P38A Coolant loss and wont stop smoking v8 4l Thor

Just found out loosing coolant and she wont seem stop smoking.

Please tell me its not the head gasket, though sadly suspecting that with the smoke.

Didn't realise at the time of purchase that it just had water in the system and not antifreeze so I'm hoping its not something like the cold has frozen the water and broke something.

Seem to get water return via the return pipe at least when squeezing on the top hose when its not running so would suggest its not a simple blocked hose.

Crikey! It's definitely got antifreeze, it's blue and quite obvious in the expansion tank. Not the pink oat stuff

If it was losing coolant to the cylinders then you'd have pressure in the system and overheating, been there and done that when i got the car with the old engine, had problems after about 10 mins driving, not to mention water spewing out.

The only way you can get coolant into the cylinders without pressurising the system is via the throttle body heater, though not sure if they can leak

kermit_rr said:

Crikey! It's definitely got antifreeze, it's blue and quite obvious in the expansion tank. Not the pink oat stuff

If it was losing coolant to the cylinders then you'd have pressure in the system and overheating, been there and done that when i got the car with the old engine, had problems after about 10 mins driving, not to mention water spewing out.

The only way you can get coolant into the cylinders without pressurising the system is via the throttle body heater, though not sure if they can leak

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When I looked in the expansion tank it just looked completely clear didn't even seem to have a blue tinge tbh but I'll take your word for it anyway maybe its just the light was making it clear looking.

While no over heating as it seems to sit just around the first mark which I believe you said is normal due to mod you did to the thermostat to run cooler. Strangely when I looked this morning and poured roughly another litre in (just water) before I did that I there did seem to be some water sitting on the wing under the expansion tank which I would think is from the little hose that dangles down for such purposes, releasing the cap was still under pressure and it brought the coolant level back up a little but not by much.

Get yourself a cheap AF strength tester to check if there is a percentage of AF in the coolant.
There will be residual pressure in the system long after the engine is shut down, even overnight. The time to start worrying is when there's a lot of it.

norseman said:

Get yourself a cheap AF strength tester to check if there is a percentage of AF in the coolant.
There will be residual pressure in the system long after the engine is shut down, even overnight. The time to start worrying is when there's a lot of it.

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last time i checked it was around -25 to -27c not quite 50/50 but good enough. hose leaks are really hard to see especially when hot, I once had the top hose leak where it joins to the engine right at the back so you couldnt see track marks
+1 on residual pressure, it takes days to fully equalise, I checked a while back and after sitting overnight in freezing temps, block was still at 12c
if you take the cap off and get a small 'pffft' after 12 hours rest then thats ok, as you say if theres lots, theres a problem.
the thor fuel map isnt great and done for emission, not for engine health so there lean areas and rich areas where ideally there shouldnt be which is part of the reason I decided to hack the thermostat for a lower average running temp. so the heads and valves dont suffer from the lean mix and put stress into the block. over cautious? probably, lots of engines run happily at 96c+ with localised hot spots going well above, but some don't and we know all about that

Right okay, will probably pick up a tester from halfords later today as can get one for under a tenner with trade card, will probably be a touch lower on the mix with the extra i've added it but shall see.

Haven't been out to the car yet to see if its dropped again as waiting for postie to come and as I live in a flat with the car round the side don't want to miss him as should hopefully be bringing me some goodies.

Khemitude said:

Right okay, will probably pick up a tester from halfords later today as can get one for under a tenner with trade card, will probably be a touch lower on the mix with the extra i've added it but shall see.

Haven't been out to the car yet to see if its dropped again as waiting for postie to come and as I live in a flat with the car round the side don't want to miss him as should hopefully be bringing me some goodies.

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dont forget, if you've had to top up then you'll need to start the engine to get the water mixed in. also, dont mix blue/green coolant with OAT (pink/red/orange etc) etc as they dont mix and will cause much pain

Good news possibly went out today and expansion level was still on the cold level and surprisingly looked a lot more blue even looking through the bottle. Picked up the af tester though not used it yet. Noticed a slight white mark on one of the bits the water connects to the lpg wits it’s so gave it a nip up just in case along with any other accessible hose clamps. Noticed the spring clip on the return bottle end was right at the end of the hose so I thought I would move it slightly further along and the moment I touch it even slightly got a squirt of coolant out as cap was still on and still slightly under pressure. So I think what I saw on the wing under the bottle yesterday may have been from the return letting some out possibly rather than the overflow pipe that hangs down there. Too early to tell for sure gonna keep checking everyday though. The reason I though the smoke was connected is cause it still seems to be a large amount and a friends p38 with same engine doesn’t seem to smoke at all so I may have put 2 + 2 together and got 5 but like I say early days depending on if the level stays.

