head gasket?

[stevo]

i think i have a blown head gasket. nice timing as usual as i am ment to be leaving for callander in the next couple of hours. bollocks.

anyhow missy is beltching blue smoke and i have pulled out her spark plugs to find 3 pale brownish healthy looking ones and one black oily looking one. is this a head gasket problem?

[Exbury]

If its oil its possible although I would have thought unlikely its a headgasket. Would have though it was more likely rings or scored bores or possibly just a valve stem oil seal going.

If it is the valve seals, one check is to drive along, if normal driving is ok and then when you come to a stop, let it idle for 30-60 seconds then pull away and the oil smoke appears at this point is is probably the seals, if the smoke is happening all the time its possible the bores or rings going.

Othewise it could also be a loose or dodgy spark plu lead/plug which is not firing right and which is getting contaminated with oil/fuel as it is not burning it off.

Best of luck!!

[timmo]

Agree with above, does NOT sound like head gasket, stem seals or piston rings maybe. Is your header tank free of contaminants, are you using the same amount of coolant as before? If answer is yes to both I would rule head gasket out.

[stevo]

Couldn't make my mind up at the time, if the smoke was whiteish or pale blue. I have noticed a lot more water consumption, but then she is leaking like a sieve from half a dozen different places. The header tank has never been the cleanest ever since I got her but I haven't noticed a heavy build up of brown sludge. I got a head gasket from Matty's delivered today for £25. I'll need to strip the top end anyway and I'll check the stem seals and cylinder liners while I'm at it. With the rocker cover off, the cams look nice and clean with no scoring on the lobes and no sludge or residue.

What should I look for on the stem seals? Will there be visible play or scoring to the valve shafts?

Thanks in advance
Stevo