Flat Battery and Smoke Question

[jabba13]

Got a VS 95, Drove the car last night, all fine. Went to start this morning and nothing, totally flat battery, got RACV out, he started the car. Said the battery was charging then off he went...
Had the car running for about 30 mins, during that time it was blowing white smoke the hole time and didn't ease up.
The car doesn't usually do that. Just wondering if any one has any ideas??

[Brett_jjj]

Mate Id say youve got the dredded inlet manifold gasket leak.The inlet manifold gasket blows or leaks on the V6's,its a very common problem,but luckily its fairly easy to fix.Just need to remove the plenum,then the inlet manifold,and then clean up the gasket faces and fit new gaskets.Its important to torque up the manifold bolts in the right order and to the right tension,so a workshop manual like a gregorys manual is a good investment,it lists the tightening sequence and the bolt tensions.You will also need a torque wrench,also a good investment as most bolts on cars torque up to a certain spec listed in the manual..You can also buy aluminium gaskets from mace on this website,they are more expensive,but these are supposed to last for years,the normal gaskets usually will do around 175,000 to 200,000 km,then they will most likely start to leak.The white smoke you can see is actually steam.Sometimes theres different symptoms when these gaskets leak/blow,some will blow steam,some will leak coolant into the engine oil,which can be seen by looking under the engine oil cap for a white slimey substance,which is water/coolant mixed with engine oil.Sometimes you can get engine oil in the coolant and through the radiator,check under the radiator cap for oily slime..You can get the problem confirmed by going to a mechanics or radiator specialist and getting them to do a cooling system pressure test to see if theres any cooling system leaks..