Nearly Had A Fire in my 3200GT engine bay. Any ideas?

[S70JPS]

My car nearly whent up in flames today. Not good sitting at the trffic lights with smoke billowing out of the bonnet vents. Especially with my wife on board as she wants me to sell the car.
The problem is with the dip stick. Every now and then it blows out and oil sprays around the engine bay. This time it was dripping onto the exhaust manifold. Hence the smoke. Has anyone else had this problem? If so what causes it? The car has just been to the dealers for a full check and nothing was found. Any advice appreciated as I don't want to sell the car.

[3200gt]

Hi, not a problem I have had I am glad to say !
However I remember reading something about this problem on Enrico's "can you help? maserati3200gt" pages/forum. Cant remember the remedy but I am pretty sure it was an easy fix.


www.maserati-indy.co.uk/home00-3200gt.htm


>> Edited by 3200gt on Wednesday 28th December 14:39

[S70JPS]

It was my post on Enrico's page I had no response on the bit about the dip stick blowing out.

[3200gt]

Try phoneing Glenn at Colchester, Lancaster Maserati. They are friendly people and will help out over the phone if poss. Sorry don't have the tel no close to hand. Alternatively have a chat with Matt at Giallo's 01732363030.

[simonprelude]

Anyway of making something that will hold the dipstick in place ??

[S70JPS]

I have checked th 'o' rings on the dip stick they seem ok and the stick is quite a tight fit. I thought about something to hold it in but did not want to do this and end up causing damage to the engine.

[SCOOTERMAN]

Something's blowing the dipstick out? A build-up of pressure in the crankcase perhaps? Too much oil? A blocked breather?

[S70JPS]

Not too much oil. This has happened about 3 times now and always after refuling & when the check oil light has come on. Engine was re built 5000 miles ago (previous owner but I have the bill) and I have just had the LH rocker gasket replaced. So I would expect all the breathers are clear. What would cause the build up in the crank case? Should not be due to wear and tear because the rebuild replaced all the worn parts.

[SCOOTERMAN]

You're getting warning lights with it? Too much oil pressure perhaps? How thatd affect the disptick I don't know, but maybe it's backing-up somewhere? Is there a pressure relief valve in/near the oil filter as per most other cars? Maybe that's something to do with it? (I don't own/drive a Maser; a amily member does, but my regular steed's an Alfa 146)
It's funny that you're getting oil warning lights and that the engine has had a recent rebuild. Who was it rebuilt by? Is performance any different? Maybe you're getting mega blow-by @ the rings?
Breathers; they can gunge up. How much does the car get used? What's your oil consumption like?

[S70JPS]

The check oil light is more or less standard after a refuel as the oil level check is run every time the fuel cap is opened. I have checked the bills prior to my ownership and have found one that says it needs an breather relief valve which may be the problem. However the next sentence on the bill says everything checked ok. Anyone know what these valves are, how much they cost and do they need to be fitted by a dealer.
To answer the question of who did the re-build, it was done by a main dealer at the massive cost of 4.5K. (glad I diddn't get that bill!)

[3200gt]

Not sure about the check oil light coming on after every refuel, certainly doesn't on mine. Something definately sounds wrong there. I think that that may be a different and misleading problem altogether.
What does the oil pressure gauge read on tick over? does it fluctuate at different engine revs or is it glued to 5 all the time as it should be?

>> Edited by 3200gt on Wednesday 28th December 21:22

>> Edited by 3200gt on Wednesday 28th December 21:24

[S70JPS]

Check oil light only comes on now and again after a refuel and represents normal oil consumption (about 3/4 litre/ 1000 miles). The oil pressure guage never moves from 5 bar.

[3200gt]

OK 5 bar is good. Mine doesn't use anywhere near that amount of oil which means if you have no leaks it must be burning it. Does the exhausts stainless tail pipes get very sooty? If yes, then it sounds as if your have a breather blocked/partially blocked and oil is being forced into the cylinders and creating to much pressure in the crank.
You need to ask a main dealer to tell you where all the breathers are that would cause this. Not sure if they are easily accessible so may not be a simple fix.
Lancaster Maserrati tel no is 01206 848558 ask for Glenn on service and persuade him to get a mechanic to talk to you on the phone, they are very helpful, especially if you let them believe you will be getting them to service it in the future.

[wicked1]

Hi Guy's, a couple of points of information for you, firstly the dipstick blowwing out is a sign that there is excessive crankcase pressure, The pressure builds and builds until the weakest point(the dipstick)is blown out to relieve the pressure. Normally i would suggest you have a blocked breather system. What i would suggest to confirm the excessive pressure is to drive the vehicle, for roughly the distance you have experienced the problem but just shorten the journey and then whilst the engine running remove the dipstick, i suspect that you will hear the pressure relieved. This will confirm excessive crankcase pressure.

I don'tknow how mechanical you are and whether you want to tackle the problem yourself or the above is about your limit.

If you want to get further involved let me know

[S70JPS]

I am reasonably mechanical and would prefer to sort the problem myself. The car has just cost me £1500 in unscheduled (and unrelated) maintenance. If i knew where the breathers were and they were accessible I could check them myself.
I have just run the car and pulled the dip stick. There was only very slight pressure. Would the breathers block up after a series of short journeys and then clear on a longer run? I have used the car daily for the last 4 months and this has only happened 3 times. However I have been using it for 1 & 2 mile runs for the last week over Christmas.

>> Edited by S70JPS on Thursday 29th December 10:58

[nigelo]

S70JPS said:

If i knew where the breathers were and they were accessible I could check them myself.

The breathers connect to the oil vapour separator, a black box located in front of the left cylinder bank, between the dipstick and the left air filter housing. From this OVS you can trace the breathers back to their source (1 per cyl bank) noting that a vapour outlet connects to the left air filter housing whilst the separated oil outlet (small bore rubber pipe) connects to the LH cam cover. This oil return has a one way valve with arrow which should point from OVS to cam cover when correctly fitted.

All of that said, don't forget to check you have not overfilled oil - Check with COLD engine

hth

[wicked1]

Another really basic check is to unclip these pipes and just check they are clear and not blocked or collasped, its not difficult but just a bit time consuming, this will save you money. Also check the valves work correctly and they aren't blocked either.

[GreenV8S]

Where does the breather system ultimately vent to? Typically for a modern car they are vented to the inlet manifold. For example on mine there is a small vent downstream of the throttle and a larger vent upstream. When this is all working properly the crank case is under slight suction at part throttle. If yours is similar then the small amount of pressure you saw would indicate that the breather is blocked. The amount of blow-by increases dramatically with power so under acceleration you may be getting far higher crank case pressure than you saw. By the way, I suspect that the oil leak occured under hard acceleration some time earlier but it only ignited after you stopped due to heat soak.

[nigelo]

GreenV8S said:

Where does the breather system ultimately vent to?

Perhaps my post was not clear enough - The vapour outlet from the Oil Vapour Separator vents into the left air filter housing whilst the oil return goes to the left cam cover through a one-way valve.

hth

>> Edited by nigelo on Thursday 29th December 13:46

[S70JPS]

All vents/valves checked and clear. I will see how it goes. Anymore ideas in the meantime welcome. By the way the pipe clips were hard work is there a special tool for them?