Ford Escort oil smoke on cold start!

[Agile]

Its the first time I have ever owned a Ford! Its very basic indeed with only four gears and no power steering and not even a cigarette socket for charging the phone! Its also got a manual "choke" !!!

Its only done 65,000 miles and generally works fine when the 1400 cc petrol engine is warm, no blue smoke at all.

The problem is just on cold starts. Its either a recent problem or is only since the weather got cold.

Its starts promptly but either with or without the choke it gives clouds of bluish/white smoke from the exhaust. Its so bad that you have to wait for it to clear to see to drive off. It stops after about 15 seconds of running the engine.

I have owned so many cars but never before a Ford and I have never seen this problem before.

Any ideas?

Tony

 

[cjbigboy]

Common problem on the CVH engine.

You need new valve stem oil seals!

Not a major job

cheers

CJ

 

[Agile]

I did wonder about that!

But why is it not smoky when its hot?

Presumable the head has to come off to replace the valve stem seals?

Sounds like a more involved job to me ?

Tony

 

[2scoops0406]

Yep valve stem oil seals, exactly the same symptoms as on my old Escort.

 

[Agile]

But why is it not smoky when its hot?

Presumable the head has to come off to replace the valve stem seals?

Sounds like a more involved job to me ?

Tony

 

[pipe]

valve stem seals. (cvh engine) You need tool to compress valve spring.Under £10 from good motor spares shop.The plan is to work on one cylinder at a time.Remove valve cover (rocker box) No need to remove cyl head,turn engine by hand so no.1 piston is at tdc on compression stroke,(check marks on crank pulley)remove rocker arms on no.1 cyl .Place tool on top of spring, using rocker arm nut.Tighten down to compress spring, remove collets, undo nut,remove old seal,clean area,fit new seal,replace spring,fit tool back on,tighten down,fit collets.Undo tool,one valve done.Repeat on next valve etc.Next do other cylinders but ONLY on compression stoke at tdc.(you can only use crank pulley marks on nos.1&2 cyls. ) The piston position stops valve dropping into engine. Hope this helps tony.

 

[Nige F]

Stick to boilers