The cylinder head gasket on my original engine blew and the garage I took it to said that damage was such that a replacement engine would be cheaper.

I ordered a second hand one which came with everything fitted ,turbos etc and was ,imported I beleive from Japan.

 

To cut a long story short the garage had clearly bitten off more than they could chew because it was several months and many phone calls before I finally managed to get the car back from them. When I eventually picked it up they told me that it was smokey but that was just because the engine had been refurbed to some extent by the providers and after a few miles were under its belt the smoking would stop.

 

To say it was smokey turned out to be an understatement and as I suspected after 200 miles it's smoking at least as badly as it was when I drove away . Given the time it took the garage to refit the engine I have lost all fath in them and they have been less than helpfull since in fact I have basically had to write them off they just don't want to know.

 

So what I have now is a car which starts and idles ok but the oil pressure shows as very low. The car runs fine and accelerates as well as expected but once its been on the road for 5 minutes or so its obvious from the clouds of smoke which are left behind that something is wrong . It doesn't smoke badly under hard acceleration its worst when the revs go down and of course when idling at traffic lights or any temporary stop.

 

Leaving aside the problem with those who supplied and fitted the engine because thats basically a lost cause where should I start in terms of diagnosing the problem ? - to me its a strange one in that if it wasn't smoking so badly you would never know ,apart from the low oil pressure reading that anything was wrong because it motors very nicely under medium and full acceleration without any sign of hesitancy or misfire etc .

 

As I am getting depressed about this any help would be gratefully received

it sounds like valve stem oil seals, which gives more smoke on overrun. the low oil pressure may be a seperate issue just with the crap oil gauge/sensor fitted to our cars.

 

if they were not replaced, is prob worth replacing the PCV valves & hoses before you do anything else & get too involved as these cause smoking issues too.

Thanks Paul C

 

If indeed it is the valve stem oil seals is there a foolproof test or is it a case of dismantling and doing a physical check. If so how big a job is that - what sort of costs am I looking at -

anyone had this job done ?

A wet and dry compression test will give a good indication as to whether the problem is the rings or the valve stem seals. Basically, if you have poor compression dry then it could be either one or the other. If you have poor compression on a wet test as well then it's almost certainly the seals.