Escort Gti

[richysgti]

hi can anone help me just bought escort gti been stood for a while engine starts ticksover and revs perfect but im getting whit smoke any ideas gratefully recieved cheers rich

[lublin]

Without seeing it it's hard to say but I'd suspect 1 or all of these:

1. The valve guide oil seals have gone hard or stuck to the vale stem and the rubber has either been ripped or they have been pulled off when it was started for the first time after standing for a long time. Valve guide oil seals are a common problem on old Fords, as I know from my Cortina owning days. Typical valve guide seals symptoms are: Smoke when 1st started, after the motor has been stopped a while, which should soon clear, also after you accelerate hard then take your foot totally off the throttle for a few seconds then reapply the gas quite hardish and there will be a puff of smoke, size and density will be dependent on how worn the seals are. If you park for a few minutes, to read a map say, and leave the engine ticking over then slowly a cloud of smoke will appear behind you, this happened to me with my Cortina and it was most embarrassing as the cloud was huge.These can be replaced without taking the head off so it's not too expensive to repair.

2. The rings have stuck in the pistons because they have been standing for so long because of varnish, gunge, corrosion or whatever. A piston never goes perfectly up and down in the bore so the rings need to move in and out to compensate for this (the rod is only at 90 degrees to the piston at top and bottom dead centre so the pressure is always slightly to one side of the piston). It will smoke all the time with this problem but they might free themselves after a bit of use or you could try putting plenty of Redex in the bores so it seeps down to the rings over night or longer. After doing this make sure you turn the engine over a few times, before you put the plugs back in, with rags over the plug holes to catch the redex, and make sure the battery is well charged as it might be hard to start with what's left of the Redex wetting the plugs, you may even have to take them out and dry them once or twice (it will smoke like hell for a short while after you do this).

3. The bore could have corroded if it's been left a long time and caused the bores to have pits in them.

I would suspect the valve guide seals first and it is smoke and not water vapour isn't it?