Stop smoke, negative side effects?

[bt46]

supercheap will have an oil filter z89a (they are common to many cars)
for odd tools you need a tool shop or a trade shop like bearing wholesalers
get yourself a filter removing tool while your there
dont want to be negative however the only way to stop the smoke is a new set of rings and valve guides
you can re ring an alfetta pretty easy with the engine in the car

[MD]

These guys are all over Brisbane and have all the tools you need.

http://www.tradetoolsdirect.com/Home.aspx

[DBonelli]

Please forgive my inexperience and plain and simple dumbness, and many thanks for your suggestions and help. Today I put a dose of sump flush through the car and let the car idle from a cold start for about 20 minutes. I drained the sump right away and replaced the oil filter. After waiting about 2 hours I filled the sump with 5 litres of HPR-50 and one bottle of 'stop leaks'. I then let the car idol until the fan kicked in, I stopped the engine and finally topped up the oil with 250ml of stop smoke. The stop smoke bottle recommended only putting 250ml in a 4 cylinder.

I hope I did everything right, I drove the car around a bit this afternoon, it feels better. Its odd my sump must have been pretty gooey and shitty because this new thicker oil and a cleanup makes the engine run a little better (maybe I'm just imagining things?) Anyway, no smoke to an extent, until the car got really hot so I'm starting to think I have cooling/over heating issues. My oil pressure gage does not work very well, the needle moves about a quarter of the scale. Anyway I've noticed the car runs best at about 85 degrees, but the temperature gage can creep up to about 100 and that's when it seems to be blowing smoke. I bought radiator flush, but I can't see how I can access the radiator drain, if it has one? Are you supposed to drain your radiator by unscrewing a hose clamp?

[bt46]

you can drain the radiator by removing the lower hose or there is a drain plug on the exhaust side of the block...again i dont mean to be negative but you are wasting your money on oil, oil flush, stop smoke, ect ect..save it for fixing the real problem. Again its not that hard to put new rings in the engine with the engine in the car if you have someone with some mechanical knowledge to help.

[DBonelli]

Fair enough.

Quick question though, what temperature should these cars run at, and what temp is too hot? Would warn rings or stem guides attribute to overheating??

[bt46]

if it has a standard thermostat it will run at 85 and up i think........im not sure about the effect of a worn engine .....you could remove the thermostate but you need to block off the bypass hose that drops out of the bottom of the thermostat...you can also buy cooler thermostats usually used on a modified engine..if i can try and help in any way im happy to

[DBonelli]

Just to put it out there. What I did here has actually reduced my smoke by a fair amount. It is still a little smoky but I think the stop leaks gave the valve stem seals a 2nd life. Might be able to get a few thousand more k's out of this.

[MD]

Engines obviously should not boil but getting the temp as close to that as practical makes for good combustion and getting the max out of the fuel. Higher temps help to atomise the fuel and form a gas instead of droplets. This causes a more intimate mix with oxygen and hence greater energy conversion. On the other hand, if the engine is allowed to run cool/cold say under 85*C all the time, it will waste fuel, not run as well as it could and contribute to accelerated engine wear.

The trade off here is that you need some buffer for general traffic conditions and so somewhere around 90*C is a good compromise if you have a good radiator. Never run a car without a good thermostat as it will not build up and maintain a good combustion temparature and is likely to run cold if all else is well. If it doesn't, you have other problems like partially blocked radiators etc.

BTW the only connection between old engines and overheating is if the water circulation galleries are blocked from mineral deposition or worse still from creek water mud. Don't laugh, I have dug out enough mud to grow spuds cause dickheads dont use distilled water.

For a race engine the temp should be 95*C+.

[Darryl]

If its hitting 100 you have a problem that needs fixing, regardless of stop smoke etc.
I realize you don't want to spend/don't have the $ to spend on the car, but letting it overheat is going to be expensive.

Anyway, flushing it yourself is a good start, do it a few times through (first and last time at least with just water), don't be in a hurry (ie let it warm up and flow through properly).
Its worth pulling a hose or 2 anyway, if only to see how much crud is built up.
Are the hoses themselves ok - if in doubt replace....
Oh - and don't be too surprised if the flush dislodges enough crud that eg your heater starts leaking.....

And on the stop smoke subject - I don't trust the stuff at all - but I have no issue with using a decent quality higher viscosity oil (until you can fix the problem properly).

[DBonelli]

it's only just started hitting 100 and I took it right easy and drove gently on open roads and let the wind bring it back down a bit. But I really thought that was too hot. At 85/90 degrees my oil pressure gage at idle wasn't much but was something, at 100 its almost nothing and the oil burns big time. Temp has been sitting between 85-90 lately consistently for a couple of weeks now. But it has been cooler up here with this record rainfall lingering about.

MD are you saying that people fill their coolant with water picked up in a bucket from a creek bed?

The hoses seem fine, but when I remove them I'll check their condition. I'm happy to spend money on the car but I am even happier when I do basic maintenance with little results as I'm starting to know where things are and what runs off what. Baby steps

[MD]

Yes they do. I once stripped down a Datsun 1600 engine to give it a total rebuild. To my huge annoyance, the water galleries were totally blocked by hardened mud. In fact it was the reason why the head gasket failed !! Eventually had to give this poor bastard 5 sizes overbore to get rid of the corrosion grove the cylinders developed from sitting around.

Simple advice.

• Never use tapwater. It's clean but it has minerals in solution which will come out of solution and deposit themselves internally on everything that carries your coolant. Do this often enough and it will block your radiator tubes.

• Never use rainwater. It may be soft but it has a typical pH of 6.5 and so it is acidic and will react with the metals.
  
  
  
  • Don't use premixed coolants. You dont know where the water componenet came from.
  
  Only use distilled water and add your own concentrate for best engine protection and reliability.BTW Remember that water boils at ambient pressure @100*C but your coolant is not at ambient pressure not is it jsut water and the additives raise the boiling point as well so if your car does run at 100*C, the world is not about to end.

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