

Sometimes a re-torque of the head bolts will fix it if the gaskets have been replaced within the last few thousand miles as new gaskets do tend to compress quite a lot leading to leaks. My Mk1 leaked from the nearside head gasket when I first rebuilt it despite both the block and head being skimmed. That had a bottle of radweld about 8 years /25 thousand miles ago and hasn't leaked since. I have a suspicion that I overpressurised the cooling system when testing for leaks and the coolant may have forced its way through the Wellseal sealant I had used on the head gaskets.

Water transfer housing leaks are not very common, however if the engine has been rebuilt at some time without checking the housing for flatness it can occur as the gaskets are very thin.

The other possibility if the concentration of antifreeze has not been sufficient is that the head has corroded sufficiently to breach the head gasket seal. This corrosion is often seen when rebuilding engines and often leads to excessively large amounts being skimmed off the heads to clean up the surface, when welding to build up the corroded areas would be a better option.

My first option, after a head bolt te-torque, is always to try a bottle of Radweld or K seal as both of these seem to fix all sorts of minor leaks. Stay away from stuff aimed at fixing head gasket failure, I have seen pictures of stuff forming big globs of sealant that block waterways.

[jbuckl]

I fixed a stag actually (2 or more) last year that had this problem.

It was a manifold into cylinder coolant leak on both. (All)

Both also caused by poor previous work.

Heads not aligned to manifold.

Failure to understand fitting sequence required…. Yawn. Oh and damaged threads due to bad work and sealant at the bottom of blind holes.

Anyway, after the fix, if no other damage has occurred, you need to do a 30 mile + drive to get all coolant out of the exhaust system.

Ideally the fix requires the heads to be aligned to the manifold.

the work around is:- disassemble, dry / drain coolant. clean clean clean threads and fix damaged threads; buy new bolts.
Use a pu sealer with the best gaskets available. (Metalised?) (Payen?)

allow to cure before coolant refill.

pressure test system to 20 psi.

*Ensure coolant expansion bottle / cap is operating as intended.

really really check * again.

failure to follow above will cause grief!

otherwise just rely on snake oil and so called upgrades, and other goop.

[mole42]

Well said Julian.

[Richard G]

Never Surrender!

[richardthestag]

K-seal dug me out of a hole with a slipped cylinder liner on a 3.9 Rover v8. lasted nearly 40k miles before it threw in the towel. The gasket blew again, pressurised the cooling system (common on rover v8 failures) excess pressure broke the stupid plastic plug on the top of the rad and ejected the coolant. alas I was on the m40 at the time and at speed. access to the hard shoulder was blocked by rush hour traffic exiting for the m25. I pulled over within 2 miles of the temp gauge maxing and then dropping to zero by which time it seized up. Impressed that the k-seal lasted that long but you really should use it an a measure to get by until it can be fixed at the earliest opportunity;. etc

The other product was a steel seal, available all over the place with a seemingly cast iron money back guarantee. Alas, as I found at the time 2014, it needed to be installed by a qualified mechanic (what ever that means) invoice to be supplied and then assessed and confirmed as still buggered by a mechanic with invoice to be supplied. would have cost me way more than just saying "ffs I've been had"

Still pulling the same stunt https://steelseal.co.uk/lifetime-guarantee/

At Steel Seal our highest priority is to repair your head gasket and keep it repaired, to get you permanently back on the road.

For this reason, if Steel Seal is used on a blown head gasket and has not worked, we are more than happy to provide a full refund of receipt value to a maximum of the RRP as displayed on our website or a one-time replacement bottle.

You can receive a full refund up to 30 days after purchase. After 30 days, if the repair to a blown head gasket fails at any point during the time you own your vehicle, we will send you additional product at no extra cost.

All you need to do is simply provide us with:

• Proof of purchase for Steel Seal from an authorised stockist as listed on our website
• A statement from a VAT registered garage that via compression or gas test that your vehicle definitely has a blown head gasket or confirmation that the vehicle has been scrapped or an invoice showing that a mechanical head gasket repair has subsequently been carried out
• The registration number of vehicle

Where it finds the leak it does this, which works on some other applications, didn't for me though. It then allows the excess to work its way around the system whereby, like radweld it just gums up parts of the water ways, especially as I found in the radiator and also the heater. Backflush got it back out again

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[Goldstar]

At least you were able to finish your journey on your bike