Sharon1928

no to all of those. Just a standard socket wrench. I guess that’s something i assumed was totally needed, oh well it’s done now. Okay great, how can I check the clearances/valve are adjusted correctly? would that be the screw on the rocker? cheers for your help!

So an update. Firstly, thank you for all your comments! I’ve read all of them and have found the suggestions incredibly useful in working my problem out. As I’m learning all this for the first time, I only started to interact with my engine about 3 months ago haha. It’s been a steep learning curve. So please do excuse me if I’m speaking like a novice haha. So I’ve ran the engine a bit, then tightened down a bolt on the engine head that seemed like bubbles were coming from it. The mechanic must have just not got that one right. I ran it and it seems like the puffs of air and sound are lesser! The smoke is still pretty heavy. And it still runs a bit inconsistent - like it has a hiccup and revs 5-10% more for a split second every few seconds. The smoke and hiccup must be due to the fuel return from the injectors only going to the cav filter and not going back to the tank via that double banjo bolt. Is that right? So I just need to source one of those converters to return it to its old state. As that was the bolt that broke and meant the setup had to be changed. Unfortunately these are hard to find. the only place I can find them is here, but they are sold out https://calcuttboatsshop.com/epages/c3a6cb0f-3e0f-4132-9636-974f7502e04d.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/c3a6cb0f-3e0f-4132-9636-974f7502e04d/Products/A3M4E5005 The whole setup link is here for context. It’s the bottom bit that converts the small banjo bolt diameter to a larger one that will fit the cav filter I have. https://calcuttboatsshop.com/epages/c3a6cb0f-3e0f-4132-9636-974f7502e04d.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/c3a6cb0f-3e0f-4132-9636-974f7502e04d/Products/CKSPILLKIT1.5 So aside from that. I’ve replaced the oil filter and done a full oil change. Ran it and it was still quite Smokey and had these same inconsistent revs. But After I checked the oil and it seems pretty clean, some bits of old milky oil in it but 99% clear mineral oil! I suspect that’s due to the old oil being in the pipes and engine still. I have also acquired a socket wrench kit and tightened torqued down the head bolts again (just a touch) and in the correct order as per the manual. But it’s a bit late to be running my engine, don’t want to wake anyone up or disturb the ducks. I’ll see how that goes in the morning, hopefully no puffs of air and tapping sound. So I think if I get this fuel return converter bolt the smoke will go away and the revs will be smoother. I just have no idea where to get them from, they seem like a very niche part and are sold out at the only place I found. cheers!

So about 3 months ago the nightmare began. The engine’s cooling system has always been a bit leaky but that’s never been an issue, I would top up the bowman heat exchanger before cruising and everything was fine. until one day it wasn’t. (as an aside the calorifier never worked either) The inevitable happened and the coolant must have gotten too low, steam, hissing and dead. Head gasket was my first thought. But i thought, I’ll give some other things a try before I start dismantling the engine. I bled the fuel lines and it went! All good! How Weird! 500m down the canal and a slow dying of the engine began, it spluttered dead and we had to catch a boat to pull ourselves to the towpath. Milky oil, not starting at all. We took off the engine head, which I had never done before and it was pretty nasty looking. Seemed obvious, head gasket had gone due to cooling. so we put it all back together, what a tough one. Nothing quite wanted to go back the same way, we had leaky fuel lines, broken bolts, dodgy threads and eventually had to make a change to the fuel return system as a spill rail bolt on the cav filter was near impossible to source. This was the fuel return line that before went from the injectors to the top of the cav filter and then also back to the tank through a double banjo bolt setup. The change we had to make was to put the return back to the cav through a single banjo bolt as that’s all we could find that would fit the large diameter of the filters’ hole and just not bother with the tank return. I replaced the leaky rubber ends of the bowman head exchanger and tightened up any seals that dripped water before and that was all sorted too. After this final problem we got it to fire! There was tears and everyone, me, my partner and the mechanic we hired was overjoyed at this. It was quick to start especially due to the cold weather. And we thought the headache was over. All good, we said goodbye to the mechanic and had a drink to celebrate. The next day we fired her up, what a lovely sound it was. But after about 10 minutes of running I heard a tick sound come from cylinder 4. Which I assumed was just a misfire maybe. But it seemed to then cause a consistent loud ticking and puffs of compressed air from just below the glowplug on cylinder 4. I thought maybe it was a bad glowplug and we had made it have a dodgy seal when we had the engine head off. So I replaced all 4 glowplugs and tried it again. Still ticking and now I notice all the white smoke coming from the exhaust. My heart sank. We are trying to stay positive as it’s been a tough winter without power, being able to move and finances taking a huge hit. I check the oil and it’s dirty and milky, but not as milky as the first time. but the engine seems to run okay. i have checked the tappets and push rods, nothing is visibly broken. I doubt it’s the head gasket again as we barely ran it before it did this, it couldn’t have overheated. Surely not. It seems like maybe a seal somewhere is bad. Or something to do with timing maybe? I’m totally lost as to what has happened. Any ideas? I’ll add some pictures and video links to this thread ASAP. -Matthew