Hey all,

First time poster here with an unfortunate problem. My 87' 244 has been running hot recently, about 3/4 up the temp gauge. After running it for a while it also starts to burn oil and make a white smoke. At first I thought it was an exhaust leak because it smelled like exhaust fumes and was coming from underneath my car, but now I realized its coming directly from the engine bay. Any ideas of what the culprit could be or where I should start looking? Thanks.

 

White smoke and burning oil could be from the valve cover gasket or a blown cam plug on the back of the head and oil leaking down to the downpipe and burning off. - Is it soaked with oil on the back of the head?

 

Just went out and checked and yes there was oil on the back of the head. It didn't seem fresh though, it seemed like it had been there for a while, but this running hot issue only started recently.

 

clean it off with gunk foaming engine cleaner, and hose it down, then take a short drive and look for fresh leakage. it kinda looks like in that picture that it could be coming from higher up, which is the valve cover gasket

 

thanks, I'm busy for the rest of the day so I'll do that tomorrow. Ill get back to you with an update then. happy thanksgiving!

 

Running hot, white smoke, burning oil smell... Probably more than an oil leak.

 

headgasket.

 

ah ****. how would I go about testing this? It's only on 190k miles and its been regularly maintained with records kept its whole life so I have a small bit of doubt.

 

190k is about right. If you haven't overheated it, a HG job is easy on this car... Make sure you don't overheat it now as it's running hot.
Take a compression and/or leak down test to know for sure.

 

overheating is the #1 cause of head gasket failure on these, and can happen from a coolant leak, a badly clogged radiator, or a stuck thermostat, or a failing water pump.

 

pulling and inspecting all 4 spark plugs and perhaps using a bore camera in the spark plug holes, should tell you if you've got a bad head gasket. also a compression test, cylinder(s) with blown gaskets will have low compression. ditto, any coolant in your oil, which looks like rainbows on top of the coolant overlfow tank, and possibly exhaust gases bubbling up through said overflow tank.

 

Thanks for the info everybody, I'm swamped with school at the moment so I'll do the compression and leak down test this Wednesday, as well as the valve cover gasket leak test. If needed, I'll probably buy the IPD head gasket set and replace all the gaskets while I'm at it. Ill be back with an update lads.

 

when you take the head off for a head gasket job, it really should be brought to a machine shop to be tested for flatness and leak tested, they have a vacuum setup speccifically for this. 50% odds it will need a shave to flatten it again, and less odds it could use a full valve job, which is SO much easier when its already out of the car. and/or valve seals.

head as taken off a b230ft (turbo)


frehsly machined head ready for install...


(yes, thats not the same head. the one taken off was cracked, and I bought the 2nd one from a list member who'd prepped it for a project that he never did)

 

to round things out, here's the block with the head off. the two middle pistons saw coolant intrusion

 

If the engine has not overheated I never machine it, just clean the surfaces well and slap the head back on if the valves look good. Once you start shaving it and such, you run into headaches and much higher cost... really not necessary unless overheated.

BTW, that engine above doesn't look well maintained, bad oil filter, broken front cover, and whoever did the water pump seal using all that goop sealant, a big no-no!

 

yeah, that was a cheap used 940SE wagon'd just bought for my son, and blew a heater hose before I could even hand it over to him, which caused the head gasket failure because I stupidly tried to drive it as gently as I could the couple miles home.

he got great use out of it, packing it full of friends and taking week+ road trips to places like Death Valley

 

I did a compression test earlier today, and it all held up well. There is an oil leak coming from somewhere, I cleaned off the back of the head and didn't see any oil after a couple laps around the block. Also during the drive I smelled oil but the car wasn't running hot at all. This is becoming a pain in the neck. I think I'm going to invest in some UV florescent dye, because basically my whole engine is covered in oil and there was a small puddle on the ground after my car sat there for a little bit.

 

clean it with some engine cleaner (cold engine, spray all dirty/ oily spots with said cleaner, I use Gunk Foaming), use a cleaner brush to scrub what you can, then hose off with cold water, and let dry. THEN add the fluorescent dye (its just a few bucks at most any decent auto parts store, I prefer the local independent guys), and drive a bit, and use a UV flashlight in a dark garage.

common engine oil leak spots are below the exhaust manifold on cyl 3-4 (thats a head gasket that will be failling eventually), any of the oil plumbing associated with the oil cooler or turbo charger (if you have one), the valve cover gasket (especially up front around the cam shaft seal). rememeber, any spills on the engine tend to blow backwards when you drive.

other possible leaky things are ATF (transmission fluid) around the transmission cooler plumbing from the tranny to the radiator and back, and coolant almost anywhere it goes (heater hoses, oil cooler hoses, turbo cooler hoses).