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A head crack poured a lot of coolant into my engine, I drained the sump and removed the filter. I removed the oil cooler take-off adaptor and fitted a non cooler type, did a fresh oil fill then ran the engine for 5 mins and drained the oil again. I disconnected the cooler pipes to the oil cooler and blew it through with compressed air, I then poured some white spirit into the cooler and again blew it through with compressed air. I then reconnected the oil cooler adaptor and refilled the engine with fresh oil and a new filter.

I took the car for a run this evening, it was running absolutely fine but when I hit a fast stretch of road and put my foot down I saw white smoke/steam coming from the bonnet vents (2.5l in GT6), I pulled over and opened the bonnet to see the smoke/steam coming from the rocker cover vent stub, I didn't have anything connected to this pipe at this time. I drove the car home, no sign of overheating and I had oil pressure. The smoke/steam has no smell, not burning oil nor the sweet smell of coolant. I have just gone to fit oil catch can, in addition to hose from rocker cover, I went to fit a takeoff in the fuel pump blanking plate, on removing the old plate I see white smoke circulating in the crank case. 

My question was going to be how long should I expect it to take for residual coolant to burn off, there can't be much in there after two drain & fills. In typing the above I remembered putting the white spirit in, it was maybe a cupful and I must have blown most of it through, some could have been retained however. Given that this issue didn't arise before I had driven a few miles, that would suggest it might have happened when the oil cooler thermostat opened, this would possibly point to the white spirit being the cause. Any thoughts?

 

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Not thoughts but questions first....

- is the engine running normally in other respects? Oil pressure? Water temp? Performance?

- are there any traces of water and oil mixing, in the radiator, the sump or mayo in the rocker cover?

If the vital signs are normal and there's no sign of oil and water mixing, I would drive it again, get it thoroughly warmed up over a run of 50 miles plus. Then check all of the above again. If the smoke has gone, happy days... If not, further investigation will be necessary.

Just my views, I will be interested to see what others suggest.

Nigel

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11 minutes ago, Nigel Triumph said:

Not thoughts but questions first....

- is the engine running normally in other respects? Oil pressure? Water temp? Performance?

- are there any traces of water and oil mixing, in the radiator, the sump or mayo in the rocker cover?

If the vital signs are normal and there's no sign of oil and water mixing, I would drive it again, get it thoroughly warmed up over a run of 50 miles plus. Then check all of the above again. If the smoke has gone, happy days... If not, further investigation will be necessary.

Just my views, I will be interested to see what others suggest.

Nigel

No sign of any mayo Nigel, coolant & Oil levels are correct

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Agree with Nigel.  Need to give it a run to drive of the residual water. 

Tim

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Those who know me also know that I'm a pessimist. So prepare thyself to take the head off!

I had exactly the same symptoms last year - no mayonnaise in the oil but clouds of white smoke from the exhaust (=steam), no loss of compression, etc

Head gasket leak between the water way of 3 & 4 cylinder into no. 4 cylinder.

james

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If the oil has become mixed with a glug of white spirit which was trapped in the cooler I would suggest another oil and filter change. You really don't want that diluting the oil. If it's running normally that seems the most logical starting point.

 

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27 minutes ago, james christie said:

Those who know me also know that I'm a pessimist. So prepare thyself to take the head off!

I had exactly the same symptoms last year - no mayonnaise in the oil but clouds of white smoke from the exhaust (=steam), no loss of compression, etc

Head gasket leak between the water way of 3 & 4 cylinder into no. 4 cylinder.

james

it's not coming from the exhaust James, it is coming from the crankcase, with the fuel pump blanking plate removed I can see the smoke inside the block.

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9 minutes ago, FatJon said:

If the oil has become mixed with a glug of white spirit which was trapped in the cooler I would suggest another oil and filter change. You really don't want that diluting the oil. If it's running normally that seems the most logical starting point.

 

That's what I intend doing Jon.

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Yet another oil change then I took it for a drive, I'm still getting a lot of smoke from the catch can breather. The drained oil didn't show any contamination, I had to cut the drive short as I was having fuel vaporisation issues, not entirely surprising given the ambient temp today and the fact that I was in traffic, fuel pressure was fine but I suspect flow was impacted and the DCOEs need that.

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