The symptoms are a puff at start up but then little emission until at normal temp when large clouds of smoke appear. My first thought was a head gasket but an endoscope on the cylinders showed they were oily.
Plugs too were oily. Both oil and water were low, but I cannot be certain these were certain indicators as there was a leak which I then fixed with some K seal. More investigation required.
Compression test showed 190 psi on 1 and 3 and 160 psi on 2 and 4. Once again I cannot be absolutely certain that this is a recent drop as I am not any good at record keeping. But is the drop caused by the gasket, a relaxation of the block or ring wear or breakage, valve seal or tappet clearance.
The endoscope should show a head gasket failure by showing clean areas where the leak occurs, but why are all four cylinders oily? I checked the pintel valve which was sucking, perhaps a little too much as the filler cap was sucked in and a hand over the oriface detected suction. I ran without the filler cap when there was no excessive blow back and the smoke did not decrease so unlikely to be the pintel not closing but still could be the balance pipe seals. The latter I do not think is the cause as the smoke is white and really only comes when hot.
The smoke did appear more to be steam than blue burnt oil.
I also tried my carbon monoxide test on the radiator by trying to bubble any exhaust gas in the rad water through the special detecting fluid. But no bubbles. I have modified a rad cap for this purpose.
So I have at the ready a set of pistons and liners and a set of head gaskets as I still cannot decide the cause, of course it could be both need doing!
Pictures follow of each cylinder showing what I think is excessive oil.
The engine sounds great, pulls well at 85mph and idles perfectly!! But when I stop at the lights the cars behind tend to hold back
