having a few problems with my pinto basically its breathing a huge amount of white creamy oil its coming out everywhere. breather tank, dipstick, oil unions, filler cap i mean everywhere. its very very runny and stinks of petrol. now i thought that the bike carbs are running really rich and im getting some borewash and petrol and oil are mixing in the crankcase.

any other suggestions? i have thought about whipping the head off a replacing the h/g but it doesnt seem as if the water and oil are mixing, the hoses are pressured but not overly so thats all normal and it keeps itself between 95-104 C and the water is just rusty brown no oil at all.

cheers

james

Is the fuel economy shocking? Sounds like the carbs are flooding engine, and pouring fuel in. Which is bad. How does the engine run?

If its coming out of everywhere then you have a crank case ventilation issue to start with.

Condensation does build up inside crankcases, and overtime this will mix with the oil to form an emulsion, especially if the block isnt breathing properly. Though I am not sure that you would get enough condensation to create a lot of emulsion.

What oil are you using? I know castrol GTX is known to have emulsion issues, especialy on older engines which are used on short runs and build up a lot of condesation inside.

If the blocks not breathing properly when it gets hot this water wont be able to escape. And also you will get a build up of pressure from compression which bypasses te rings. There is a breather block on the passenger side of the engine, just benhind the dizzy. If you still have the PCV valve attached and its not connected to the inlet manifold, then thats your problem. Just pull it out of the top o the breather can.

David

right i have the valve out of the can in the block and a breather pipe in there, this then t's into the breather pipe from the oil filler and goes to a catch tank. once on idle the oil spits out of the dipstick tube and oil filler but at 2k rpm take the pipe off the catch tank and it sprays a white oily mess 10 feet accross my workshop. and the spitting from the dipstick is a whole lot worse. not had the car on the road yet but it does seem to use a lot of petrol. i have 165 main jets and i think the needle on the leanest setting. but will check in the morning.

Um, has your catch tank got a breather in?

yep a small k+n type filter on the top. just a thought but when welding the sump do we still fill to the max mark on the dipstick?

cheers

quote:

---

Originally posted by auzziejim
yep a small k+n type filter on the top. just a thought but when welding the sump do we still fill to the max mark on the dipstick?

cheers

---

Could the filter be choked up?

Robocog from this site had a simular issue and found this to be the problem.

On the original sierra/pinto there is a one way valve on the engine breather that operates from the vacumn off the original weber inlet manifold. If this is still attached and you are using bikecarbs it will struggle to open??

Take it off and try it.

Clean the filter!.

N

[Edited on 3/5/07 by cryoman1965]

nope the filter is nice and clean, im just worried its a piston ring problem and i need to have the engine out and another full rebuild.

guess i need to do a compression test tomorrow too.

Water + oil i think head gasket or a crack in the head may be
i don't have oil coming out at 6000rpm all i have is a pipe from the sump to catch tank and the oil filler top blocked of
Jacko

Sounds very similar to a problem I had.....

Too much oil...

Turned out the dipstick I was using wasn't from a pinto and the oil level was way high.



Got to be worth checking.

John

i have thought that is it just coincidence i have petrol smelling oil and some sort of emulsifing?

Working logically through it....

Too much crankcase pressure is causing the leaks, and affecting the engine breathing. This is turn could promote condensation, this would try to mix with the oil and cause the emulsified oil.

The petrol smell will always be there to some extent.

It had me stuck for a while, I was collecting clear fluid in the catch tank and was convinced it was neat petrol due to the smell.

Seems to have turned out to be water (condensation) and the smell was because all of the bits that should never mix (petrol, oil and water) were doing so because the crankcase pressure was too high.

All cause by the idiot with the oil can sticking too much in.........

Of course I could be completely wrong...

John

If you are using the original mechanical fuel pump on the block, it is possible that the diaphram in it is holed and leaking fuel directly into the sump!.

As the hairy baby said, if it has a mechanical fuel pump pull it off and see if its leaking fuel into the crankcase. Fuel in the oil is pretty hard on things so best deal with it asap.
Cheers.

dunno if this will help but coolect some of the discharge and put into a jar. over time water/oil should seperate out?

if there is petrol in the oil, I gues holding a lighted match it sould catch fire, I don;t htink oil will do that.

right i emptied the sump today and took out 5 litres of oily but very very runny and slightly emulsified oil. however as it was draining in the oil pan it seemed to be separating. it still smells very petrol ish and i left it in an oil jug til the morning. so i will see what its like. i have a bike fuel pump and blanked the mechanical one. i did collect some of the discharge from the dipstick on some tissue and lighted it but it didnt 'go up' like petrol just the rag burning.

so in the morning im going to put the suggested amount of oil in and disregard the dipstick. and run up to temp see how she is. if i still have probs im gonna tear the head off and replace the gasket.

so any more ideas?

cheers

If you have a shortened sump, dont tip in the full amount or it will smoke like hell.

When I shortened mine to level with the bottom of the bell housing i lost about 0.75 pint of oil capacity.

David

[Edited on 4/5/07 by flak monkey]

right so when i filled to max on my dipstick and it took 6 litres that was a little bit full now im embarrassed!

id say that explains my problems a fair bit.

Well you need to fill to the max level on the dipstick but that wont take as much as the orginal, of course.

Sounds like you may have the wrong dipstick. Think the pinto should take 6.6 pints when std, though I dont have my haynes book to check. Sure someone has though.

David

well the plan now is to put 3.5 litres in when i get to work in the morning and see how it runs then. as long as the oil pressure is good i cant see a problem. i clearly have the wrong dipstick so need to source another one. once i know its running ok i can give it a blast round the ind est and see how it behaves under load.

so long as its not pissing oil out of every orifice then it can go back for its rolling road session.

cheers

Haynes says oil capacity is 3.75 litres inc filter, 3.25 without.

HTH

just filled it up with 3.5 litres of thin oil we have at work for modern euro boxes and it was much better, still a few leaks but its not the 20/50 a pinto should run on. but still a bit of spitting from the dipstick and bubbling from the breather filter i think my catch tank is full so will drain that and the sump on tuesday and fit my flame traps. then fill with 20/50 but only 3 litres this time and see how it is then.

i must say though fook me its quick those bike carbs do pull well right the way through the rev range and it was cooling really well sat at about 100 C +- 5C so im happy with that and its stoped its cloud of smoke near the redline when i guess oil was passing the rings.

cheers all il update later

Some lads from Sleaford just left the bike shop. The young one bought a GSXR 600 but he had to have a restrictor kit fitted.

I'm trying nicotine patches to stop mine smoking but they haven't done much yet

[Edited on 5/5/07 by Peteff]

right all had a play and put yet another sump gasket on it with new filter and put 2.5 litres of 20/50 oil in and i now have no leaks but still a little spitting from dipstick tube. so what can cause this?