Engine smoke after 6 months off the road?

G

georgekitchen7

Member
 Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
Hi fellow Z4’ers,

Having loved my e85 over the summer, I decided to take it off the road. Now the weather is a bit brighter, I went to start it for the first time in 6 months, with the bonnet up so I could check everything was ok, and some smoke started to appear from the engine!!

I quickly turned it off, not knowing if this was normal after being laid up for so long!?

The car before it was stored was absolutely fine and I put some fuel stabiliser in the tank so it would be preserved.

Is this normal!? Any ideas? Should I just keep running and see what happens?

Thanks for all your help and sorry for the novice question!

George
 
smoke from the exhaust might be more of a problem... smoke from the engine is probably just some oil burning off something thats getting hot. no reason why a car that was working fine before being laid up would develop a problem.
 
Have a feel and look around the whole engine for any signs of oil seepage/leakage, esp at the back below the lip where the head meets block and around the oil filter housing. If your fingers come out of the nooks and crannies covered in gloopy oil then you have a leak.
Smoke, as per brillomaster suggestion, maybe oil laeaking onto the manifold as it warms up.
Run it for a bit with the bonnet open and see how it goes. if it's just a bit of smoke let it burn off. if it's billowing and you experience any weirdness at idle then you may have a more serious issue.
 
Chris_D said:
Have a feel and look around the whole engine for any signs of oil seepage/leakage, esp at the back below the lip where the head meets block and around the oil filter housing. If your fingers come out of the nooks and crannies covered in gloopy oil then you have a leak.
Smoke, as per brillomaster suggestion, maybe oil laeaking onto the manifold as it warms up.
Run it for a bit with the bonnet open and see how it goes. if it's just a bit of smoke let it burn off. if it's billowing and you experience any weirdness at idle then you may have a more serious issue.
Click to expand...

This ^^ and definitely turn it off if you see flames :o
Rob
 
Hi all,
Thanks for your replies! Here’s a photo where I think I can see some oil seepage. From looking around the forum, could this be a leaking “valve cover gasket” or “rocker cover gasket”?
There wasn’t any smoke before the car was laid up, so could it be more has leaked over time and hence the smoke when first started for a few months?
George
 

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Which engine do you have?
If it's an M54 then that orange gasket doesn't look kosher to me. I'm not sure it should be protruding like that ?
But yeah, manifold side is where your leak will be producing smoke from.
 
Hi all,

Thanks for your help/guidance. I was braver today and let the engine run for 15 mins, and the smoke stopped. From getting my torch out, it looks like some oil had dropped onto the exhaust manifold (I think) and this was just burning off.
Looks like valve cover gasket may be leaking slightly so will get that sorted.
Happy that car now seems ok after its winter hibernation!

Thanks again for all your help.

George
 
In my personal opinion a car should not be left static for long periods of time.
When I toured Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia for about 7 months, I came back to spending over a grand on my classic cars.
The Stag suffered from carb problems( needles, floats gaskets etc) and other problems. Had to completely rebuild the Strombergs. Then the twin long timing chains started to rattle ( bad design by Triumph ) had to change them.....long tedious job, and a host of other problems with the Jeep and X1/9.
All due to hibernation.......
Only Bears hibernate, ask Smartbear if you don't believe me :D :lol:
 
Sitting idle for extended periods of time will result in gaskets shrinking and developing leaks. Best to run the engine up to temp at least once a month, weekly if you can. Also either disconnect the battery or put a tender charger on it to keep it alive.
 
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