Fiesta Endura Engine - smoking

[SWJ]

Can anyone help !!
My daughters 1996 Fiesta Endura is doing my head in.

We bought it last year at 68,000 miles, 'quite rattly' but otherwise seemed OK.

I changed oil / filter / plugs, but soon afterwards, the engine started smoking badly - when cold & started using oil. Once it's run for a minute or so, the smoke clears without any further problems.

My initial reaction was the valve stem oil seals, but the plugs are clean and no oil is thrown out when turned over cold with plugs removed.

I intend doing a wet v dry compression test in the next few days to check the oil rings.

Are there any further checks I can do that could identify for sure what the problem is?

Also, could this oil burning have damaged the CAT?

Thanks,
Steve

[dern]

If your stem seals have gone I'd be surprised if oil was thrown out when turned over without plugs... why do you think that might happen? They went on my 944 and it smoked when cold because the oil would leak down really slowly overnight and build up in the cylinders. The only other time it was apparent was if you do the following... accelerate in 3rd up to speed, take your foot off the accelerator and coast while counting to 5 and the floor it. The negative pressure while coasting will pull oil past the leaking seals and it'll all burn off when you floor it.

Mark

[SWJ]

Hi Mark,
Thanks for your reply. The way I saw it, if oil has seeped down the valves overnight, then:-
a) one or more of the compression chambers would be quite wet, which I hoped would lead to oil particles being forced out through the plug holes, onto my kitchen roll.

b) the plug in the offending cylinder would look quite oiled / black. However, this was not the case.

Before buying the car several months ago, I tried coasting down a long steep hill & decking it at the bottom but no oil smoke was seen. However, I suppose the stem seals might have gone in the meantime. I'll try it again.

Thanks again,
Steve

[Matthew C]

Don't forget it could be the seals on the exhaust side, in which case the oil would be being introduced into the exhaust and not going through the cylinders.

[dern]

SWJ said:

Thanks for your reply. The way I saw it, if oil has seeped down the valves overnight, then:- a) one or more of the compression chambers would be quite wet, which I hoped would lead to oil particles being forced out through the plug holes, onto my kitchen roll.

Oh right, never thought of trying that. Good luck finding the problem.

Regards,

Mark

[Tony427]

Sounds like the piston rings have gone.......thesymptons are just like the wifes old Fiesta and the neighbours Ka...........used basically the same 1.1 litre OHV engine...

£120 for parts should see you sorted with both the ring set and the gasket set.

Cheers,

Tony

[360 stradale]

Check the breather pipes aren't blocked, in particular the one joined to the oil filler cap. It's common for them to get well sludged at this point, causing poor engine breathing and lots of smoke!

[SWJ]

Thanks everyone for their advice.
I may be a little too quick in writing this, but crossed fingers, I think that the problem (as 360 Stradale advised) was a blocked oil filler cap.

Having washed it out, the blue smoke has now disappeared.

Another question:-
Whilst I understand that the filler cap also acts as the crankcase breather & directs any unburnt fumes through the combustion chamber, how does the poor crankcase breathing cause so much smoke and where does it come from ?

Thanks again everyone,
Steve

[thong]

SWJ said:

Thanks everyone for their advice. I may be a little too quick in writing this, but crossed fingers, I think that the problem (as 360 Stradale advised) was a blocked oil filler cap. Having washed it out, the blue smoke has now disappeared. Another question:- Whilst I understand that the filler cap also acts as the crankcase breather & directs any unburnt fumes through the combustion chamber, how does the poor crankcase breathing cause so much smoke and where does it come from ? Thanks again everyone, Steve

change the oil cap at least every 12,000 miles or soner,also the breather pipe to air box,inside the air filter box there's a round orange breather valve change it and pull out the valves lower chamber,the plastic part in the bottom of the air box and wash it out,make sure the pin sized hole is clear to.

[pdmotors]

An engine that can not breathe will simply pressurise. This can cause the car to try to reburn the gasses through the inlet, which in effect chokes the car. This will cause the idle to become irratic or non existant usually. If the engine pressurises in the crankcase it can force oil up past the piston rings, thus burning oil. In your case however, it is definately the valve stem oil seals as it is not smokimg once run a little. It could be any of the eight seals or all of them and seeing as they're only about£5 a set, i'd change them all whilst its in bits. This isn't a big job either, even someone with only a basic understanding of the engine could do it with the aid of a manual, as when putting back together there is no need to know how to time the engine up as it is on a timing chain.
Regards, Paul.