MOT & Smoke woes (my poor ZX)

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Dr_Frankenmiga

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Fellow Frogger
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Mar 2, 2004
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UK :(
Hi, I have not posted in a while but I am in desperate need of help... I cannot bear to get rid of my '91 ZX 1.6i Aura.

I took it for a MOT today and besides failing on the usual brakes, tyres, bulb it now has failed on :

"Exhaust emits excessive dense blue smoke during acceleration"

Now about 3 days ago I hit a big puddle...when I say puddle I mean lake on a VERY badly lite carriageway...it sucked it up and pushed it out throw the plug holes under the force I presume it ran VERY badly that night anyhow after a few hours I presumed it dryed it the car is running perfect again. However I did a compression test and the values were good all just above 11psi (well green on this thingy :p )

The ZX has never spat out smoke and this smoking seems very random (starts fine,pulls strong)
Is there ANYTHING I can do failing a enigine rebuild?
I am hoping that some oil may be left in the oil and a change (filters too) might get me away with it?

I just cannot bear this :cry: :cry: :cry:
 
I think you are looking at a new set of rings, and valve stem seals. This is not a difficult job to do, and should take a weekend working at a gentle pace, with all the parts & tools ready to hand. If you go for the rings, don't forget to break the glaze in the cylinders!! You will need a long reach valve spring compressor, as the valves are very deeply recessed in the head, and a good set of TORX bits, the most important of which is a T55, for the head bolts, and a dial gauge for the angle tightening of those bolts.
Trust me, it will breath new life into your engine!
See the other ZX engine thread on here, I built that engine from the ground up about 4 years ago, and it's great! john s
 
Blue smoke

Water in the engine? Was it sucked into the air intake? Your "blue amoke" sounds to me like water in the diesel. Could it have got into the tank? Does the car fart blue smoke occasionally or push it out in a steady stream? Good compression rules out ring/cylinder/valve damage. Is it using oil?
 
tassiediesel said:
Water in the engine? Was it sucked into the air intake? Your "blue amoke" sounds to me like water in the diesel. Could it have got into the tank? Does the car fart blue smoke occasionally or push it out in a steady stream? Good compression rules out ring/cylinder/valve damage. Is it using oil?
Click to expand...

Yes it was sucked into the air intake :(.
Its a petrol. The car seemed to do it at the MOT station I could not get it to do it. All the time I have had it it barely will get over 3K RPM (2K RPM is where I hang :p ) yes I drive hella slow in it but thats just me, I once had a Police car beep its horn at me to move because I was crawling.

Maybe its started using oil its done 113K now. It does not seem to fart it out. Just seems to be under hard/heavy acceleration as the MOT tester gave it some stick something which I never do. He says its oil, thing is the cars done less then 7K miles since its last MOT which it passed with minor faults again.

I'm really upset yes I am in love with the car as any man with a Citroen and my girlfriend comes 2nd and that is that! :)
 
Diesel on the brain

Dr_Frankenmiga said:
it sucked it up and pushed it out through the plug holes under the force
Click to expand...
Sorry Mate... I was thinking glow plugs! Yeah, Sounds like oil rings but I can't see how the water would have got past the compression rings to affect them. Is there water in the oil? It would be worth getting some proprietary cleaner like "Wynns" or "STP" or "Redex" (don't know what you guys have over there) pouring it down the plug holes and letting it sit for a night to soak through to the oil rings. Might just do the trick :wink2: Anyway, don't despair, re-ringing her will be a cheap and relatively simple job.
 
If it never goes much above 2000rpm, maybe you should thrash the living daylights out of it for a few miles. Kill or cure.
 
Ok, lads I have carmed down a bit now :)
I think I will change the engine I was looking in the other thread and people say I could get away with any of the XU series engines (XU is what I have) so I might as well grab the biggest one I can find I can get away with fitting, obvisouly im guessing that not all XU engines may fit (or fit without hassle Loom etc) is there any recommendations?

I know they did 1.8i ZX, theres also alot of 205,309s here that carry the 1.9 8V engine but I fear the loom work would send me to a early grave (also I remember manifold issues) I have worked on alot of Citroens in my time and currently own 2 Xsaras TDs, a 306 TD that needs a head and a 205 XS that needs nigh on a miracle so I wish to get dirty! :p

Has anyone seen the movie Christine...well yeah thats me and my ZX :p
 
The 1.8 was crap, However, I know where there is a very good rebuilt BX GTi engine, ECU with wiring loom, and a ZX volcane gearbox. Strangly, these are all in the bristol area!!! if you are interested send me a private message, but don't wait too long as the BX has to go very soon! john s
 
That sounds interesting I will message you :)
I changed the oil on my ZX as well as the oil filter and it seems to have mysteriously gone away so far I will check more today.
The old oil that came was as thin...as thin...as water?
Last time I saw oil that thin was when petrol made its way into my Talbots oil god that smelt funny :)
 
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