Does this have a water heated inlet manifold? Could be sucking water in to ithe combustion chambers to give you the snow effect...although I'd expect plugs to be cleaned in this case, not fouled. Not familiar with this lump. Is it an Ally head on an old Austin seven unit...should come off easy enough. Jonners
The chances of a head gasket leak into 3 out of four cylinders and the engine still be running ok and giving good cranking pressures seems rather low. In any event a badly warped head is extremely unlikely to be ok on a centre pot having failed on both outside ones. They warp would be greatest in the centre. I conclude that your diagnosis is not correct in so far as you believe it to indicate water leakage into all 3 cylinders.
Not sure what "major snowfall" indicates with respect to the plugs. Do you mean they are just white or they are a normal brown but with white deposits of some sort on them? If water is getting into the cylinders then maybe it's getting in via another route than the head gasket i.e. inlet manifold but if so I fail to see why it isn't getting into number 2.
The obvious thing to do would be to check further for leaks in the radiator or hoses, either visually or better still with a pressure test. Change the plugs for known correct ones and check the fuel mixture on a CO meter, as well as the basics like valve clearances and cam timing. A "sniffer test" into the expansion bottle would tell if combustion gasesd were getting into the cooling system. Taking the head off at this stage seems premature.
Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines
I felt that it was compression leakage from No.1 if anything, pressurising the cooling system.
An effect I have never seen before. The plugs are fouled with a brilliant white deposit, with No.2 being the only exception. I have seen overheated plugs, but these are different. If I get chance, I might upload a pic for your interest.
Visual check seems fine. I have no pressure tester here.
This is a sensible next step of course.
Don't have a tester. :-(
I was hoping you would say that. Lifting the head is a bitch of a job because the head invariably is corroded around the studs!
Yes it does.
Interesting idea.
It's an interesting deposit.
No, it's an all alloy conventional engine, vaguely modelled on a BMC A series, but the right way round. :-)
I can see one valve through the plughole which has the same deposit. I have taken a picture of the plugs, but FTP access to my website seems to be down at the moment, so I can't upload it. I could always email it if anyone was
*that* interested. :-)It turns out that this engine was serviced less than three months ago and the fault appeared since. The customer also complains about a lack of acceleration, something the Rialto is not usually faulted for.
Loss of power. Hmmm....
Symptomatic of weak mixture or seriously-retarded ignition perhaps? Both problems which would also cause the engine to run hot and put extra load on the cooling-system?
Picture now available on
The 3 do look suspiciously white. Which to me is symptomatic of excessively-lean/hot running - though why the fourth one looks vaguely the way I'd expect a plug to look [though I'd still say it was possibly a bit weak] I couldnt tell.
You havent got a manifold air-leak have you? Crankcase breather-valve stuck open? Oil-filler-cap missing/leaky/ wrong? {I recall a SAAB which had terrible running problems until I tightened the oil-filler cap: it was sucking in air through the loose cap and this was screwing up the mixture].
Standard LRP. Owned by an OAP and servicing entrusted to a local garage until now. They were the ones that fitted these strange plugs.
If you want another engine (complete and can be seen running) I have one.
Roger N. London.
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