Holden VX - Smoke coming from left side of Engine (somewhere round headgasket)

[billythakid]

let the degreaser penetrate for few minutes , use your wife or girl friends tooth brush and scrub around the hard to get to spots .

NEVER DO THIS or it will cost you big $$ later on !

When she goes to get a new toothbrush , she will come home with new shoes , handbag and dresses

 

[devilly]

put a towel over battery and alternator,degrease engine then hose off,depends on the degreasers some if you leave on to long will work as a good paint stripper.

after it cleaned down,then grab a torch, lift bonnet ,start car, then turn torch on and it will show up really good where the smoke is coming from.

billythakid thanks for the laugh

 

[Reaper]

Only the left??? Ok here's what you need to do. Go mix some tranny fluid, petrol and grease and pour it over the right hand side of the engine and you should be set. Might be a good idea to have a packet of marshmellows on hand and enjoy the show

 

[Turtl3]

JXW, its not simply about ignition points of degreaser mate... drop half the coolant out of ur radiator, go for a nice long throttle heavy drive through the hills and when the temp gauge peaks pull into a servo or house and hose down ur engine and see what happens to your block and heads. also spraying cold liquid from a can onto hot engine parts (exhaust) can cause them to vapourise, lowering their ignition point. not something i would personally risk...but feel free

 

[Jxfwsf]

JXW, its not simply about ignition points of degreaser mate... drop half the coolant out of ur radiator, go for a nice long throttle heavy drive through the hills and when the temp gauge peaks pull into a servo or house and hose down ur engine and see what happens to your block and heads.

Why would I want to do that?
Sounds like something you have experience with, what happened?

also spraying cold liquid from a can onto hot engine parts (exhaust) can cause them to vapourise, lowering their ignition point. not something i would personally risk...but feel free

Have sprayed degreaser from a can on a normal operating temperature engine hundreds of times, stubborn and thick grease/oil/dirt buildup is softer when it's warm/hot so it is much easier to remove.
Not sure why you'd want to degrease the exhaust though, it get's hot enough to simply burn any contamination off it so no need to degrease it.
Heck i've even sprayed carby/throttle body cleaner on hot engines chasing manifold vac leaks, guess what, no fires.

 

[Turtl3]

I was over exaggerating the situation...im not going to enter into an online pissing contest here.

My initial point was to not spray degreaser on a hot engine AND WASH IT (with cold water that would most likely come from a garden hose, not a hot pressure washer)

Ive never had any sort of vehicle fire, nor have i ever sprayed cold water onto an overheated engine and suffered the repercussions, but i have heard of this happening to less knowledgeable people.

Some people who may not know any better COULD possibly spray flammable cleaning products onto a hot exhaust manifold (because they are not always visibly red hot). Hence my simple, harmless word of warning. Given that the leak is more than likely coming from the rocker cover which is literally an inch away from the headers, care should be taken.

but good on u for being awesome at life and successfully degreasing your 'running temp' engine and finding an intake leak. Great success.

btw i do agree, you would never need to degrease an exhaust? But try to be less of a smarty pants and lose the sarcasm.

 

[devilly]

only clean on stone COLD engine.

lessons i have learnt if degrease on warm engine,then before long head gasket needs to be changed,or you get a lovely warped head that has to be machined.

mates car over heating, he was about to pour water straight over radiator to cool it,

wouldn't listen to me and put heaters on first and turn it off let it natural cool and so he done it and it split the top open, plastic radiator too.

 

[EYY]

Warped head/cracked block from being sprayed with water is a myth.

I've never heard of it actually happening and can't see it happening really. We do many 4x4 river crossings where the engine is pretty much completely submerged, and don't have any issues (apart from fans meeting radiators/breaking, but that's another issue), especially on engines with cast iron blocks and heads. Being sprayed with water wouldn't be too different from driving through big puddles or flooded roads.

 

[Turtl3]

On a normal operating temp engine it may be fine while its still running with coolant circulating internally. If the car has overheated and is missing coolant it could be a different story.

Anyways i think were all getting a bit side tracked with what this thread is for...

 

[keithy111]

My engine gets quite hots after a small trip, dont know if its normal...