Keith_M
Jedi Knight
Offline
I have a puzzling problem. My '65 Sprite (which has a 1275 instead of a 1098) produces a large cloud of white smoke right when the thermostat opens as the car is warming up. The smoke only lasts a few minutes, and the car runs fine before and after the smoke episode. There is no oil in the coolant, and no coolant in the oil, so I assume that a little coolant is somehow slipping past the head gasket and into one of the cylinders for a short period of time right when the thermostat opens.
My hypothesis for this is that the influx of cool water into the head is causing some local and temporary shrinkage somewhere that is allowing the coolant to get past. Yesterday, I popped the head off to see if I could see a problem, but everything looks pretty good to me (pictures attached). Any ideas on what could be happening?
My current plan is to run the head out to my local machine shop to have them check how flat it is, then reinstall everything with a new head gasket and see what happens.
My hypothesis for this is that the influx of cool water into the head is causing some local and temporary shrinkage somewhere that is allowing the coolant to get past. Yesterday, I popped the head off to see if I could see a problem, but everything looks pretty good to me (pictures attached). Any ideas on what could be happening?
My current plan is to run the head out to my local machine shop to have them check how flat it is, then reinstall everything with a new head gasket and see what happens.