I converted my abarth to LPG about 1500 miles ago. Everything was fine during the first 700 miles on LPG, but since then the engine struggles a bit to start after ~15 hours of rest. If I give him two days rest (weekends), it will not start on first try. Only on second try.


To make things worse, its drinking a little bit of water. I can see the water level drop about 2 millimetres every 190 miles.
Oil consumption is also up but I have a crankshaft seal leak and change from selenia to mobil at the same time as the LPG conversion.


I guess this means my gasket is failing, BUT:

- I cant see oil or any sort of stains on the water reservoir.
- I cant see water bubbles/Stains on oil Dipstick
- Car doesn't overheat.
- No white smoke. Just the regular smoke.
- engine Performance is very good

I hope the problem is with the LPG vaporizer somehow. If its the gasket I'm doomed €€

Sounds like head gasket. Any steam out of the exhaust pipe on start-up? Does LPG cause the engine to run hotter?

yes it does. Its one of the characteristics of LPG. Yet, I never saw the needle go above middle, nor the car consumed any water before LPG.
It had perfect health (one of the requirements to install lpg)


Oil temp does go above the middle when I suddenly stop after pushing harder or when I spend too much time riding in 2nd gear (behind a bus or something). But it goes back to middle when I resume the pace.



How much €€ you reckon? did anyone here had this job done before?

Ring around for some quotes I suggest. Not heard of anyone else on here suffering head gasket failure on the 2.4 engine...

My ventilation (with AC off) has a very humid stench. Been happening recently too.

Does water always circulate through the heater radiator? Its summer, I haven't turned the heater on for months. But with regular air passing by, the smell is bad and humid.

Sounds (smells?) like you need a can of airconditioning disinfectant.

Yes... the water circulates through the heater radiator all the time. There's no water tap like there used to be on older cars.

Thanks. So its possible a leak on the heater radiator to cause the moist smell? or perhaps rain water?


I think compression tests are in order, both for the cooling and the engine.

cheers

It's usualy bacteria growth in the condensate from the airconditioning that causes the smell. Cars without A/C don't seem to get it.

I have the smell as well, though it only lasts for a few minutes if I leave the ventilation on. If I turn the AC on it's not there at all.

Could you please suggest the product that could be used to disinfect the AC? How is it applied?

Thank you.

There's lots of them on the market. Most motor factor and car accessory shops sell them. This is one example:

http://www.autoglym.co.uk/enGB/product-proddetail.asp?v06en0tr=E&v06VQ=FFLH&Range=1

This one is about £12 (GBP) in the UK. Not sure if Autoglym is available in Romania, but any A/C specialist should have something to do the job with.

It comes in a slow release spray can. You close all the car windows, start the engine, switch the A/C on and open all the vents. Place the can on the floor of the car (some cans say in the front of the car, some say in the back) and press the button on top of the can. Get out of the car and close the doors then just leave it for about 20 minutes.

Can't remember if I saw Aldi or Lidl shops in Romania. They sometimes sell one for about £3.50 (GBP).

i bought one form the my local autofactors about a month ago, cost was £6.99, it dead easy to do you just have to leave all the vents open, car on re circ and aircon on full whack with the windows closed. it stopped all that meldew smell on start up especialy on the warmer days.
you just press the can and it says leave it for 10 mins, i done 30mins to be sure.
the car now smells crisp and clean
roy

is this the kind of white stuff that appears on the reservoir with a blown gasket?

its foamy and bubbly





I'm going to clean it and see if it appears again.

This week it barely drink any water, if any at all. Still a bad morning starter though.

Davren said:

Sounds (smells?) like you need a can of airconditioning disinfectant.

Yes... the water circulates through the heater radiator all the time. There's no water tap like there used to be on older cars.

Click to expand...

hi where would you add the can of conditioner in my marea?

If you're refering to air conditioning disinfectant, read post #10 or 11 above.

oh boy.




after 10 minutes idling.


Still no visible oil in the water reservoir though.

Does someone know how a engine compression procedure is done? my engine scored 12bar for every cilinder.

It was done with engine warm, no oil on cilinders, engine starter spinning for 4 seconds on each.


thanks

The actual figures aren't so important as it's more the comparison between the cylinders (and yours sound fine) but compression tests are more use for valves, bore wear or rings gone ie big air leaks. A very small coolant leak into the bore only when the engine is cold is quite tricky to find and the better test is to pressurise the coolant tank and see how quickly the pressure drops

The fact you are losing coolant and water is coming out the exhaust is a tad worrying. You could have a coolant leak somewhere else and water comes out the exhaust quite often on first start up but not usually that colour

Try this, next time you plan stopping for a long enough time for the engine to cool off completely, carefully release the pressure on the coolant reservoir filler cap, leave it off if you want, and then see what happens when you next start the car. If it starts ok then that's another clue pressurised coolant is leaking into the bore when the engine is cold

It doesn't look like you have oil/coolant mixing (no froth in the header tank) and you're not experiencing boiling over (another sign of head gasket gone) and checking for exhaust gases in the coolant is always a bit vague

spyshagg said:

Does someone know how a engine compression procedure is done? my engine scored 12bar for every cilinder.

It was done with engine warm, no oil on cilinders, engine starter spinning for 4 seconds on each.

thanks

Click to expand...

Compression test procedure:

• Remove all spark plugs.
• For cars with HT leads, disable ignition system.
• Disable fuel pump (remove fuse or relay or for cars fitted with an immobiliser key, wrap the ignition key in thick aluminium foil).
• Fit compression tester gauge to 1 spark plug hole.
• Turn engine over until the indicated pressure on the gauge doesn't increase any further.
• Note the pressure achieved.
• Repeat for the remaining cylinders.

The pressure achieved from each of the cylinders shouldn't vary by more than 10%.

seems compression is fine then. They didn't disable the fuel pump though.



Deckchair, they also did a coolant pressure test. They didn't see any water leaking but it may have evaporated as it was with engine hot. On the search for leaks though, we found one pipe end with anti-freeze all around it. So it seems thats a spot where water leaks.

The exhaust water is because mornings are suddenly very cold compared to hot mornings the last few months. The black stuff doesn't seem oil, but worries me.

my mechanic managed to break three of my spark plugs. He never broke one until today. But it happens I suppose.

They seemed very fragile. The inside conductor simply came off like it wasn't even connected to the spark head.

Only 7k miles on them. From those 7, 2k miles were on LPG and my startup problems (and coolant dropping) happened 1k mile ago.