White smoke at idle

[gazza]

Can anyone help?
I have developed a problem with my Bongo 2.5 Diesel.
The engine still runs well and accelerates fine but whilst at idle the white smoke is excessive.
Cannot see any traces of water in the oil or oil in the coolant.
Pressure test of the coolant system is OK.
Uses a bit of coolant , but nothing to write home about.

Was hoping it's not the head or head gasket.

Anybody seen this issue before?

I had thought it could be one of the following:-
1,Water in the fuel
2,Poor fuel grade
3, Head gasket
4, Head failure
5, Injector sticking

[missfixit70]

If you're using any coolant, you have a problem somewhere, how much are we talking? It may just be a weep on a hose or something of course.

[gmaczbongo]

Try a sealant in the coolant system.
Smoke goes away, it is water entering the combustion chamber.
It will also stop the problem for a while.

[The Great Pretender]

Can anyone help?
I have developed a problem with my Bongo 2.5 Diesel.
The engine still runs well and accelerates fine but whilst at idle the white smoke is excessive.
Cannot see any traces of water in the oil or oil in the coolant.
Pressure test of the coolant system is OK.
Uses a bit of coolant , but nothing to write home about.

Was hoping it's not the head or head gasket.

Anybody seen this issue before?

I had thought it could be one of the following:-
1,Water in the fuel
2,Poor fuel grade
3, Head gasket
4, Head failure
5, Injector sticking

If it "uses a bit of coolant". But "Pressure test of the coolant system is OK" it is possible that the loss is heat related as in incompatible connection's? Asking as cold pressure test shows no leak. There are so many connections throughout the system don't jump on the head as the problem.

[gazza]

I added some coolant system leak sealer. After a couple of miles of driving the smoke has stopped.
Seems to have done the trick for now, but not sure how long it will last.

I suspect the next job will have to be the head gasket and head pressure check.

[gazza]

Following on from my white smoke at christmas, i put some rad weld in the coolant system and the smoke went away. Over the last few months i have been using about 200 ml of water a week. Last night i checked fully for evidence of leaks and rebled the system. Today drove 160 miles, 4 hours and the rad bottom hose was still cold, engine ran well, no coolant out of overflow pipe, coolant gauge normal. Question is thermostat or rad blockage?

[missfixit70]

Did you leave the engine running once you'd stopped to allow the rad cooling effect to wear off to see if the bottom hose gets hot? If you're losing 200ml a week find out where. If you've done a pressure test - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=38823 & it's holding pressure ok & it's not evident externally it could be a head gasket or head leak (as TGP siad it could be a temperature dependant leak), then you need to check for exhaust gases in the coolant, although this isn't definitive apparantly.
Losing coolant isn't down to a stat or blocked rad directly, it needs to leak somewhere. Have you checked the pressure cap seals ok?
You say "coolant gauge normal" is yours modified at all? if not, "normal" is a very broad band of temperature & doesn't tell you a lot.
The fact that adding rad seal cured the white smoke, points towards head/gasket I'm afraid.

[gmaczbongo]

The fact that the sealant stopped the white smoke means that you have a direct water leak into the combustion chamber. The leak will get worse and the sealant will not be able to control the leak anymore. You will start to lose water again and the white smoke will come back. If it is the head gasket that is the problem and you leave it too long, you might find that you run low on water or you get air locks in the system and you will get a proper overheat with head damage etc. Also the water can damage the head along its route into the combustion chamber. Try a thicker sealant and it should work, but only for a while.

[dreamwarrioruk]

adding sealant will only make the matter worse. it wont take much to block the radfins resulting in most definitely head failure due to overheating. i recently changed ours and was amazed how blocked up the original one was.
pressure testing is going to be the best option to try to solve this problem or gas analaysis of the coolant.
as i mentioned before it could be the turbo at fault as we had some of the same symptoms although at the time i didnt try any sealants in the coolant. since changing the rad ours has behaved and we havnt lost very much coolant (porus pipe found now as the culprit of slight loss)
when our engine was pulling hard up hills with the caravan in tow prior to change it would overheat and the mason would bleep and loss of coolant. i was wondering if with the blocked radiator situation would the pressure in the system build up enough to force the coolant out through any flaws in the head or pipework. we didnt have any smoke out the back but we did when the turbo was dying.
just chucking this into the frame and anyone feel free to correct me cause im no expert.