carby

OK, so I sucked a liter of oil out, sitting nice in the middle of the dipper and gauge, guess there still some oil in the manifold as Im still getting the odd wiff. It was waaaaaay overfilled (v. annoyed a reputable P shop managed to get that wrong)

Strega(UK)

I used to get overtaken by a cloud of smoke on pulling up at the lights. It turned out to be oil leaking from the cam covers resting in the heat shields, when i hit the brakes it would run off and land on the hot exhaust causing the cloud!! Since re-sealing the cam covers it has never done it!

carby

I will investigate this further, should be easy to see from underneath. Thanks for the insight.

newsboy

An indication of worn valve guides, would be that they are still noisy after adjustment. Bruce Anderson (Excellence Mag) says you can check for valve guide wear. With the valves lifted about 10mm off their seats, bush from side to side with a screwdriver to check for movement.

Indycam

The oil level was checked with the motor good and hot ?
Warn valve guides are not likely to make a big cloud of smoke .

carby

All pointing to the overfill.

carby

Update: I dropped the car in this morning to the specialist to have the new Billys and Eibachs fitted
After inspection, there is quite defined cupped section in the manifold, perfect for collecting fluid.

Is this an easy pull-apart and clean?

I'll have the results tomorrow I hope.

Cupcar#12

there is a good bit of disassembly to get them off - but not too hard really -
a shop would probalby charge 2-3 hours to remove - clean-Replace (that should be generious)

it is a very likely culprit for your smoke - and really not a big deal.

gchristofi

Carby, can't wait to see what they find.... i have same symptoms and I'm ready to ok a top end rebuild with my mech to sort valve guides...... if you find residual oil in the manifold then that's what I'll look at first. My car was massively overfilled for some time but the smoking has not gone over the last ~ 500 miles or so.

carby

At least this gives me the chance to give it plenty or WOT (recommended by Carlos of Cavaco)...nice deep breaths for the 3.6, none of that shallow breathing city lugging.

elbeee964

[!] (120k km = 75k miles)

"-- ripe"?

Regardless -- here's hoping your wrench discovers a bucket of oil along your intake manifold.

carby

HAA! Here's hoping my mech's raised eyebrow was tilted toward the $ and not reality when he quoted that figure. I've never looked forward to an oily rag so much...

Indycam

I would not take it apart if its running ok .
I would take it for a nice long drive up and down a big mountain . Lots of gas / heat going up , lots o vac coming down . Repeat .

carby

OK. The results of the new comp/leak test are in...healthy numbers.

My wrench seems a little stumped, he says the car feels very strong, suggested a long hard drive in the country!

elbeee964

What plug lead coincidence?
(still got a feeling Indycam's right)
How'd the intake manifold partial disassembly go?