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hitch

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Hi All,
I was hpoing that some of you would be able to give me some pointers. Where do I start? Background first. Well I've had my 67 BJ8 for three months and have done a about 500 miles in it. It has been running ok,although it may be running a bit rich as I found the plugs to be a bit sooty. It also didn't seem to need much choke when starting from cold. Journeys have mostly been under 20 miles with a few 100 mile trips. One problem was that when going up a long steep hill in o/d 3rd or fourth under load the car seemed to lack power and started misfiring. I thought this may have been something like a dodgy coil / lead etc and was about to start fitting new ones. I did however look inside the rocker cover and was terrified to see mayonnaise like sludge. Knowing that this could be either a head gasket or a build up of condensation ?? I started to look further.
Observations are as follows:
-With the rocker cover off there was sludge at each end (enough to cover a slice of bread) but not in the middle
-there was sludge in the T shaped breather tube at the rear of the rocker cover and this extended down the breather tube from the T to the left of the engine as seen from the front.
-I took off the top hose and the thermostat and no sign of sludge at all- same with other coolant hoses, no sludge
-I drained the radiator and no sludge.
-I took off the oil filter and no sludge
-I pulled the plugs. (They were indicating the car was running too rich [next job] but has no green residue from coolant, although one of them did seem to have a trace of liquid on it.
-smoke , as I hadn't been overly looking for the telltale white smoke before I knew I had the problem I can only say that I had noticed once or twice some smoke on a warm engine when pulling away sharply in second.

When I bought the car I was going to change the oil straight away , and should have, but it looked yellowish so I thought I'd do a few hundred miles and then change it. I now know , having trawled through old posts that this was not so smart as it could be that the oil was older than I thought and is emulsifying.
-I have drained oil and water from the car and my plan was to refill with new filter and continue driving in order to try and find out what is happening.
-One of my observations whilst looking in the radiator was that it is pretty mucky and although water temp is steady I thought I should use a rad cleaning product.Should I avoid using this until I've resolved the sludge issue or not?
-Likewise on the engine, would it be best before driving again to use an engine flush product , or not?
- Are there any easy tests to tell if the head gasket is gone (apart from driving it and looking for gunk).
-If you do drive it to test it could it be that it is only at high revs / full load that the gasket is failing?
-Should I use a head gasket sealing additive before I know it is definately shot?

I know there are lots of questions but I would really appreciate any answers.
Thanks in advance Mike
 
This may be a solution from the Middle Ages,but I remember using a system that replaced the radiator cap.It had a jar filled with liquid and you started and ran the engine for a while and if the head gasket was leaking the gas coming through changed the colour of the liquid in the jar.Does it still exist? Perhaps there is something more up to date now.
Curtis
 
Hello Hitch,
I would say that it is the good old chilly U.K. weather, I would adjust the mixture to see if it runs better, put in a high temperature thermostat if you can.
Personally, I would just do an oil and filter change, but flushing the radiator\engine is not a bad idea.
It doesn't sound like a head gasket problem and I would do the serviceing and then run it.

Alec
 
I would venture to guess that your "mayonnaise" is a product of condensation rather than a blown head gasket. Do you see any bubbles in the radiator with the engine warm? Is the oil on the dipstick a milky color? These are also indicators of a blown head gasket.

Going up hills in 3rd or 4th o/d seems like poor use of the transmission to me. Almost any car out there would have problems under those circumstances. Sounds like you are lugging the engine and fouling the plugs doing that.
 
I had the same problem with my BJ8, milky sludge under the valve cover. I cleaned out the sludge, several times, but it would return after a few hundred miles. The car, however, seemed to run very well. No loss of power, no misfiring. At first I thought it was just condensation. We have a similar climate in Washington state as the UK. I was losing some coolant which I first believed to be an improper fitting radiator cap, which I replaced. Then I tried a product by K & N to seal head gasket leaks, but the sludge reappeared. Finally I started noticing some water in the oil (milky sludge) on the dip stick indicating that the water was now getting into the oil pan. Finally, a couple of months ago I had the head gasket replaced. There were no visible signs where the gasket had failed, but perhaps being 40 years old was enough to cause a small leak. The car is currently being repainted, so I have not yet had the opportunity to see that the problem is cured, but at the price of the head gasket replacement, it better be. The bottom line was if there is sludge under the valve cover, it could just be condensation, but the fact that I was also losing some coolant suggested that the head gasket was the problem. Good luck.
 
I had the problem of mayonnaise oil also years ago. A new head gasket did not fix the problem. I finally took off the oil pan and pressurized the cooling system with a hand pump. The block was cracked just above the camshaft. Drops of water were forming there and dripping on my face. Hope it isn't your problem, but if you are loosing water, go to a radiator shop and have them check for CO gas in the radiator while the car is running and also pump the radiator just like I did.
 
Hi Mike,
Since you didn't indicate that you are losing coolant, I tend to agree with condensation mixed with the oil in the top end. Short drives don't get the oil hot enough to evaporate the water in the crankcase which is a natural byproduct of combustion. It is likely condensation, not coolant. The most common location for this "stuff" to collect is in the top end.

The misfiring under load is likely caused by partially fouled plugs which can be made worse by short cold runs. You might want to try one step hotter plugs.

As already mentioned, a radiator shop can quickly run a chemical test of the coolant to determine if there are combustion byproducts in the coolant which would indicate a headgasket leak or something cracked. If you don't like radiator shops, you can purchase a test kit.

Try, at least occasionally, to run it long enough & hard enough to get the oil good & hot & or change the oil frequently.
D
 
I've also had the condensation. Dave's right about the longer trips. You might also try to re-tourque the head or at least check it.
 
Hangtown,
The cracked block is a possibility that I choose not to contemplate with mine. Meantime I will just pray that the head gasket fixed the problem. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angel.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angel.gif
shorn
 
Hi All,
Thanks very much for the responses. Based on what the majority said I am hoping it's down to condensation and no more. Cracked blocks are , like you say, a road we don't want to go down. I hadn't noticed coolant loss and I'm now going to fill it up with oil , filter & coolant and adjust the fuel mix.
Just to clarify to Darwin that I wasn't pottering up a steep incline in 4th. I was actually going up a long shallow hill across the Sussex downs going from about 60 mph to 80 mph. Darwin the dipstick was clean and I saw no bubbles in the radiator so hopefully all is well. So having changed the fluids I'm now going to give it a longish drive and will accurately measure oil / water consumption and watch for sludge.
It could also be that the car is reacting to the UK after a pampered life in Virginia. I would!
All the best Mike
 
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