Confused

[davemac250]

Car sort of broke down today. 4.3 pre-cat.

Temp gauge dropped off the bottom.

Oil pressure all but disappeared.

Big cloud of oil smoke out of the bonnet.

Pulled over - nothing. No leaks no evidence.

Temp gauge still not working - suspect a fuse. Oil pressure now spot on.

Any ideas? It had just come from having valley gaskets done.

[shoggyraminator]

"Big cloud of oil smoke out of the bonnet."

That doesn't sound good. did the smoke appear as you were driving or did you notice it when you stopped, in which case maybe it was just spilt oil which was slowly burning off and only became noticeable when you stopped.

[davemac250]

Plume as I was crawling in traffic. Pulled over immediately at that.

No trace if oil on the exhaust.

Oil to level.

Definitely oil burning as it rained later and was on the screen.

[davemac250]

Now driving lovely.

No temp gauge tho.

[Hoover.]

is the temp sender sender still in the block...... behnd the dizzy ?

[davemac250]

Yep.

Checked that. Also the hotter switch. Fuse looks as well. Fans are coming on.

Looks like a day on tinkering.

Odd.

[davemac250]

Checked the levels all fine.

Water a touch, and I mean a touch low.

Took it for a drive. Spat out its coolant.

Back to garage, they can sort it having just done the valley gaskets, which I take would disturb the cooling system?

[FlipFlopGriff]

Needs bleeding? Maybe air in the system?
FFG

[carsy]

I would imagine the oil burning will just be some residual that maybe spilt somewhere on the engine and then burnt once the engine heated up.

The temp gauge and oil pressure sender i would imagine have been knocked during the work causing a bad or no connection.

Spitting coolant out. Yes coolant will have to be drained to change the valley gasket. I would imagine they over filled slightly when filling back up.

All something or nothing, bet you`ve nowt to be worried about.