Today's dumb question

[Kitcat]

I have long had lots of smoke off my engine once warmed up. Sitting at traffic lights, the white stuff floated up between my cooling vents and looked almost like a radiator hose issue.I have always assumed it was oil/grease burning off, and it was never bad enough to really look into.

 

Yesterday I had some extra time so I got it warmed up and tried to see where it was all coming from. Turns out it is being pumped out of the valve cover (rocker cover) gasket. It stopped the instant I turned off tho motor, even tho it was still hot enough to burn any spilled oil, etc.

 

So, in no particular order, my (dumb) questions are:

1] Is it serious;

2] Is it a simple matter of tightening the fasteners that hold it in place?

3] If # 2 is the solution, any one know what size allen wrench to tighten the valve cover on a crossflow, (5mm is too big, 4mm too small),

and what the torque shd be?

4] If I need a new gasket, any one have a recommendation?

5] Any tricks-warm up engine 1st, use stickum on one side of the gasket, both sides, etc?

 

Mike M.

[bball7754]

Mike -

1) I don't think it's serious. I don't have a leak from the valve cover, but have the same white "stuff" drifting out of my catch tank - which is where my valve cover vents to.

2) Probably.

3) Can check specific size tonight, but don't think it's metric. After all, it's an English engine from the '60's. Doesn't need a torque wrench, and my blatchat research indicates that you don't want it very tight. Too tight, and it leaks oil - seems counter-intuitive, but my experience has been that it's accurate.

4) Believe I got mine at NAPA. They had to order it, so got two. Have them lookup the part for the 1600 Pinto from around 1970. Can also look at my spare tonight and give you the part number.

5) Think I just put some oil on the valve cover side. A little fiddly, but not too bad. Mine tends to stay stuck to the valve cover when I take it (the valve cover) off.

 

Steve

[slomove]

Not familiar with Xflow but if smoke is being squeezed out of the gasket, one would assume that the venting ports (crankcase and/or valve cover vents) are clogged or missing. Or, if it comes out there in spite of the vents, that the gasket is leaking? But then it would spit liquid oil also.

 

Anyway, some faint oil mist wafting out of the vents or catch can is normal for e.g. a Zetec but I would be surprised if thick smoke is normal for an Xflow.

[TheDingo8MyBaby]

Is your gasket Cork? They tend to harden over time. I'd replace with a "paper" gasket. I would imagine Dave Bean or the other usual sources would have one at the ready. Since you have a super sprint - I suggest you ask what they recommend for an alloy rocker cover.

 

I would say 5 ft-lbs or so. Try a 3/16" allen wrench. Use the shorter size to torque it down so you don't over tighten. Use a cross pattern and you may want to add loctite so the bolts don't come loose.

 

Your breather vent may be blocked. If you get a lot of oil in the catch tank, it may behoove you to do the following:

 

Shamelessly stolen from Roger King in the UK

 

"What you need to do is to machine two inlet/outlets into the rocker cover. The first one should be above the breather canister and you should feed the hose that currently goes to the catch tank to this. Then machine the second hole into the rear face of the rocker cover as high as possible and lead the hose from this to the catch tank.

 

You now have a breather system that still allows free breathing, but dumps oil straight back into the top of the engine. The quantities are not large enough to cause problems with oil build up in the top of the engine. On a healthy engine this new rocker cover breather will dump little or no oil into the catch tank. I do not recommend that you rely solely on the filler cap breather; not only is it quite restricted, but the main breathing is at the bottom end of the engine and there are insufficient passageways in a Crossflow to allow this pressure to get to the rocker cover without the external hose. Particularly as the oil is trying to go down them as pressure comes up. Later Caterham supplied Crossflows have only the filler cap breather, which seems to be simply because Ford deleted the block breather canisters on later engines; instead, Ford used a core plug to block the breather, presumably a)to cut costs and b)they assumed that the engines were destined for FF1600 and thus don't need a block breather because they are dry sumped.

 

If you tap the holes machined in the rocker cover 3/8" bspt, you can use these part nos as screw in inlet/outlets - 1484835, 6148087. These are Ford part numbers and one is a straight outlet and the other is a 45 degree outlet. Both will screw into the rocker cover and then the hose simply pushes onto the them with a jubilee clip."

[bball7754]

Mike - Agree with Dingo's recommendation on the Roger King mod. I did it last year, and I went from spitting out a third of a catch tank worth of oil per session at a track day to maybe a quarter of an inch. And now that I think about it, as I remember you have a PCV canister for your crankcase ventilation, and not sure your valve cover cap had a vent.

 

For what it's worth, the gasket from NAPA was Fel-pro 50091 R-1. Turns out the package actually lists "Ford British 4", both a "1298 cc (Crossflow) 67-78", and a "1599 cc Engine 67-73".

 

Dave Bean part number is "416E 6451 - Valve Cover Gasket, special for Aluminum covers".

 

And the Wallage Crossflow book torque listings state 3-4 ft. lbs.

 

I agree with Dingo - it's probably not able to breathe, and is pushing it out under the valve cover.

 

Steve

[Kitcat]

Thx guys! The valve cover is cork and probably original. I will call Dave Bean for a replacement.

 

I never vent any oil/gunk into the catch-can at the end of the breather tube, even after a hard track day. But, if I use thin oil or overfill the oil, the excess is pumped out the vented oil filler cap onto the engine and windshield. Sort of sounds like the breather tube is non- functional. If I use appropriate weight oil (20-50), and don't overfill, I have no issues.

[20Vx]

A few comments from a serial x-flow user/killer :-

1/. From experience the Roger King mod is a good idea.

2/. If you have the original rolled/pressed steel rocker cover then use the cork gasket, if you have an Aluminium Sprint or Supersprint or any other aftermarket rocker cover then recommendation is to use a paper/card gasket.

3/. Clean both surfaces well. It is fine to use small (repeat) small quantities of sealant on both sides of the gasket.

4/. Don't overtighten - especially with the cork variant.

5/. The vent tank is where the engine should vent to (originally it vented back to one of the carbs) and not onto the engine/windshield. So if it is not - then something is likely to be blocked.

6/. I have pictures of the RK mod somewhere - if you don't find links already there on Blatchat. DAve.

[danilo]

From Memory :-)

Kents were a fairly erm .'early'.. engine design.

 

Blowby is inherently excessive by most all moderne engine standards.

The things lose a portion of the combustion event past their no longer brand new rings.

Increasingly so after a surprisingly few miles of use, especially If one even occaisionaly 'steps on its tail' :-)

Repeated /timely rebuilds were the normal expectation with these

Often knowledgeable people fitted a wee ss one way valve into the collector portion of their Exhaust header.

This was then hose connected to the Engine breather.

Stopped the (visible blowby smoke effects) problem Entirely.

"Worked" 30 years ago.. Likely to work still :-)

G'luck