Have I blown my car up?

[Mr X]

ah so it may not be as dire as it sounded before?
You could upload the video to youtube and then post it here... probably the easiest way.
Without hearing the sound and seeing what you mean it's all speculation.
If its the big ends, it will sound like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hERq1zzgkcs

From where you describe the smoke is coming from, I can only think of it being the head gasket. The water pump is at the other side of the engine near the alternator. Again, this will cause low compression and funny noises. Fortunately, not terminal!

[Wabbitkilla]

Could be the water pump from your description of where the smoke is coming from.
Shine a torch in with the engine running to see if all pulley wheels are turning smoothly.

[Carplay]

Bit of an update, did a compression test, all cylinders are about the same, around 100psi, chucked some new plugs in and it's still running rough. All I have now is lumpy engine and lots of smoke, confused

[nthorpey]

blocked breather?

[Carplay]

Would that's cause rough running and lots of smoke? Where do I find these breathers

[stupink]

Isnt 100psi low? i'll be honest i dont know these engines, and maybe the cam varience stuff messes with things, but 100psi would have me crying..

try popping a small (as in smallllll, aka teaspoon not 100ml lol) ammount of oil down each plughole and re-test..  this will help the rings seal, and show you how "worn" the rings may be. figures should be higher but not much higher.

i'd expect to see more like 170-180psi really i would think.. but as i say, these engines may have something "special" about them i dont know about.

after sitting up so long its possible the rings are siezed in the piston ring lands and not sealing properly..

water pump may well be going and hence smoke around there, but it wouldnt cause exhaust smoke or poor running..

[Wabbitkilla]

100psi is indeed in broken territory.
Around 180 is normal.

Did you by any chance shine a light down the plug holes and take a look at the top of the pistons?

[mrzwei]

Yes, those compression readings are very low. There is a post on here by Matt Performance which states 190 - 210 on a sound engine. (That's off the top of my head so could be wrong).
The blue / white smoke mix from the exhaust would support a head gasket failure but usually the compressions would be low on only one cylinder or two adjacent cylinders.
What was the condition of the old spark plugs in relation to this?

 m http://www.triumphspitfire.nl/plugs.html m

Normal and all the same?

Could be more than one issue here, water pump (often you will get signs of the water boiling in the expansion tank if it isn't moving around the engine so it's worth letting the engine get warm and looking for that).
Low compression as said above so the 'wet' test may give more info.

EDIT, as said above too!

[Carplay]

Am I right in pluging the compression test into each cylinder, my mate cranked the engine, the reading I gave was of the first number it jumped too after the first crank , it would then jump higher on the next revolution. No mate didn't look down the spark plug hole but I will, the car pulled very well indeed so confused with the readings too, I did have a very oily plug on cylinder 1 but the oil was on top of the plug and on the bottom of the plug, it also looked quite clean so I presume it ran down from the filler hole

[mrzwei]

For the compression test, you need to take all of the plugs out, and the engine needs to turn over 10/12 times to show maximum compression.
If you didn't do that then give it another go and post the readings.
Do it for each cylinder.

[Carplay]

Ok I will, but surely every crank moves the gauge more so the gauge would surely keep going up and up and up every extra stroke ? The more cranking the higher the compression on the gauge? Is it not measured per stroke?

[mrzwei]

No it isn't, just crank it 10 to 12 times and post the result.

[Carplay]

Ok I will do

[stupink]

Yeah as above, you need to crank it until the gauge stops moving-ish.. tbh if this isnt within 2-3seconds you've got other issues.
throttle fully open also.

[Mr X]

disconnect the the injectors so you don't fill the engine with fuel, wide open throttle and crank it 4-5 times. It should be at maximum by then. As a base, mine got 180 psi.

In regards to your previous smoking post... is it coming from where the dipstick goes around the back between the firewall and the engine (intake side) or by dipstick you mean the side where the tube starts (exhaust side)?

[Carplay]

Ok will do, will post figures today, we now don't have any engine smoke just exhaust smoke. The smokes when it was coming from engine appeared to come from some point around the middle pulley on the belt side

[Carplay]

My revised compression test results which I did 4 times.

Pot 1. 235psi pot 2. 225 psi pot 3. 235psi pot 4. 210psi

All seem ok don't they? But still running rough and smoking loads

[Carplay]

I am now thinking along the lines of as I was very low on fuel and did a tight bend maybe I could have sucked up some dirt and blocked an injector?

[Jandaw]

Next avenue.

The car was standing for 18 months so the residual petrol would have deteriorated and possibly become contaminated with condensation.
Not the perfect combination. I don't know when and how much new fuel you put in but there's every chance you picked up water and fuel when cornering aggressively. The filter will only exclude solids and shouldn't (theoretically) block to the extent that is causing your current problems.
There is no inline filter to trap water so this could be an avenue to pursue.

Someone else can say whether we can drop the contents of the fuel tank and whether the contamination would cause excessive condensation vapour from the exhaust.

[stupink]

I'm not sure if you can unplug them without causing ECU errors. But I'd pull the coil packs one at a time. See if any one makes a difference. If 3 do one doesn't. You know you have an issue with a particular cylinder.

[Carplay]

Thanks, have just been outside playing, have tested the spark on all 4 plugs and they are fine, have also checked every thingy that goes into the plug individually and they are fine, I have also ran it and pulled one plug at a time and they all stop the engine, it is now no longer misfiring it is just smoking and at idle there is a rattle which goes when you raise the revs by 2 or 300 rpm

[Mr X]

those compression figures are good! so it can't be water coming from a popped gasket. I was just thinking, the Idle control valve is water cooled, the is an off chance that could pull water into the system.... although it's a long shot and I cant think of anywhere else water can get in....

edit:

I also just read Jandaw's post, that could also be a possible cause... If it was low on petrol, and became quite contaminated. I'm not sure about how to drain it but maybe filling it up will dilute it. Maybe try a google on the subject  s:) s:)

The rattle could just be an exhaust heat shied or maybe an exhaust gasket if it goes away when you blip it... these things are very common on the car

[Carplay]

I put a gallon of petrol In and the tapping mate is deff mechanical and wasn't there before this problem, sounds like the cam or rocker or something to do with the vvti ?

[Mr X]

Then just take the cover off and put your mind at ease. you can get it off and on again in 15 mins with a 10mm & 12mm socket. Just make sure everything looks nice and smooth with no warn lobes etc. The VVTI only operates at 4k+ and if it's broken, it wouldn't case the engine to rough idle or anything like that. You would just not get that extra kick at 4k+

[Carplay]

Right ok will do, whatever is causing this problem made a mechanical noise like cardboard in a bicycle wheel, then it stunk and smoke came from it and it was on the belt side of the engine or around that area as that's where the smoke came from