LWB do I?

[dazerede]

It ain't far from me about 150 miles

[albertross74]

Prob about the same distance for me, only a lot of sea in the way!

[Edweird]

Prob about the same distance for me, only a lot of sea in the way!

Best get yourself a snorkel.

[dazerede]

actually its 49.2 miles away from me just looked on google and it is near newton abbot

only a lot of sea in the way!

phuff u mean alot of land just looked up ur distance and it is something like 176 miles

[albertross74]

I'm in guernsey channel island, flight is booked, all being well Saturday lunchtime I will be en route to Portsmouth to get the ferry home

[albertross74]

Well, picked it up yesterday, checked it over before I bought it and everything seemed all good, long drive to Portsmouth doing about 50 most of the way, plenty of stops to let it rest! Got a little bit warm when we got lost in traffic near Salisbury, but temp was all good the rest of the time, usual just below half.

Noticed she was smoking a bit in the queue to the ferry. Wasn't too keen to start just before getting off ferry, pulled in when I got through customs, oil was fine on the dip stick, but when opening the oil filler cap it had a little bit of white gunk on the inside. Smoking stopped once she was warm on drive home, temp gauge was on about 3/4 when I pulled into my drive.

I'm thinking possibly head gasket, but I'm no mechanic and the more I read, the more I get more confused as to what it could be. Pretty gutted to say the least, but I'm sure it could have been much worse breaking down in England and not being able to get it home easy enough. Any help of what I could look at further to determine what the problem is would be greatly appreciated.

Coolant level in expansion bottle is high, has plenty oil and colour is good on dipstick, but white gunk around filler cap. Overheating and not keen on starting when cold.

Cheers!

[ScottieJ]

Wheeyyyyy glad it made it home! i think you should not worry yet!


The mayo can just form if the vehicle is used for short journeys from condensation. Clean it out and keep an eye on it, 3/4 isn't really overheating so I wouldn't worry about that, if it had a blown head gasket on that long of a journey I would've expected it to hit red and blow the water out!

My first call would be to fit a new good quality thermostat and make sure the radiator is clean.

To be 100% sure you could get hold of a compression tester you could use to see what the readings are? Might also be worth finding someone with a sniffer test to see if there is exhaust fumes in the cooling system.

Also what colour was the smoke? white is water vapour, blue is oil.

[Jordi]

Another one off to a good home.

As Scottie said a quick compression test will tell you if head gasket is ok. White smoke is generally nothing serious. I get lots especially in the cold and wet.

Glad you got it home ok. The last one i bought was 75mile away. I still trailered it home. Just in case.

Jordi

[ferris]

Good work mate . Glad you got it back ok, but now we definitely need some pictures!!

[albertross74]

Cheers guys, appreciate the help!

My mate is borrowing a compression tester at the moment so will see if I can nab that off him tomorrow and have a look. May as well get a new thermostat too and see how that goes. Temp was just below red when I pulled into my drive (about 8 miles from ferry port), performance wise was perfect on way home after she'd warmed up.

I'd say the smoke was more of a white, but not stupidly thick. Put my hand over the pipe and could feel the moisture. Just find it weird how it happened at the ferry port after resting all night and starting spot on this morning. Bloody cars haha!

Pictures and an update to follow