Technical UNO 1.7 diesel white smoke and missing engine

[bquest]

Hi All,

I have a FIAT UNO 1.7 Diesel. it has about 100,000 km on it. heres the problem. about few months back I went off road and had drive on a road with almost 2 feet of water on it.

The car was ofcourse in 1st gear but the gas padel was floored and had to engage clutch few times to regain the torque.

I am sure, a bit of water must have gone in the air intake. but the engine kept on running and I passed through that 50 meter patch.

Now the problem in the car after that day is that engine randomly misses, its not really smooth any more as it used to be, and it throughs white smoke from the exhaust.

ANY one have any suggestions on what is the problem and how to fix it?

 

[M@nticore]

you could have sucked in water that bent some of the valves slightly. white smoke is normally caused by brake fluid, master cylinder or diaphram in booster may be buggered.

 

[Dutchie]

white smoke coused by brake fluid...

white smoke is water inside the enigne, coused by a cracked head, or a headgasket that blown out.
Both can be coused by the water that was sucked into the engine, and then going to the proces of being compressed by the pistons..
Only thing is you can't compres water, so it had to go somewhere, and that is either thru the headgasket into a oil chanel, or a water chanel, or indeed like m@nicore said it bent a valve trying to go outwards (witch I doubht)

Seeing the fact you got white smoek now indicates there is still water inside the engine (or in a place from where the engine is sucking it inwards like the air filter housing) or you headgasket has blown, cousing your eninge to burn coolent.
SO check your air intake system, if the filter is wet try drying it or replace it.
If thats all okay, check the coolent level if that is droping you defently have a blown headgasket.

 

[bquest]

Thanks guyz...

daayyeeemm !!

well its been quite a few months after the water ride.. have changed the air filter too after that... but the coolent part is what i guess it is .. the car is loosing coolent, both engine oil and from radiator.. i have to add about a litre of both every month.

Must be the head gasket then :bang: .. if i get the headgasket changed.. then is that the only part needed to be replaced in this process ?.. gotta check ma pockets before i jump into doin this .. by the way i aint sure wats a headgasket .. have always heard about it .. is it the one when u take off the head, its a thin layer sheet, placed between the head and the base which has four cylinder holes?

 

[bquest]

is this what a head gasket looks like? :idea:

 

[Dutchie]

jup that's the one.

things need to be changed when you do that:
headgasket set (inculdes the gaskets for the cam cover aswel, becouse you need to remove that to get to the bolt for the head it self).

If you remove the head you gonna have to take of the cambelt, so you need to change that aswell.

if you say it's loosing coolent and oil aswel, it's pretty shure the headgasket.. To bad m8, but it's not lost, it can be saved..

 

[bulldog5046]

hang about, if the cars misfiring then wouldnt it make sence that a plug could been water damaged or atleast damp? then the smoke would be caused the unburnt fuel from that cylender makes it's way into the exhaust and comes out as white smoke?

anyone wanna clear up what i said?

 

[Dutchie]

yeah bull I can clear up waht you said..

it aint a petrol car its a diesel they don't have plugs..
indeed unburned diesel when starting is white smoke but when the engine is running unburned / badly burned fuel is black (atleast for a diesel)

 

[bquest]

aaigghtt .. then that solves the mystery i guess .. head gasket needs to go .. but hey thanks for listing all the things needed.. i changed the cam belt few months back if its what i think it is .. is it what they also call timing belt?.. its only been used for about 20,000 km so far..

so my head gasket kit should include a head gasket, bolts and gasket for cam cover aswell? ummm .. is there a seperate gasket for a cam cover too?

and i still need to the reason behing white smoke.. sorry i am totally at this tech stuff .. is this what the head gasket do? it stops the oil and coolent to go in the cylinder? :chin:

Respect Ya'll

 

[Dutchie]

yup headgasket seals off the cilinders, and prevents them from loosing presiure, either into the oil chanles or the coolent chanels, or to the out side.

you do not need any new bolts, just a gasket for the camcover, and the headgasket.
also you need the gaskets for the inlet and outlet manfold, if you remove them.
you could take the head of with them on, then you only need a gasket that goes between the exhaust manifold and the rest of the exhaust.
it can be a bitch to get it off tho with both the inlet and exhaust manifold on.
I always remove them from the engine, that way there is no need to take off all the hoses, ans cables that go to the inlet manifold.

when you take of the head, you need to remove the cambelt (timingbelt indeed) .
even if it's only been n for 20.000 Km's you still need to replace it, and that wont be the cost, they aint that dear.

the whit esmoke is being coused by the burning of coolent inside the engine, it's making steam to be short..
and that you don't need, and eventualy it will blow completly, cousing the coolent chanel that is breached now, to completly open up, and the engine drining all of your coolent in like 5 minutes.
Makeing it look like a steamlocomotive..

so better to change it now, before the enigne overheats eventualy.

remember you do need a special tool, with wich you can set a certain amount of newtonmeters (torque) to the head bolts.
any one english will tell you the name of that tool.. I lost it in the translation (I know the word in dutch but not in english sorry for that)

 

[Louie Bee]

UNO 1.7 Diesel Head Gasket.

