Fiesta smoking excessively

[baykiz]#]

Hi. I am new here so I hope that I am posting this in the right section.

I recently bought a 2006 Ford Fiesta. The car was running fine for about a week. One day I started the car and noticed a substantial amount of steam/smoke coming from the exhaust (more noticeable under acceleration). I did the obvious checks and put it down to a blown head gasket as there was water on number 3 cylinder and the oil was milky. I removed the cylinder head and noticed that it was blowing between number 3 cylinder and the water jacket. I got a replacement head off a car that was running fine, put on a new head gasket and timing belt and reassembled the top end of the engine. I started the car today and to my surprise, the smoke/steam is still there. I have not noticed any coolant in any of the cylinders and I am now baffled as to why it is still smoking.

Has anyone had an experience like this and found any causes? There is obviously something that I am overlooking but I have no idea what.The car runs well and no strange noises from the engine.

If anyone could give me ANY advice, I would really appreciate it.

[isetta]

not very likely but could it have a load of oily water in the exhaust which went from the cylinder past the exhaust valve into the exhaust and it needs time to burn off.

did you have the head skimmed? with alloy heads it is usual to have them skimmed before fitting to reduce chance of head gasket leak. Alloy heads are more prone to warping slightly compared to good old cast iron heads.

I had a blown head gasket on my volvo 244 about 25 years ago. I took head off and bits of it had corroded away between cylinders and water ways. I had it welded (it was alloy head) and then skimmed. It was fine after that. But I don't think there are many workshops left that do that kind of work. (I suppose technically it was not a blown head gasket really) 

[baykiz]#]

Thanks for your reply Isetta.

That's the only thing I can think of at the moment. I have not taken it for a drive yet and after reading up online about it, there are a lot of posts stating that it is advisable to take it for a good drive to burn off any coolant that may have gotten into the catalytic converter although I highly doubt that this is the case with my car.

I never had the head skimmed as I did check the head with a straight edge and a feeler gauge and there was no sign of warpage and the engine I took the head off was perfect.

 

[isetta]

fingers crossed it just needs a good hard drive to clear it out

[pragmatix]

Worn valve guides?

[baykiz]#]

Update...

I took it for a HARD drive this evening. I did about 20km. I ran it at high enough revs and from the get go, there was hardly any smoke when driving. (I had a Renault Clio before and the head gasket went in it and when I drove it there was a hell of a cloud of smoke behind me). After driving it for the 20km, I stopped and there was no smoke at all. I parked it and left it for a while then started it again and there was a bit of smoke/steam but nothing too serious. I also have a Ford Focus petrol and I started that and revved it a bit and had the same amount of smoke/steam so I guess that it is just down to the cold weather.

So I am crossing fingers that it just needed a good run to clear out the cat etc.

Thanks again for all you help.

[baykiz]#]

12 hours ago, pragmatix said:

Worn valve guides?

Thanks,I was also staring to suspect that but the car that the head came off was running perfect with no smoke when I removed it.