Hi all,

I had issues with this car. Its a Sporting. Before it use to reach 100 degress with the fan kicking in for 5 seconds and stops and so on and so forth. Now its doing it again. The radiator has been changed, water pump and coolant. When I start it in the morning white smokes comes out from the silencer and it starts to miss when I press the accelerator. When I start to move with the car, its a bit jerky when I reach 3000 rpm. When it heats up, its fine... When I stuck in traffic or I park the temperature is rising. There is no thermostat as its summer in Malta. People have been telling that the cylinder head needs to be sent to the engineers to fill it up again.

The exhaust smell is off petrol and oil at the same time, even when you leave it on idle. The oil is disappearing by months...

This dude which I was talking to use to work with Fiat and then moved on... He said that all the gaskets will be changed and the engine will be cleaned from rust and limestone...

What do you think the problem is? The cylinder head?

Most help would be appreciated.

Have you checked for water on your oil, It'll look creamy white on you dip stick, or oil in you header tank - may be head gasket.

It does sound like the headgasket. Get a compression test done. The waterways can be flushed out with a proprietary flushing agent, but leave that till you've the results of the compression test.

Running without a thermostat is a bad, bad, idea.

hy is it a bad idea? It won't appreciably increase the water flow through the radiator once the engine is up to operating temperature. But it will dramatically increase the time the engine takes to warm up. During that time the engine will be overfuelling which will contaminate the oil with petrol and increase bore wear.

Get a compression test done, FCS! And remember that summer temperatures in Malta are not that much hotter than in Sicily (or peak summer temperatures in Poland, for that matter).

There is no sign of oil in the water... Both from the expansion tank and the dipstick. I did flush the cooling system but for nothing. So you think that its the head gasket?

Once the cylinder head is out they need to skim it?

Get a compression test first. That'll show whether you need to pull the head or not.

Ok ok. Will get this done Saturday coming.