Khemitude said:

I may have put 2 + 2 together and got 5 but like I say early days depending on if the level stays.

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i normally head straight to 10 and skip 5 altogether, just because they have the bad name

Khemitude said:

Good news possibly went out today and expansion level was still on the cold level and surprisingly looked a lot more blue even looking through the bottle.

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thats good!

Khemitude said:

The reason I though the smoke was connected is cause it still seems to be a large amount and a friends p38 with same engine doesn’t seem to smoke at all so I may have put 2 + 2 together and got 5 but like I say early days depending on if the level stays.

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straight through tail pipes, empty cats, lower running temp, pipercross cam, i wonder if it all adds up to more moisture in the exhaust for longer? i dont know
the stock map is very rich on startup

The lean fuel map (mentioned by Kermit) can contribute to the dreaded liner movement in these later (94mm bore) RV8's as it can cause increased combustion chamber temperatures ... as can running on LPG.

kermit_rr said:

i normally head straight to 10 and skip 5 altogether, just because they have the bad name

thats good!

straight through tail pipes, empty cats, lower running temp, pipercross cam, i wonder if it all adds up to more moisture in the exhaust for longer? i dont know
the stock map is very rich on startup

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not sure that cats are empty as got under earlier to check out that rattle assuming it was a heat shield pretty sure it’s the cats themselves probably broken up inside causing the racket.

Khemitude said:

not sure that cats are empty as got under earlier to check out that rattle assuming it was a heat shield pretty sure it’s the cats themselves probably broken up inside causing the racket.

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Ok, i don't know for sure just assumed because of the welding on them

Did an af test earlier and two discs were floating but the second one was a bit bouncy so not sure so in theory it’s -15 so need to grab some concentrate as Halfords didn’t have any in blue, bonus is I can just suck a bunch out of the expansion tank with the tester to replace with the concentrate.

Khemitude said:

Just found out loosing coolant and she wont seem stop smoking.

Please tell me its not the head gasket, though sadly suspecting that with the smoke.

Didn't realise at the time of purchase that it just had water in the system and not antifreeze so I'm hoping its not something like the cold has frozen the water and broke something.

Seem to get water return via the return pipe at least when squeezing on the top hose when its not running so would suggest its not a simple blocked hose.

Click to expand...

You can get UV dye for the coolant and with an appropriate torch see if any is getting into the oil.

Other option is to make an adapter that fits the spark-plug hole and blow air down each cylinder and see if the coolant pushes out of the header tank. I made an adapter out of an old compression tester guage and removed the one way valve from it.

Grrrrrr said:

You can get UV dye for the coolant and with an appropriate torch see if any is getting into the oil.

Other option is to make an adapter that fits the spark-plug hole and blow air down each cylinder and see if the coolant pushes out of the header tank. I made an adapter out of an old compression tester guage and removed the one way valve from it.

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If you've got coolant going into the oil, it would soon turn into a milky mess

kermit_rr said:

If you've got coolant going into the oil, it would soon turn into a milky mess

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Depends how much. UV dye was the only way we spotted MrGorsky's head gasket going. Dipstick had glowing droplets all over it and when we fot the head off it had just blown a track through - caught it nice and early. Losing coolant was the warning sign.

On another note, that throttle body definitely is prone to leaking in later years. Many people just block it off.

Grrrrrr said:

Depends how much. UV dye was the only way we spotted MrGorsky's head gasket going. Dipstick had glowing droplets all over it and when we fot the head off it had just blown a track through - caught it nice and early. Losing coolant was the warning sign.

On another note, that throttle body definitely is prone to leaking in later years. Many people just block it off.

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thanks, didnt know that!
TB is a simple one to bypass and would rule out any issue

Broken cats blocking exhaust flow can cause problems,.

Datatek said:

Broken cats blocking exhaust flow can cause problems,.

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Yeah she does feel like its holding back slightly when accelerating aswell so maybe getting somewhat blocked when the extra exhaust gases pass through. Gonna pop down the local exhaust centre tomorrow to see how much they will charge.

I've found the right ones on ebay and being an w reg can get the non type approved which is cheaper for £166 including fitting kit though being exhaust no doubt it would require some heat persuasion to come off the exhaust manifold end which isn't something I can really do at home.

Local exhaust place want £460 just to supply so Christ knows what I’m gonna do now hopefully one of the other garages are happy enough to fit if I supply.