smokey smokey

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

Over the last couple of days, i have noticed that smoke is coming from my engine bay.:confused: Theres a pipe that comes off the cylinder head and leads to a chrome box. When the engine is running the box blows, as if it was a exhaust.
Any ideas? .. a link to a picture of the problem:

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/1298/turbomk6.jpg


http://www.pngclub.com/forum/%5BURL=http://img165.imageshack.us/my.php?image=turbomk6.jpg%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img165.imageshack.us/img165/1298/turbomk6.th.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D

[Gibbo]

i think its the breather pipe

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

I know that, but is it meant to blow smoke out all the time?

[Gibbo]

no.may be some water in oil ect...

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

OK how i fix that then? Just worried i don't want to blow anything :).

[Gibbo]

erm have a look at the oil and see wot it looks like. u know when the head gasket has gon ye ?

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

Checked the head gasket, that's not gone. And the oil is brand new, service few hundred miles ago.

[Sloth]

if its breathing heavy then you have some sort of mechanical issue, the long and short of it is that your looking at a strip down :(

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

Ouch, ill take it to a garage tomorrow. Its exhaust fumes what are coming from the front, so someone said it might be valves? o.O. Only had the car a couple of weeks :@.

[Gibbo]

ul mate

[Sloth]

if its exhaust gas then that sounds like rings, whats compression like? and whats your engine spec I.e management, compression ratio, turbo etc

[Sloth]

quote:ul mate. eh?

[Gibbo]

unlucky

[ck]

yeah, if its breathing exhaust gases then i'd defo say rings. had this with an escort rst (they blow the oil cap off) done a cheep s/h pistons and new rings, to sort it...

try a compression test, this could help with the diagnosis.. generaly its unlikely for all 4 pistons to be down on compresion so i'd give it a go.

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

thanks for the comments, i don't know the compression ratio. And yeah it's a turbo.

[meritlover]

sounds like rings, do a compression test before you waste time guessing anymore.

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

OK I don't have the tools. Ill take it into a garage and see what they can do, thanks for the help.

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

Took the car to a mates house, smoking worse. Its the head gasket. Also found a few other problems, like a worn timing belt, gear selector gasket. O yeah and the starter motor isn't even screwed down ha ha. Only gonna cost about 100 quid so its not end of the world :).

[craig green]

Head gasket & cambelt etc for £100??? Alarm bells are ringing!

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

gasket is like 18 quid. New stretch bolts 6-7 quid. Fresh Oil /Oil filter 20 quid. Belt etc, and paying him to do it. What alarm bells are ringing? o.O

[tom_beverley]

Think Craig means its just very cheap for the work involved.

Plus, can some users please bin the text typing for example 'ul' for unlucky.

[craig green]

gasket is like 18 quid. New stretch bolts 6-7 quid. Fresh Oil /Oil filter 20 quid. Belt etc, and paying him to do it. What alarm bells are ringing? o.O

Aye sounds too cheap. Although its easy to get ripped off, a chap on anaother forum recently paid over £400 for a HGF repair on a 1600 8v Astra....

Slight difference despite the fact a Nova has less eng bay room & you must have boost pipes etc to contend with?

[Gibbo]

lol ok. head gasket mate not a bad fix :)

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

Ha ha, I've know him for ages. He gets the parts for trade prices and charges hardly anything for labour :). should be sorted soon.

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

8v engine, plenty of room ;)

[meritlover]

Ha ha, I've know him for ages. He gets the parts for trade prices and charges hardly anything for labour :). should be sorted soon.

why is he charging you £18 for a gasket then?

[Mike]

I paid £8 for a head gasket lol

Anyway, the item circled in that pic is the breather tank :thumb:

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

the prices was estimates, he put the phone on loudspeaker whilst the guy on desk said prices. i cant remember them exactly, hes ordering them and giving me the invoice. i know im not getting ripped off :). yeah the breather tank is acting like a exhaust atm.

[General Baxter]

id get rid of the crappy AFPR and fit some proper managemet, for a start lol

[mikey14sr]

Well with having a turbo conversion there's most likely a spacer plate between the block and head so you'll need 2 head gaskets not just one. Also the head will need to be checked for warping and possibly skimming, which normally costs a good £50.

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

id get rid of the crappy AFPR and fit some proper managemet, for a start lol
What's this mean? Not that well up on engines. i guess you mean the ECU? because all thats standard but still runs 175bhp o.O.

.. did some revision.. its getting enough fuel because theres a 'trick switch' which tricks the ECU to pump more fuel through when on boost :) So its economically friendly off boost and a fuelolic on boost ^_^. Got 100 miles off a tenner on motorway, but i can get it down to 18 miles on boost :).

thanks for all the comments, and hope im back on the road soon :(.

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

And yeah it has a spacer plate, thanks for pointing this out as i would have forgotten :).

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

Hmm just updating this thread for the sake of it :). took head off.. went to get it skimmed, guy said this is the last possible time it can get skimmed. because its been done too many times before. The actual head was bent.. he put a ruler from side to side, and it acted like a see-saw lol. So i got it skimmed anyway .. 120 quid. this includes some new stem steals and other worn parts. So in other words if the gasket goes again, then its a new top end. nice of the seller to comment on that lol.

found a few other problems whilst doing the strip down..
like worn timing belt loose pipes/nuts and bolts. also notice the manifold gasket doesnt quite line up, but we got around that. well thats it i think.. going to finish up tomorrow, get it sorted. then im going to have to get it dyno'ed / set-up with new ecu etc.

fingers crossed for the engine starting tomorrow :) ill update this thread as the work does :)

so in end of it all where i thought it'd be a cheap 60 quid job, its ended up costing like 300 inc labour, still not the end of the world tho.

i was hoping to do santa pod trips, and track days. much point with a engine whats going to keep going wrong?

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

Just gone to collect the car. still fooked. cant be the top part of the engine because its had new parts etc, so were thinking its piston rings?

anyone know how to tell its rings? theres a breather pipe coming from the cam.. and its constantly pumping gases out. like a yellow/creamy deposit from the pipe.

had enough of this already :(

any comments are appreciated.

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

Bump ^^