[ozhummer]

My $300 Vit restore may have just taken a dive!!!!...

It's all back together and Ive just shelled out another $1k+ for the upholstery and put it in..

I have noticed lately that when it has been running for a while I get a huge amount of steam from the exhaust - it drips water - the oil cap has white paste in it, the car uses no coolant, the dip stick oil is clean....

The car (read chassis) has been sitting outside in the weather for the few months that I have been rebuilding - and the fuel tank has sat there too with fuel in it (the same fuel I am using to test it)...

The head gasket is new (actually ALL gaskets are new) - it has all new internals and every seal is new (inc valve stem seals)...


SO! - Tell me it's puffing out the H2O case bloody rain has got into the fuel tank - dont tell me my head is cracked or the head gasket is stuffed ?????

OK TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK?

[89_tintop]

i think it is just condensation fromsitting under the cap.

a very small amount of water will come out of the exhaust.

i think all is good and your worrying about nothing

[steak_knife]

let it sit & idle for an hour or 2, keep an eye on the temp gauge & it should get rid of all the condensation out of the exhaust.
Same for under the cap.
Then see how it goes..

[shep]

its fucked mate, give ya $20 for it.

[ozhummer]

What are some signs (other than steam) of a stuffed head ????????

couldn't be stuffed ! it's new ! ... mind you I built it so it's bloody amazing it goes at all...

Might drain the fuel tank tomorrow

[Chop]

Sometimes just running it for short amounts of time will leave a a grey/white film on the top of the oil cap. Its just a bit of moisture, it has to go somewhere and to the top it goes.
Like others have said, run it for alot longer and then check it.


Chop

[steak_knife]

ozhummer wrote:

What are some signs (other than steam) of a stuffed head ????????

couldn't be stuffed ! it's new ! ... mind you I built it so it's bloody amazing it goes at all...

Might drain the fuel tank tomorrow

it would be running like shit if it has water in the tank, If it hasn't been to operating temp for a while it will have a muffler full of water, try letting it run for a while.

[royce]

yep, if I had a dollar for every old lady swift ive sniffed the radiator on looking for a rooted head cause the cap was milky i'd be rich

you get moisture in the air, this is also inside the engine cause there isnt a dryer on the breathers

you start engine up and it gets warm inside, warm enough to make the moisture go a bit steamy and collect at teh top, exhaust does the same with teh air inside it

then you have moved it enough for what you want to do so you turn it off to cool, sucking in more moist air, meanwhile all the other cars are still driving and the heat evaporates it all away and its sucked into teh intake

dont worry about it till youve gone for a god drive
dont let new engine idle for a long time either, its bad for it

[DMAC]

This is what I did after the head gasket went after a rebuild. Take the radiator cap off and start it. If water comes blasting out of the radiator Head gasket is gone.
Another important lesson.
I left mine for a week before geting back to it. Cylinder had filled with water. If in any doubt remove the spark plugs and turn it over just to make sure this hasn't occurred. Better bending stuff.

Hopefully just condensation.

[ozhummer]

DMAC wrote:

This is what I did after the head gasket went after a rebuild. Take the radiator cap off and start it. If water comes blasting out of the radiator Head gasket is gone.
Another important lesson.
I left mine for a week before geting back to it. Cylinder had filled with water. If in any doubt remove the spark plugs and turn it over just to make sure this hasn't occurred. Better bending stuff.

Hopefully just condensation.

Just tested the above and the coolant is totally still .. rises a bit to the top when warming. Even when the thermostat opens it remains still..

Is this good ?

[coily96]

When the head gaskit goes, not just the cap will have white paste, the dipstick, valve springs, caps, rockers will be milky too.

[ozhummer]

dipstick is clean as! ....

[DMAC]

This is good.

If ya give it a rev it will go down a little. Sounds like Royce is on the money again.

[Fatzook]

royce wrote:

yep, if I had a dollar for every old lady ive sniffed

I was skim reading. I had to re-read as I was quite shocked with my first attempt

[Moph]

As Royce says, don't do lots of idling at the moment! The bores have a cross hatch pattern on them after they've been honed and the rings need to polish that smooth before the bores work harden. Lots of idling means the cross hatch won't get polished and will harden in place meaning blowby right from day one.

Best bet is low load varied rpm driving. Say up to 4000rpm for first 50km, then up to 5000rpm for next 500km, then 6000rpm next 1000km, then open slather. Avoid lugging the engine because this puts large side wall loads on the cylinder and piston. Take off slowly but hold each gear longer than you need to in order to get the revs up. So first drive take off slowly but hold first until 4000rpm, 2nd to 4000rpm etc until you reach your driving speed. Once your at speed don't sit at the same rpm the whole time - if you're doing constant 60kph round the city for example, constantly change between 3rd and 4th to keep piston velocity varying but side wall loadings low.

[steak_knife]

ozhummer wrote:

My Daughter would have been happy, except I am now keeping it as a second play thing! - It's balistic off road !... I'll post a video of me in the back yard just after I got it running .... No bonnet, no interior, using a chopped up office chair and I look like I'm huge in it!!!!!!!!!!

posted on youtube..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7S2yDC2Apo

Laugh away!

After seeing this I didn't think idleing for a while would be a problem, it is very few time's that we hear the full story, that eng could of had the crap revved out of it for all we are told.

Not saying you did Mr hummer.

[ozhummer]

it's totally been rebuilt ! - everything is brand new and anything that needed machining has been ... RLC Engines did the block and assembled the lower engine (crank, pistons, rings, machining etc ) and it hasn't has the crap reved out of it by me... anything pre rebuild would be irrelevant >?

[steak_knife]

I Pm'd you a couple of week's ago about a rwc for this lil beast, it sat in my out box till I deleted it, Pm me if you need one.

Rwc that is..

[ozhummer]

Must have been water in the exhaust from sitting out in the weather for some time .. I ran her today for about 30 min (including a coupld of little drives around the block ! ... ) and the steam and water drip from the exhause is gone completely.

I do notice that when really hot I take the oil cap off it pufs our a smallish burst of steam/white smoke - is this just evaporated oil cause it's so hot ???