Smoking Cerbera

[jonbarrett]

From time-to-time when I pull-up I'm getting a puff of steam from the righthand edge of the bonnet. By the time I get the bonnet up it has dispersed and I can't see any leaks. There is no smell of oil or fuel so I guess it must be water. Is there any obvious leak point for the coolant or washer fluid I should look for.

It is only on the right and only for a few seconts when I pull-up.

Any ideas?

[trooperiziz]

Has it been raining?

Water can pool on the section under the windscreen and will then fall onto the manifold under braking or acceleration, with the resulting "poof"

[hugepiece]

Have you checked your rad bleed screw? The threaded piece in my old rad worked its way loose and I got a small leak and steam from that! Or it could be coming from the bottom hose perhaps.

[JonnyW]

It could be that the radiator has a crack in the top corners as the Cerb is subject to some flexibility at the front. It starts with a hairline crack that only opens under pressure when the car is in traffic and the temp gets to 100+. It then gets slowly worse.

You'll find the radiator level settles to a level and you think the problem has gone away but the problen could be catastrophic if the AJPV8 overheats.

I've had this three times, my racing Cerb has an additional front brace to stop the twisting under load or it would happen all the time.

[HarryW]

I know you said its doesn't smell but isn't the crank case breather on the OS could be its disconnected from the bottom of the air box, not unknown....

[jonbarrett]

I've just removed the driver side airbox and discovered a loose high pressure hose wrapped around the exhaust manifold. That would explain the burning smell. The hose appears to be connected to the top of the clutch housing at the rear of the engine. Any idea what it does and where the loose end should be attached. Could this be dripping fluid on the manifold?

[alinton]

Sounds like it could be the clutch bleed hose. Braided?

It certainly should not be wrapped around the exhaust! But the free end doesn't go anywhere. Cable-tie it somewhere safe, like alongside the throttle cable.

Andy.

[jonbarrett]

I've checked the parts list and, yes, it is the remote clutch blled hose. It must cave come loose and dropped onto the manifold. I'll see if this tops the smoke.

Thanks everyone.

[big_treacle]

I had this happen & the heat from the manifold knackered the bleed nipple on the end of the hose. Had to get a new hose (about 20 quid or so from TVR power) as I was then constantly getting air leaking into the clutch system causing occasional & very annoying clutch failure especially when the engine was very hot (like in traffic queues).