Slight cam damage on my car :(

Yep its mid to dark grey but its a rather lot of it. Its fine when starting from cold but after 3 or 4 miles the vapour gets quite bad.

The deposits on the exhaust are black but it seems common with old Fiestas.

 

lift the old filler and check for white greasy deposits, also check the rad header tank, what colour is the water.
I'm suspecting a head gasket here.
Could also be warn valve guides, ether way the head is coming off! Whiles its off, get a new cam and hydraulic followers (assuming Zetec engine here?) shouldn't be too pricy, this will stop the top end rattle.

 

Bearing in mind I am not good with cars how much labour is this going to cost to sort out?

Before I do anything I am taking it for a 20 mile spin on Sunday. Just done 4 miles in it today and the smoke didn't' seem that bad but there was constant vapuor (there was no rest if that makes sense).

This is not a Zetec, its a Valencia My dilemma is its a £400 car, so is it not best just to forget and wait till the engine blows?

 

Just pulled the cap and the breather pipe attachment where I found the mayonnaise last time, its all completely cleared up now. I also dipped some clear paper into the radiator tank and is no sign of any oil at all.

I think this rules out a head gasket failure

 

No it doesn't at all - just watch the level of the coolant tank and note how often you need to add some.

(Headgaskets can 'weep' between coolant and cylinder bore, so you lose water without it appearing in the engine oil)

 

Preforming a cylinder leak down test will help identify a lot of the above issues.

 

Your chokes not stcuk is it?

 

or even stuck

 

Its fuel injected Well its some ancient Bosh injector.

 

Hum ya, asking a garage to replace the head gasket would probably cost more than the car is worth. Well you wanted to learn about cars, so go buy a Haynes manual, get the required tools and set asside a week Have fun!

You say you've had the 'mayonnaise' before, so you cleaned it up or repaired the fault, if its been there before then its a sign that the oil is contaminated, a water / oil and co2 mix.

I'd agree with that. Might want to do a compression test as well

 

Yesterday morning I tried to fix the temp guage sender unit only to discover that the reason it is not working is because the wire to it has been chopped off. Why would you do this? To hide the fact the head gasket has gone maybe

I've got the flu so have bene in bed all day, not managed to reconnect it yet to see what happens.

I've checked the radiator header tank and the water is clear apart from the anti freeze. No signs of any oil still.

The steam gets worse as the car has been driving though, which to me indicates an overheating problem

I will try some of that K Seal stuff, if it is the headgasket the crack can only be very small.

What tools do I need to use to repair a head gasket? I have an old rachet set my uncle used to use on cars but I don't seem to have a torque rench anywhere

 

If its over heating and the temp sender has been cut, could this be someone trying to hide that the Rad. Fan (or fan sensor ) doesn't work, which in turn could course the head gasket to fail do to it over heating.

Sorry to hear you have the flu, wrap up warm and stay in bed!

 

Yep this what I am starting to suspect, but the car is not exactly gushing out steam and surely when I had it serviced they would have noticed if the HG has failed?

The longest journey I have done in the car was 8 miles, and the steam was quite bad then. When you start the car from cold there is hardly any condensation at all

It appears I have spent £400 on a total lemon.

I shall to be taking the ECU temperature sender unit out for tests I think. When should the radiator fan kick in btw?

 

did you now do a test drive prior - and how come something this serious was not spotted..?

 

I didn't do the test drive as I couldn;t drive, so I hads to rely on engine sounds, I did watch for steam and it all seemed fine. The problem may have got worse since I took it in for a service, I thought it was burning oil at first, but it seems to be condesnation coming out the back not oil.

Either way I feel quite stupid, but £400 its not a mega fortune. I just want to get that guage fixed before going on a long run in it.hb

PS The guy who worked for te garage drove it for about 5 miles

 

Just connected the sender back up and the gauge still doesn't work So it looks like it was disconnected for this reason rather to hide any over heating problem.

Left the car idling for 20 minutes and revved it a bit to 3000, there was no visible signs of water loss but there is mayonnaise on the filler cap.

 

If there is water coming out the back and white stuff on the cap, that IS a head gasket gone I'm afraid, its not condensation, its your coolant! you might notice the header tank level going down.

BTW when you had it idling and reved it, did you notice if the radiatior fan kicked in? If not then the Fan switch is faulty, or the radiator is blocked, this probably has caused the head gasket to fail due to over heating.

Just my guess as of course I've not seen it.

Lets see rought guess (motor factors not main dealer prices here)
Head Gasket set £35
Head Bolts £15 (yes you need new ones, the threads stretch and can't be reused).
Fan Switch £15
Radiator £35 (surcharge for old one £10)
Oil 5 Ltr £10
Filter £3.50
Yes you'll need to change it, its contaminated now, same with coolant.
So looking about £135-150 in parts alone.
5 hours labour at £30/h (local indpendant, Not main dealer) is £150
so even with that very rough estimate that's £300.

If ya know a good one man band mechanic who's prepared to do this that could save ya a bit of money, and get the parts yourself.

 

Indeed this is my theory too Why on earth did I not spot this? The irony is I rejected a Punto because I suspect HG failure.

Why the feck did they not spot this when I took it in for service? I told them to check it out and if there was anything majorly wrong don't service it

I suppose I will have to hope K seal cures it, I can fix the radiator myself, thats no problem, but HG no

 

It's difficult to diagnose without being there but as you have been using the car for short runs only the mayonnaise may not indicate HG failure - especially if the coolant level is not dropping.

 

Indeed, I was talking about this last night with a few mates. He have concluded that its not HG failure, but we can't work out why the steam gets worse the more you drive it (i.e HG symptom) but its not using up water.

I guess the smoke could be oil but its not blue enough.