5 GT Turbo White smoke on gear change

[R5man]

Hi all,

the project pushes on but there’s a bit of a mysterious white smoking issue at the moment

white smoke is blowing out on gear change or when you let off the throttle and a tiny amount on tick over

was believed to be the turbo charger but after having the oil seals inspected it’s not thought to be that

compression test has been done and it’s all good across the 4 cylinders and head gasket is fine ?

the smoke is defineatly white as well,it’s bee suggested it’s the oil stem seals or valve guides but I would have though the compression would be done if it was that ?

many thoughts would be great

cheers

 

[R5man]

I’d say this is deffo a toasted head gasket that’s from idling and just running it up to temperature

 

[R5man]

And another pic

 

[R5man]

Inside of the oil cap

 

[R5man]

Whilst running

 

[R5man]

Oddly though absolutely no over heating whats so ever- stays nicely within where it needs to be

that’s expansion tank a 100% dead give away ?

 

[R5man]

Ran my finger through the header tank no smell of fuel or exhaust gas in there

 

[Norwich Nick]

As you said in post 8, empty it out and flush the system a few times.
mots probably been sat with a less than ideal anti freeze/rust inhibitor to water mix and needs clearing out

 

[R5man]

Yh I’m thinking it’s full of crap but the bubbling in that header tank is worrying - I have nil signs of over heating

 

[Norwich Nick]

It will bubble because of the contamination, pretty sure they all do that anyway because of how the return enters the tank, there’s a plate in the header tank that stops air entering the system and there should also be a swirl pot fitted down by the water pump.

It doesn’t look like oil and water are mixing but not easy to tell because of the condition of the coolant.

Next step will be plugs out and compression test

(edit: just re read and you’ve already done a test.)

I’d be flushing it out, giving it a cheap oil and filter change and making sure all the pipe work is connected properly before going any further

 

[R5man]

Yh compression test was done and was all fine - I’m flushing furiously with distilled water to clear some of this crap I thought it was oil in there but now it does actually just look like general contamination sludge and all kind of other crap -

 

[Adey]

hose pipe in one of the header tank hoses will flush it

 

[Norwich Nick]

Dropping a dishwasher tablet in the header tank gives good results apparently.

drop it in, run up to temp, drop it all out and flush again

 

[Brigsy]

The cooling system is supposed to be sealed when running so will be a bit upset running up without header tank cap on.

Flush it all out with a hosepipe, flush rad forwards and backwards, same with heater as it looks like its been running on plain water, refill with ready mixed type d coolant

 

[R5man]

Indeed seems to be plain water - flush completed today going to grab some type D Coolant put it in and see how we go with it

 

[R5man]

Just waiting on the original turbo which is in for a refurb and then will rip the old knackered unit off

 

[andybond]

I wonder if that’s a copper core rad and no coolant?

 

[R5man]

Could well be the car has been tracked at some point and there could be a copper core rad in there - will need to try pull it apart

the water coming out of the rad was very cloudy rust coloured

 

[R5man]

Finally the original turbo has been rebuilt and sent back to me and ready to be fitted (the one that the engine and mods/tuning was done to suit)

ive noticed that the turbo on it that’s coming out and going on the shelf has to vacuum lines running to the actuator as per the pic but the built unit that was on it only has one line to attach a vacuum hose to I’m assuming I just block on line out at the intake black plastic lobster

 

[R5man]

So as per the pics above you can see two inlets one the actuator where the built unit has one etc

 

[Adey]

Looks like its been chucked together tbh.

Run vac pipe for fuel pressure and boost gauge on dash to the drivers side port on carb top. Loop the passenger side carb top ports. Run actuator pipe from middle of carb, fit it on the front port of the actuator and leave the rear port open to atmosphere.

Rip it out and run it like this as per brigsys post as thats how you do it for a single port actuator.