starting strangly

dreamwarrioruk · Post by **dreamwarrioruk** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 5:59 pm

any news on yours westonwarrior, i put new filters and stuff into fuel filter direct but still smoking on start up. runs fine after its started tho.

Post by **westonwarrior** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 6:11 pm

its still at the garage but they are 90% convinced its a cracked head

mine misfired on startup with smoke after that ran perfect so acts differently to a gasket

I have to wait till monday or tuesday to get it tested to be sure as they are booked up

dreamwarrioruk · Post by **dreamwarrioruk** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:55 pm

after puting this stuff in it only seems to smoke when the engine is warm and only when starting. if the engines cold it dosnt smoke on start up now
have checked coolant levels they had dropped to min level on expansion vessel from full overnight but if i had a leaking gasket or cracked head i would have thought that the water would have sat there overnight till i fired it up in the morning with steam but that dosnt appear so. if the water was running into the oil then there would be some evidence. it smells more of fuel when it starts up. when i get chance will get it to garage for a pressure test.

Post by **westonwarrior** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:07 pm

mine smoked from cold on start or hot if left for while but only for a few seconds

didnt use water while driving

no contamination in oil

looses water over night

Peg leg Pete · Post by **Peg leg Pete** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:11 pm

When ours had a cracked head it was like a steam train

dreamwarrioruk · Post by **dreamwarrioruk** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:25 pm

this is where im inclined not to believe its the head, its only on start up and not constant, after reading into it a bit more and also the positive results i had with the direct injector stuff its looking more like a pump,injector problem

Post by **westonwarrior** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:21 pm

I hope so

have reread my post and think its unclear, it only smokes on start up

smokes hot or cold just needs to be left a while

other than that and the water loss I would not have known any thing was wrong.

and It happened some time ago and I have been looking for the leak since, it seamed to loose less as the time went on.

heads are expensive so I realy do hope yours is something else.

I hope mine is something else too waiting for the test.

punctuation is not my strong point so makes my text unclear

Glynanderson · Post by **Glynanderson** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:20 am

Not really helpful to you, but...
Mine seems to smoke noticeably more after it's been parked on an incline. If it's been parked on the levelthere's barely any smoke at all, probably just what's normal for a diesel.
So, I was thinking it could maybe be a small air bubble somewhere in the fuel line.
Just a thought

dreamwarrioruk · Post by **dreamwarrioruk** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 3:20 pm

just had it cooling system pressure tested by garage dosnt lend itsself to be head gasket tho a small crack may be there.
the smoke has changed pattern to being when engine warm it smokes on idle. but when revved up it clears itself. garage said it was more blue white colour but not burning excessive amounts of oil.lez suggested stuck piston ring or injector problem, so did the garage but they also added turbo problem or valve stem oil seals. oh well carry on searching the problem

Post by **westonwarrior** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:00 pm

Its great that it probably is not the head

What did they put the coolant loss down too?

Thes bongos don't go wrong often but are a pain when they do

dreamwarrioruk · Post by **dreamwarrioruk** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:36 pm

not sure on the coolant loss whether i actually have any. it could be down to pure expansion as the levels rise to overflowing with the cap off the expansion bottle and its settling onto the lower mark when cold so might have just been me being hasty.
just stripped down glowplugs and poured some injector fluid in to soak overnight to see if theres ben carbon build up around the piston rings causing a sticky one, will blow it out tomorrow night then change oil for new. if its still problematic will have to look at injectors. (lez how easy are they to look at).
before i stripped it down i ran it from cold and there was no evidence of smoke at all from the exhaust only when warmed up now and on tick over when warm. lez has eventually seen the smoke but even though he clearly mention what it could be before the garage did bless him hes scratching his head now.could be a feature of my bongo.

smartmonkey · Post by **smartmonkey** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 9:39 am

I don't understand how a garage can say you have a cracked head without stripping the head off. I am not aware of any technique that will allow you to differentiate between a head and gasket failure. I would always assume gasket until I had the head in my mitts. The only exception to this is an external crack, but these are very rare.

Post by **Ian** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:27 pm

You may be interested to know that I have now commissioned an expert on WLT engine radiators and cylinder heads to rewrite the overheating fact sheet. When I spoke to him on the phone this morning, he said that of the 7 Bongos he has pressure tested this year, 5 had cracked cylinder heads.

The revised fact sheet should be available within the next couple of weeks.

mikeonb4c · Post by **mikeonb4c** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:36 pm

Well done that man. My wife thinks I have a cracked head AND a leaky radiator

dreamwarrioruk · Post by **dreamwarrioruk** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 11:25 pm

update
thought id fixed it.it wasnt doing it earlier but back again
heres what ive done so far
new battery no change
new glowplugs no change
new fuel filter with diesel flush no change
pressure tested nothing conclusive
left diesel cleaner in combustion chamber overnight no change
new oil filter and oil. old oil looked fine but no change
more diesel flush in fuel filter no change
injector cleaner in fuel tank no change
removed rocker cover and had a look inside. black and oily.
sat at idle with smoke out of back, took cap of expansion vessel and watched as all coolant jumped out. mucky brown colour (but that will be cause i havnt been topping it up lately with antifreeze) so flushed out cooling system for about an hour from every hole possible. bled it all and took it for a spin.
also removed blanking plate from egr valve at inlet manifold

will put some rad flush in tomorrow and run that to see if there was a blockage.
the temperature guage is registering at 10.30 now as asposed to the 11.00 it used to.
other positives from this episode, heard the radiator fan come on when it dumped the water out. thats a first. made sure scavenger fan was working so now handbrake not as hot.
now when i put the a/c on my revs dont drop as i adjusted the rev thingy bob from the potentiometer jobby.
overall dont know what it is did so many things all at once to try and cure it cheaply
oh and i found a small leaking pipe under the passenger side, rubber pipe onto a metal tee piece was leaking slightly. no coolant loss registered yet but will be reflushing the system and filling up with antifreeze.
and im only down to 2 hairs now.
sorry for the long drawn out message but it may help someone else or someone may be able to tell me whats wrong with mine.
im still angling at a gasket or head failure.
will have to go to a garage to get compression test, that may tell me a bit more