Smokey Austin Healey 3000

[Falcoray]

Hi I have just bought an Austin Healey 3000 Bj8 it has had a complete restoration including the engine, gearbox etc. It runs ok, still trying to sort the SU carbs, the main problem is it smokes, plumes of blue smoke. If I blip the throttle when stationery it puts out clouds of blue smoke, it has done about 200 miles since the rebuild, any ideas please.

[GreenV8S]

I assume the blue smoke is coming out of the exhaust. That suggests it's burning oil. The most likely causes are worn valve stem seals, piston rings worn or not bedded in, excessive oil blowing out of the crank case breather combined with a breather that is connected to the intake.

If the engine has been rebuilt very recently it may be that the rings just need to be bedded in. In that case you should have been warned that it needs doing and be aware of the procedure for doing it.

[harrycovert]

Engines that have been built correctly should not smoke. I would question that it`s had a complete rebuild.

[GreenV8S]

There is only a short window to bed new rings in properly. If it needs doing and you keep running the engine without doing it, you will end up with poor ring sealing forever (or the next rebuild - whichever comes first).

There are other checks and actions needed for a new engine. Hopefully it's on running-in oil, and that will need to be changed as least once in the next few hundred miles. The head bolts should be checked too. If you aren't aware of this type of thing, you need to get on top of it.

Edited by GreenV8S on Thursday 14th June 17:26

[The Dangerous Elk]

Does it smoke more when cold or hot. ?

Easy to do a compression check on these engines which would be my first action.

Edited by The Dangerous Elk on Thursday 14th June 17:35

[Falcoray]

Hi thanks for all of the replies, I had no instruction on running or in fact what the rebuild consisted of, it was just “it’s all new heads and valves etc.” I’m now trying to contact the seller again for more information. I appreciate the engine needs to be run in but wasn’t aware of run in oil etc would it be too late to start the correct procedure from now?? I’ve set the SU carbs up and done a plug check it’s running really clean with nice sandy colour plugs it’s just the oil burning I’m most concerned about.

[Peanut Gallery]

You may be lucky..

A while ago my dad had an engine re-built.He had driven about 100km. I then borrowed the car and took it out of town. He had only driven gently and around town, as soon as I got out of town and got the exhaust hot, I had a smoke screen that would put a tank to shank. - there was a ton of oil to burn out of the exhaust.

Does your car smoke from cold, or only when warmed up?

[GreenV8S]

Falcoray said:

would it be too late to start the correct procedure from now?

No. If it was only rebuilt a couple of hundred miles ago there's still time to do it.

If the previous owner can't/won't explain what condition the engine is in I'd advise an oil+filter change now to running-in oil so that you know where you stand. If you don't know the head and manifold bolts have been checked, it''s time you did that too.

I would give the engine at least a thousand miles after a rebuild before worrying about it burning oil, as long as the smoke isn't grossly excessive can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face type of thing.

[Falcoray]

Hi Thanks again for these useful tips I will now change the oil and filter using running in oil and hopefully the engine will soon become a non smoker!
Another problem I have is that the speedo and rev counter both read almost double the actual speed and rpm any ideas again would be much apreciated.

[Falcoray]

Thanks for your help, GreenV8S, the Austin Healey replaced a 2000 chimera but I couldn’t trust myself to drive it sensibly!

[GreenV8S]

Falcoray said:

speedo and rev counter both read almost double the actual speed and rpm

Given the recent rebuild I suppose it's possible you just have a sensor/gauge mismatch. Sometimes electronic rev counters can be configured to support different cylinder counts either by internal configuration or an external selector. If you think it is off by an exact multiple of two, that might be it. That doesn't explain the speedo. Is it mechanical or electronic?

[Falcoray]

Hi that could be the answer for the tacho, the speedo is electric I haven’t checked to see where the sensor is yet tho

[Elliot2000]

if He’s said it’s had a new head and valves then I would guess it hasn’t had a full rebuild and just had top end done. If that is the case, then running in oil won’t help your smoking issue. Have you not get receipts and bills for the rebuild so you can confirm what has been done?

[GreenV8S]

Elliot2000 said:

if He’s said it’s had a new head and valves then I would guess it hasn’t had a full rebuild

I thought that comment about new heads was in response to doubts that the heads had been rebuilt. The initial post said it had a full rebuild.

[The Dangerous Elk]

GreenV8S said:

I thought that comment about new heads was in response to doubts that the heads had been rebuilt. The initial post said it had a full rebuild.

The only "new heads" are very expensive alloy ones from the like of Denis Welch Motorsport etc. These would be obvious to see if fitted.

[gothatway]

Falcoray said:

the speedo is electric I haven’t checked to see where the sensor is yet tho

I very much doubt that. If it is then the car has been subject to significant modification. Do you know who rebuilt the engine ? I'd be extremely surprised if it was done by a specialist if it's burning significant amounts of oil.
The Austin Healey Club have groups all over the country - I recommend going along to your nearest noggin and natter to get advice.

[Falcoray]

Hi since my last post I have found out that it has the wrong engine fitted! It is an earlier one which was fitted to the BN7, this might explain issues with setting the carbs which are HS6 instead of the HD8’s and the speedo etc but more importantly having only bought it 2 weeks ago I’m not sure what to do about it. This is my first classic car and hope I haven’t paid top price for a dodgy car, again any thoughts would be really appreciated.

[PeterBurgess]

Having the wrong engine type is not a good sign. It would be, I think, costly to buy and renovate a BJ8 engine and ancillaries. I feel you should get it to a Healey specialist to go through it, if you are lucky you may have enough ammunition to seek some sort of redress from the seller.
Peter

[GreenV8S]

Was this a private sale?

[The Dangerous Elk]

PeterBurgess said:

Having the wrong engine type is not a good sign. It would be, I think, costly to buy and renovate a BJ8 engine and ancillaries. I feel you should get it to a Healey specialist to go through it, if you are lucky you may have enough ammunition to seek some sort of redress from the seller.
Peter

It could quite easily be a "period" replacement engine.