smokey joe.

On or around Mon, 9 Jan 2006 20:16:19 -0000, "Austin." enlightened us thusly:

hello. this should get nicely confusing...

what colour smoke, and under what conditions?

I know where you are, my IIa that i rebuilt last year, well, 2004 acually, (engine seemed fine......) is showing signs of trouble, particuraly valve trouble. And i've got no money for a new head either, let alone the new dizzy that i think it's going to need as well.

Alex

blue smoke under idle and load.

That done it hasn't it? tell me had it.

I don't we like our old tubs so much do you? It costs us a fortune. I haven't even driven mine yet. don't know what to expect.

never mind keep plodding on.......

Austin.

If it were me the first thing to do would be get the engine running as best as you can, ie. set the timing and adjust the carburator, then cover the radiator front with some cooking foil and run the engine at mid revs and see what smoke is there when it gets good and warm. May just be stuck piston rings which may free up once it becomes warm. At least that won't cost much. Next would be to pull the head off and have a look. Depending on what you find, it may be simpler to get a servisable lump and replace it, the last time I needed one cost 30 quid. Because they produce little in the way of horse power they are not over stressed so you have a better than average chance of getting a servisable unit for peanuts.

I think it will. I think Austin The Interloper should be renamed British Leyland or summat when posting here to save the confusion. :-)

On or around Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:55:39 -0000, "mham" enlightened us thusly:

well... could be sticky rings. I'm assuming it's a diesel, BTW. Could be worn bores or dodgy valve guides, as well.

It could be running slightly rich, I suppose.

Ah, is it petrol then Austin or diesel? TonyB

It doesnt cost that much to rebuild a landrover engine if you do it yourself.

If its old and only has a visual test then perhaps take it for an MOT on a day when its very thick fog :)

Its diesel. I will try and get it red hot and see what happens.

How old does it have to be for a visual test only then?

mines an 83..

On or around Thu, 12 Jan 2006 09:19:10 -0000, "Austin" enlightened us thusly:

1970-summat, I think... hangon, it's online somewhere.

here's the bit for older compression ignition engines -

testing procedure:

A. Vehicles first used before 1 August 1979

Where possible check that: . there is sufficient oil in the engine . the oil pressure Is not too low . there is no abnormal engine noise . the governor has not been tampered with . the engine is at normal operating temperature

(see Information column)

Raise the engine speed to around 2500 rpm, or half the maximum engine speed if this is lower Hold this speed steady for 30 seconds to ensure that the inlet and exhaust system is fully purged

Allow the engine to return to idle and the emissions to stabilise

1. Assess the smoke emitted from the tailpipe

1. Rapidly increase the engine speed to around 2500rpm or half the maximum engine speed if this is lower and assess the smoke emitted from the tailpipe during acceleration

Reasons for rejection (fail):

A. Vehicles first used before 1 August 1979

1. The exhaust emits dense blue or clearly visible black smoke for a period of 5 seconds at idle

1. The exhaust emits dense blue or clearly visible black smoke during acceleration which would obscure the view of other road users

Note: The criterion is density and not volume of smoke. The description 'dense smoke' includes smoke or vapour which largely obscures vision

Older vehicles, particularly pre-1960, sometimes emit unavoidable smoke due to their design. Such smoke is not a reason for rejection

Like mr Shakles says (There are too many Austins in this thread!), yours is too new for that.

I doubt you'd get it through with it creating blue smoke anyway. Grey smoke maybe (if an engine has sat for a long time that often clears up after you drive it a bit)

On or around Thu, 12 Jan 2006 10:31:23 +0000, Tom Woods enlightened us thusly:

depends... if it passes the smoke test, the blue smoke mustn't be so dense as to block the view of the bloke behind.

if it doesn't pass the smoke test you may have problems - you might be able to get a letter saying that it smoked when new, or somesuch. Not sure that they actually changed anything post-79 in the way of fuel system or air cleaners or any such.

There are options to avoid testing things that wouldn't have passed when new, at least for petrol engines.

When i first got my 2A MOT'd it was smoking a lot (grey smoke) - but my engine had sat for a couple of years.

The MOT tester said it was probably smoking too much - but when told that the engine had sat for a few years and there was only so much driving round the garden i could do in it to try and get the injector cleaner through he admitted that there wasnt much i could do and passed it. It did clear up after a bit of proper driving on the road.

Blue smoke implies that something really is properly wrong inside the engine and it needs atleast partially stripping to fix it. Its unlikely to get any better on its own unlike grey smoke which can clear up with some driving.

Barring really old stuff (pre landrover) and 2 stroke's is there anything that should have smoked much when it was new?

On or around Thu, 12 Jan 2006 18:18:01 +0000, Tom Woods enlightened us thusly:

You can dump injector cleaner into the fuel filter housing...

well, the comment is really aimed at the things that don't pass the later emissions tests due to being an earlier design. As indeed is the 2.25D land rover, as sold until early 110s in about 1984.

Blue smoke from a 2.25D is very common - rather depends how much.