Sorry for jumping in on the thread late. I know little about the Uno Diesel . I recall posting some info on it though

https://www.fiatforum.com/showthread.php?t=27429 (post 3 and 4)
and
https://www.fiatforum.com/showthread.php?t=42467 (post 4 and 5)

It’s true to say you don’t need new head bolts. They aren’t essential . However, it’s worth considering the function of these stretch bolts – see post 3 here https://www.fiatforum.com/showthread.php?t=25235 .

A torque wrench is the tool Dutchie speaks of .

Hope it helps

Good Luck,

 

[bquest]

thanks a million dutchie and louie..

i guess i'll go with changing all the gaskets that dutchie talks of as i am new to all this and the only gasket i knew of was headgasket.. and i am hoping i'll get the inlet/outlet/cam gasket along with the head gasket.. is this what makes a complete headgasket kit ? right ?

i dunno much about the torque settings a little more explaination of this will help me learn more.. now i'll get the torque wrench ( thanks for translation louie ) .. will also try going with the right settings.. but i would like to know whats the effect having exact torque on bolts.. i mean wat happens if i just twist it till its humanly impossible to move the wrench any more degrees ?

louie those links were really helpful in understanding the stuff more.. i've been trying to find any type of manual for ages... those porter pages really meant something out of a great pyramid LOL with all the knowledge needed to run these ancient engines

will get on this job probably on 5th .. yep gotta prepare for pop quizes in the meanwhile ... although its been almost 7 months that i've been driving it like this .. hope that nothing else will go wrong in these 5 days

mad respect ya'll :slayer:

 

[bquest]

is it mandotary that i wait for engine to cool down to room temperature before i start unbolting everything to change the headgasket?

i got my injectors cleaned from another garage.. the dude there told me that if i wanna get my heasgasket replaced.. i need to leave the car there for almost 6 hours atleast before they start the process .. is it true? if it is, wats the matter behind this?

 

[Dutchie]

the head need to cool down boled on the engine, otherwise it will defenitly be as round as a cirlcle instead of flat as it's supposed to be.
That has to do with the transfer of heat into the eninge block it self, and backwards.
So yeah it needs to cool down, also best for your hands.

indeed a headgasket kit includes all the gaskets needed, so that means a camcover gasket, in and outlet gasket, stuff like that.
Atleast that's what inside a "kit" like that over here in the netherlands.

You do need the torque setting for the bolt that tighten the head in it's place.
I don't know how much torq, or how much degrees, but just bolting it on till your arm snaps i not the way to go..
Also the stuf loui said abouth needing to change the bolt, your free to do that, but I see no reason, I did like zillion headgasket repairs, on allsorts of cars, and with just torq bolts I nver changed the bolts for new ones.
Certain bolt need to be tightend to a certain degrees, that is indeed an different story, on wich it is best to change the bolts for fresh ones.

 

[Louie Bee]

All the torque wrench settings are in the second link of my previous post .

If you over torque the bolts, you run the risk of snapping them and the head gasket will be over compressed.

Dutchie, I have no experience of replacing head gaskets . I’m just repeating what I’ve read.

 

[bquest]

Aiigghhtt!! well i am just like louie ... even worst .. have not much experience in this tech stuff .. dutchie seems to be a pro .. so i aint gonna snap my arms then .. will goto a pro garage dude .. but i aint sure if they will have the torque settings... time to get a print out from louie's second link...

I know i ask alotta questions but its been great help :worship: .. will get on the job probably on friday then .. got college tomorow :bang: hang on for the update ..

 

[Louie Bee]

That’s probably the best way forward TBH. No problem with all the questions .

Good luck at the garage .

 

[bquest]

Guyz ... I need help again on this .. kinda stuck at this.. in my quest to figure out the white smoke and missing engine problem .. i have re adjsuted my engine valves.. ( which were ofcourse out of line ) good thing that i did that .. but i have'nt changed the gasket yet .. i'll tell you why .. i found out that there is a little leak on the radiator .. and i could see water dripping very slowly from there when i turned my car on in the morning .. strange part is that it only leaks from there when its cold .. i thought when its hot .. its supposed to loose even more amount of water because then its steam coming out instead of drops..

car is still maintaining the temp.. will wait for another month probably before going for gasket change .. cuz the weather is getting hotter by day .. it was 23 C in the morning today .. yaayyy spring time..

Engine missing and white smoke is still there .. but after valve adjustment .. i have noticed that the engine is wayyy smoother than it was and sometimes it really dont miss and sometimes it starts missin .. and the white smoke is only there when it misses .. i was wondering if it could be due to air paneteration in fuel line from somewhere maybe .. cuz i dont know about others but my Uno has those clamps without screws on them to tighten those parts .. so all the fuel line joints have those clamps which dont have screws .. and everytime garage ppl had to airbleed they have been pulling the fuel line from any of the joint near the pump or the filter.. and then just stickin it back in ..

is there anyway to seal off all the joints in the fuel line?