What's wrong with my Stag?

[varsas]

Hi.

I think my Stag has decided it's bored of running on petrol and wants to run on coolant instead.

There is a short video of the symptoms here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi0TlUwZK0A

But basically you get lots of white smoke. This happens if the car is hot or cold, idling or at 3000rpm. The only time it stops is when the engine is under load. The smoke seems 'clean' (it doesn't leave any oil or sooty marks on your hands). Just this morning the engine also felt like it was running on 7 cylinders under idle, again fine on the move. I think it's drinking coolant, but I'm not 100% sure. This has come on quite suddenly, it was fine 100 miles/1 week ago.

I have double checked and the head gasket has not blown. A 'sniff test' of the coolant and a compression test both say it's not HGF.

I guess it's the coolant channel that runs inside the inlet manifold has failed or rusted through or something? I don't know how else water could be getting into the cylinders?

What should I do? Remove the inlet manifold and have a look?

Any help very much appreciated.

[geoffd]

Have you checked the brake fluid level? I had something like this when the brake servo Not on a Stag) expired, and the vacuum sucked brake fluid into the inlet manifold. Just a thought ...

Geoff

[varsas]

Good call, but (having suffered that before) I have checked and the brake fluid level has not changed, and the operation of the brakes is normal so I'm discounting that for now.

Quick update...

I have just checked and the coolant level is down (after topping up last night) so i'm sure it's burning water (if you see what I mean).

Assuming it's not HGF (partly because of the sniff and compression test, partly because there's not much I can do about it if it is HGF) the most likely candidate is inlet manifold gasket so I'm going to do that over the weekend and see what happens.

[PBP]

Hello Varsas, just watched your video and it seems I have the exact same problem. What was the result of your test or how was the problem resolved? Bracing myself for an expensive answer. Thanks you

[Steve-B]

Hi Versas, do you have access to a cylinder compression gauge? It would be interesting to know if you have compression ± 10% if original which if you do probably means a gasket or cracked something vs. pistons(valves, etc)..

Easy enough test to do by anyone!

[jeremyc]

Steve-B said:

Hi Versas, do you have access to a cylinder compression gauge? It would be interesting to know if you have compression ± 10% if original which if you do probably means a gasket or cracked something vs. pistons(valves, etc)..

Easy enough test to do by anyone!

Given that it was 15 years ago I suspect the problem has either been solved or the car sold/abandoned by now.