Heck

[Orophin]

After my first blast Monday, I got home and left the car a few minutes. I then went to the car to move it and she was an absolute pig to start and smoke or steam appeared from under the bonnet. I lifted it and there was oil everywhere, must have been leaking from the rocker cover gasket and also the dipstick hose near the bottom had split open. I had no idea this had happened on the trip, only indications where it smoked a bit when I really have her some but stopped after that, I put it down to being too rich and just an old car. So after resealing the rocker cover gasket and the dipstick hose and topped up the oil, we turned the key. She turned over which was a good thing. She was still a pig to start but when she finally got going, there is a loudish tapping noise and smoke/steam coming from the rocker cover again. I think I've killed it. [xx(] Have I damaged the cam? Sod I wish I knew and checked it while I was driving, and i seriously hope the head gasket hasn't gone. Can I have some help please? I'm in a desperate state! Maybe I should just get a new engine.

[John Clancy]

Are you certain the tapping noise is coming from the cylinder head? Check all around the exhaust manifold for a leak as they're always blowing particularly on the back cylinder. Could also explain the smoke/steam.

<center><b>[url="http://www.triumphtr7.com/documents/sales/codenamebullet.asp"]Buy the story of the Triumph TR7/8 on DVD here[/url]</b></center>

[Orophin]

I'm pretty much certain the tapping is from the head and the smoke/steam most certainly is! [:(] Even when it's stone cold, when you take off the filler cap after a few second idle, smoke/steam comes out alot more than usual.

[Rich in Vancouver]

Try doing a compression test. That will help identify if it's a bad valve. Are all of the camshaft retaining caps secure? You may also want to check that the timing chain hasn't skipped a tooth.
You may also have spun a bearing. How much oil were you down at the end of the run.
I had a similar problem on an MGB-GT once. During a hard run I stopped for gas and when I restarted after filling up I got the most awful rapping noise. It turned out I had spun a main bearing. In my case the oil wasn't low it was just a knackered bearing.

Rich

1975 TR7 ACL764U

[Orophin]

I don't know how much oil I lost, after replacing the dipstick hose with some clear hose I found in the shed, I found there wasn't alot of oil missing, maybe I need to adjust the height of the hose because I think I cut it too short but I did loose oil but only about 1/4 at most. The cam to be honest looked fine when I took the rocker cover off. Shall I do a video of it starting, running ect and post it on u tube for you to look at and hear? How do you do a compression test? I'm tempted to pay a mechanic I know to have a quick look and give me his opinion, but I dare say this may be a garage job anyway. Alot of smoke/steam vapour would signify a bad valve would it not?

[Rich in Vancouver]

When the head gasket went on my wedge it pressurised the cooling system and all of the water left the cooling system at high velocity, but it left via the overflow on the coolant bottle. I suppose that it could vent into the oil galleries which may explain steam coming from the valve cover but I think that would be unlikely. Is there a creamy tan sludge on the inside of the valve cover and oil cap? That would mean you have water in your oil. Steam and water coming out the exhaust would mean water in the combustion chamber. A burned valve usually exhibits rough running and extreme oil consumption.
It may be worth the cost to have your mechanic friend check it out. You will recover the money by not doing any unnecessary work.

Good luck,
Rich

1975 TR7 ACL764U

[Rich in Vancouver]

One other thought.
Pop off the distributor cap and give it a wipe inside and out. If oil from the split dipstick tube was blown around the engine compartment it may have got inside the cap and could be disrupting the spark travel. Wouldn't that be nice!

Rich

1975 TR7 ACL764U

[john 215]

Hi Orophin,
Have you checked the engine breather hoses onto the carbs if they collaspe then the engine will not be able to breath and push oil out of the weakest point(s).Have you lost any coolant [?] if still up to max then head gasket probaly ok.Clean all the oil of the HT system,plug leads dizzy ect as Rich said. Difficult to diagnose from a far i am affraid [:(]
Cheers John.

LIVE LIFE A QUARTER OF A MILE AT A TIME!
1979 3.5 FHC(STATUS PENDING!!)

1982 2.0 DHC NOW A 4.6 WILL BE ON THE ROAD VERY SOON!
Read My Blog http://www.waringstowntr7s.co.uk/blogs/ ... hp/John215

[Hasbeen]

Orophin, How long is it since this car was on the road? How many
miles has it done?

Did the thing loose any water, on the run?

Have you checked the valve clearance? Your tapping could be
excessive clearances.

Have you done that compression test?

If it was off the road for a fair while, you could have gummed up,
sticking piston rings. If you can find the source of the tapping, &
know its not a terminal problem, try shouting it a bottle of STP oil
treatment. Its magic stuff for freeing up such things. Give it 50,
to 100 miles, of GENTLE driving, at operating temperature, to do the
job.

Good luck.

Hasbeen

[Orophin]

I didn't loose any coolant. Therefore the head gasket hasn't blown. My carb breather hoses are pretty awful to be honest, I'm going to renew them. Hey, that must be what happened! Shes was leaking around the rocker cover, filler cap and dipstick. The smoke from the head certainly wasn't blue, more white - condensation? When driving, there was a large spurt of blue/white smoke from the exhaust when I overtook someone but then it stopped and returned to normal after that.

The car has been sat for 6-7 years. She was fired up after that and lightly driven and when I bought her, I fired her up when I could and revved her up a bit [:I] and saw lots of black deposits coming out the exhaust when I did that, so I did it even more to clear it out. I also put in some Redex carb cleaner into the fuel. Useless information I know... Car has done 89250ish miles. I have not checked valve clearance nor tried a compression test. Thanks alot for the help so far.

[John Clancy]

Would pinking or detonation cause the noise you're experiencing from the cylinder head area?

<center><b>[url="http://www.triumphtr7.com/documents/sales/codenamebullet.asp"]Buy the story of the Triumph TR7/8 on DVD here[/url]</b></center>