Leapt eagerly from my bed this morning at the unaccustomedly early hour of 6:45 in readiness for my free trackday at Oulton Park. Lunch packed, helmet loaded, jumped in the car and turned to key … Click, whirr, silence – dead as the proverbial.
Quick thump to the battery terminals, more in hope than expectation … magic! she starts.
So off to the garage to top up the tank. Back in the car, turn the key … Click, whirr, silence – dead as the proverbial.
Embarrassing few minutes on the forecourt, then she comes to life – sort of. Misfiring like an asthmatic Gatling gun and with virtually no power, staggered across the road and limped home. Pretty obvious there was not going to be much tracking today.
The starting problem was resolved after a while when I found one of the connexions to the battery +ve was U/S – easily fixed.
But the misfire (and the clouds of smoke from the exhaust) … ??
Eventually spotted exhaust smoke escaping from the manifold/head joint. Decided to whip off the manifold (after first removing the turbo, of course) in the hope of finding a simple blown gasket type problem.
Some hours later, hopes of a simple solution seemed to be fading … with manifold off, this is what I see –
It looks as if I not only have the exhaust leak, but also some oil getting out there! This must mean oil in the cylinder, I guess.
So, does this mean piston rings are knackered, or is there any other way to get oil in the chamber?
If it’s rings, does the engine have to come out?