Coolant disappearing - Some white smoke

[Aeroelastic]

What was the air temperature when you started this? Did you heat up the engine for like 10s before turning the key? Mine had similar smoke at first start suirng winter before i changed to the new head. Does this smoke happen in subsequent starts during the day?

 

[MisterCruiser]

Air temp was prob around 12 degrees or little more. Yeah, I let the glow plug light go out as normal.
Subsequent starts later in the day used not be smokey but I notice sometimes they can be more recently.

I'm just going to keep driving it and topping it up as required, could go on for years like this. I only do approx 1500 miles a yr with it, it's not my main vehicle.

 

[MisterCruiser]

I changed the option in google drive to "share with anyone with link" so i think that should sort out the access request thing.

Does anyone that has viewed it reckon it's coolant smokey?

FirstStartSmoke.MOV - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

I done a "block" test today, the chemical that changes colour upon detecting CO2 and it was positive, changed from blue to green. Also, the premature pressurising of the system has gotten worse, just starting and idling without even revving for couple mins results in big pressure squirt when I remove the rad cap.

I might try and carry out the pressure test with the glow plugs removed and turn it over trick to narrow it down to if the fault is the head gasket itself or a cracked head.

Then I think I'll try the liquid chemical seal to see if it works before going pulling the head off. If was just the gasket I'd fix it for definite but if it's a cracked head I don't think I'll bother putting the money into it.

Steel Seal Head Gasket Repair – Head Gasket Fix – Money Back Guarantee - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

 

[BobMurphy]

Be very careful with Steel Seal - I used it on a RAV4 and it blocked the radiator and the heater matrix. One of those jobs I bitterly regretted doing.
Bob.

 

[MisterCruiser]

Hi Bob, that's my reluctance to use any of them rad seal type products. Was it definitely "Steel Seal" specifically you used yeah, I thought that one couldn't bock anything as it's a liquid solution? Now I'm not sure what to do......

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

Be very careful with Steel Seal

Agreed, I tried it on Maria's Ford Ka many years ago, don't think it lasted a fortnight before it was pressurising again and we scrapped it and got her a Yaris D4d which was totally reliable and pretty rust free all the time we had it.

Personally I wouldn't put anything other than coolant in a cooling system.

 

[Shayne]

Depends on availability of time skills and money . From what I gather its a rarely used vehicle and while you would stretch to replacing the head gasket if that was sure to cure the problem , you have no intention of replacing the head , and so it seems the end result is either to pull the engine apart on a 50/50 a new gasket will do it or the truck goes to scrap . Or you keep driving it until it stops then scrap it .

If I'm correct on your current thinking then what harm can a £20 experiment do ?

Flush the coolant , disconnect and block heater pipes , remove thermostat , fill it up with water and run the engine up to temperature .

Bar's head gasket stop leak interests me because unlike most of the others which use copper particles to block , the Bar's is some sort of resin , so while having no idea how they actually work (or don't) I can imagine a resin sort of coating everything .

When engine is hot pour it in your radiator and fast idle for 20 minutes then shut it off and replace your thermostat the next day .

Might fail or it might buy you some time . I'd never consider it a fix but I don't see what you have to lose .

 

[Towpack]

Personally I wouldn't put anything other than coolant in a cooling system.

+1 on that. I bought a 4X4 Sierra back in the 90's which, unbeknown to me had be treated with some sort of sealer goo to fix a cracked block, which it did. All was well until I realised the heater wasn't working. A flush with some cooling system cleaner got rid of a load of horrible sticky brown sludge and hey presto, a working heater followed closely by a coolant leak from the crack in the block. Fortunately I'd bougjt it from a dealer and eventually got it sorted at his expense with me soucing a used engine and rebuilding it.
When I got a small stone through the rad on my Kawasaki ZZR in Scotland back in 2013 I wasn't even tempted to put anything in the cooling system despite missing the ferry to Ireland and 4 days at the NW200 races.