"Excessive" emissions from exhaust - tired engine?

Hi folks,

I have an "M" reg 2.9i Ford Granada which I've owned for a couple of years now.

It is a great runner but it has one irritating problem, which manifests itself on cold or humid days/foggy day. The problem is that there is a large amount of steam out the exhaust until the engine warms up after about 5 minutes of driving. Once the engine warms up everything is OK.

All cars do "smoke" a bit on cold or humid days - especially those with larger engines, however mine seems to put out 3 to 4 times the typical volumes. If I need to stop at traffic lights shortly after my morning start I sometimes switch the engine off out of embarrassment :)

The car is a great runner an recently passed its MOT with no emissions issues. There is no evidence of head gasket problems and no smell of coolant in the exhaust emissions.

I've tried Wynns dry fuel additive, but this has made no difference.

Is this simply a sign of a tired engine? The car is coming up to 15 years old, but it is a terrific runner with 96K on the clock.

Any ideas / suggestions appreciated.

Reply to
Trust No One®
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It's just a large engine and exhaust system that takes time to get hot so that the water vapour coming out is not visible as steam. At 96k it's just about nicely run in. If it was anything other than normal water vapour it would be visible everyday.

Reply to
rp

They do that. If the thermostats old they do it a bit more.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

it sounds completely normal, I have a 2.8i and it does the same. Most large engined cars do it.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

My 3.5 litre SD1 is exactly the same - it will 'steam' on a cold day for a very long time even after the temp gauge is on normal. It's possible 'cats' reduce this phenomena - the SD1 is pre those.

Mine neither consumes oil or coolant so reckon the engine is in pretty good health. It certainly goes well. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

...

Nicely bedding in then, good for 200k more now .. ;)

Try just barely pressing the accelerator pedal a tad, making it 'tickover' with a few hundred more rpm than normal tickover when it's doing it. Used to clear ours out, years ago ... ;)

Reply to
Paul - xxx

Trust No One® explained :

That is perfectly normal for a large engine with a large and heavy exhaust. Both will need some time to get warm enough to make the vapour invisible. If that is the 12v engine, then it should warm up quite fast, despite its heavy mass - it might be worth checking that the thermostat is working satisfactorily. Start the engine from cold and keep your hand on the top hose, it should remain cold - then all of a sudden you should feel the hot water start to flow. If it does that, then generally the stat is working correctly.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Thanks to everyone who replied. Appears to be a feature of large car in general :)

My car in really great shape with no rust on the wheel arches and since owning it I've had no real incentive to buy a new car. In fact I've lost count of the number of times I've sailed past broken down cars at least 5 to

10 years younger than mine :)

I'll try the suggestions made - otherwise it is something i'll continue to live with. My first Granada was again a 2.9i 12V D reg and so it didn't have cats. It was considerably faster than mine and it also didn't seem to suffer from the "smokiing" issue.

Reply to
Trust No One®

Trust No One® explained on 11/02/2010 :

Keep it, they are a great comfortable, reliable motor :-)

I had three maybe four and no real problems with any - wish they still made 'em.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

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