possible head gasket!?

[spittymk3]

Jumped in my tr last night for a blast as the weather was fiiiine, after getting about 3 miles out of my lane i noticed it seemed to been letting out a rather lot of white smoke/steam from only one tail pipe (wheel barrow type exhaust) i recently purchased these (second hand) as my old ones from mikey made the wife complain (like she needs and excuse!) i checked the water and dip stick the day before and all seemed well but after about 25 mins of being out it really started to smell of hot coolant. The oil pressure gauge read 55 at 2500rpm as always and the temp gauge was half way. Just checked the water and oil and its not lost a single drop but I am petrified of a head gasket failure as i know these sixes are a bit prone! My only thought is if the twin boxes i purchased have been kicking around are a bit sooted up could that just be it? Remember its only coming out of one box!

[Nick Jones]

Don't agree that the 6 cylinder engines are all prone to HGF.  This reputation belongs to the Mk1 2L engines with their weedy studs.  Nothing wrong with the later 2L or 2.5.

If you are burning water then I'd also expect the leak to work the other way and put combustion gasses in the water.  If you have a jacuzzi in your header tank or the water smells of exhaust/hydrocarbons, then maybe you have a problem.  I think it more likely that you have some accumulated water in that silencer from rain of washing and it is beginning to boil off as the system warms up.  3 miles isn't really long enough to rule that out.

Nick

[JohnD]

"White smoke" and "Steam" are not synonyms, and need to be differentiated for an accurate diagnosis.

Smoke persists, and may have a blueish tinge.   It's either partly burnt oil and oil particles so small that they float in the air, but cannot vapourise.  Also a smell of oil
Steam dissipates quickly.    Proper "Steam", water vapour, is a gas and has no colour, but what we see is condensed water droplets, that look white, like a cloud or mist. The droplets rapidly evaporate again into vapour and disappear.

If you see this again, keep on driving and see what happens.    If it is steam and goes away, Nick is correct.
If it is smoke, then examine valves and do a compression check.

John

[DougBGT6]

Do you have a servo? White smoke was the first sign that mine was emptying brake fluid into the vacuum. Just a thought, check the fluid level.

[spittymk3]

I was only going by what I have been told...if its got 6 cylinders im going to be cautious regardless of weak studs or not! The boxes hadn't been near a droplet of water in two-three years and still haven't now, as I said it was still doing it after 25 mins out on the road but noticed it first after three miles. Just fitted a new thermostat and sensor along with drained the old coolant and topped up with new. I'll be taking it out tomorrow so ill report back, its not the end of the world if it is a head gasket as I want the head converted anyway! thanks for your help chaps!

[Pete Lewis]

what does affect head stud torque is soft washers and crap nuts , what ever diameter stud is used ,

use the correct grade and all it fine for miles and miles

Pete

[Tim Hunt]

Tell me about it Pete. I suffered head gasket failure on the 2012 Autoecosse. When I took the head off this is what I found under the head nut adjacent to the failure point! More than enough creep on the soft washer to lose clamp force. I don't know when this rogue washer was used but mea non culpa since it was the first time I had taken the head off.

Tim