Sorry, I feel like I'm hogging this forum, (I'm a little paranoid!), but.........

 

Since having had the cambelt/thermostat/water pump done at Zedworld a little over a week ago, the car has behaved impecably.

 

However on Friday I took it on a longish drive up to the in-laws in Buckinghamshire. Other than the slight vibration at motorway speeds the car was a joy to drive and made overtaking up the A420 and A41 past slower moving traffic a walk in the park. Big smiles!! :)

 

Anyway, I got stuck in traffic in Aylesbury. It a very hot day and up till then I was over the moon that the temperature guage hadn't moved any further than the perfectly horizontal position it'd maintained since I bought the car. The temperature guage started to creep up and by the time I got properly moving again it was almost at the top of what I would call the safe zone on the guage. Once moving the needle crept back down again. The car never missed a beat though.

 

Once at my destination, I let the car cool a bit and checked the coolant level. It took about 1.5 litres of water. Also apparent was smoke from the exhaust on idle.

 

Having run the car a bit the smoke cleared up and again, the car behaved fine.

 

I was scared that I'd damaged the tubs and/or busted a CHG, but it seems to be fine now having made the return trip last night albeit the outside temperature was much cooler.

 

Do I need to worry about or check anything? I'm thinking I might change the oil as a matter of course just in case it's broken down a bit due to being exposed to higher temperature.

 

Main concern is the smoke from the exhaust at idle really.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance, (again!)

Now that your home and things have settled down, have you checked the coolant level to see if it needs more again?

 

Posibility of a weeping water pipe at back of engine, dripping onto the exhaust perhaps?

smithy

Haven't had the chance yet, but I intend to check it at lunchtime.

 

The smoke was coming from inside the exhaust, (burning oil?), not anywhere else, or is that not what you mean?

if your ever coming up to aylesbury again fella, let me know well have to meet up + theres always tools here if you encounter any probs again!!

 

hope its nothing serious

 

Craig

Thanks Craig!! :thumbup1: Will bear that in mind for future reference

 

I was actually in Cheddington if you know where that is.

 

Anyway, I'm kind'a suspecting an airlock. Even though Jeff went to great lengths to fill it properly, it's the only thing I can think of as there weren't any leaks or escaping steam apparent when I looked at it.

 

My main concern was the smoke from the back end, but that seems to have cleared.

what colour was the smoke, also a tip i was told and ive used it ever since, get yourself a pot of forte cooling conditioner, 1st its great at heeping your cooling system clean but 2nd it turns your coolant neon green so its much easier to find leaks. its done wonders for my cars in the past.

Smoke was grey. Not completely black nor white. It smelled like burning oil.

 

Just checked the coolant level and it's where I'd expect it to be, so I'm still thinking it's been an air lock. Strange that it took so long to manifest itself though.

 

I'll keep an eye out for that stuff and give it a shot, thanks.

Some smoke diags

http://www.300zx.co.uk/tech/SmokeDiag.htm

http://www.ttzd.com/tech/pcvtech.html

and there's some youtube vids

 

IIRC, the OEM temp gauge is not a linear temp readout. When in the middle of the scale it means temp OK and it takes a lot to get it moving up to the top. It's deffo in the workshop manual somewhere.

Thanks Gio, very helpful.

 

It was nothing like the quantities in the video and as I say it seems to have cleared up now, so I'm less woried about it now tbh.

 

I'll keep an eye on it.

 

As I say, I might just change the oil in case the high temperature's broken down the oil in it as I seem to have a bit of a sticky follower intermittently which I didn't notice before.