Help please! Our engine bay is full of smoke and our engine has stalled.

[Man 'o Kent]

12 hours ago, bizzard said:

Thermostat housings often bow between the bolt or stud holes, especially aluminium ones. This needs to be rectified, by rubbing it upon a sheet of fine emery or the grey production paper on a perfectly flat surface like a mirror, ''circular motion'' until flat. 

Small point: Use a "figure of eight" motion not a circular one and certainly not linear strokes, also rotate the part a quarter turn in your hand from time to time.

It is all about randomizing the applied pressure to get the desired flat surface.  Not super critical in this instance due to the use of a soft gasket but worth adopting if flatness is a critical requirement.

 

[jddevel]

Besides the "bubbles" in the header is there any white looking "liquid" around the thermostat. Indicates oil/water mix which in conjunction with bubbles in the water normally a sign of a failed head gasket. The problem with all of the "possibles" suggested it`s very difficult to advise/suggest without actually seeing/listening to the engine. Even worse when searching for a electrical fault. Just eventually located a poor running performance on my daughters MGB when we finally spotted a hairline crack around one of the terminals in the distributor cap. It was virtually invisible!!!

[bizzard]

27 minutes ago, jddevel said:

Besides the "bubbles" in the header is there any white looking "liquid" around the thermostat. Indicates oil/water mix which in conjunction with bubbles in the water normally a sign of a failed head gasket. The problem with all of the "possibles" suggested it`s very difficult to advise/suggest without actually seeing/listening to the engine. Even worse when searching for a electrical fault. Just eventually located a poor running performance on my daughters MGB when we finally spotted a hairline crack around one of the terminals in the distributor cap. It was virtually invisible!!!

Probably not invisible on a pitch black dark night with the engine running.

[Bod]

1 minute ago, bizzard said:

Probably not invisible on a pitch black dark night with the engine running.

The little blue sparks, very pretty.

 

Bod

[Wanderer Vagabond]

4 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Probably not invisible on a pitch black dark night with the engine running.

Equally easy to find should you put hand too close whilst being 'earthed' to the bodywork (don't ask me how I know ).

[Graham Davis]

On 11/05/2020 at 09:07, Tasemu said:

I'm not sure, its been there since i started renting it.

I'll take a picture of the dipstick and the level on it today, i try to keep it where i think it makes sense haha, but god knows.

There's no drip tray unfortunately, i've never been able to pump it out enough to put in a tray that doesn't float away. Can't install a proper one as i'm only renting it.

Is this an unofficial "hire" boat?

Edited May 12, 2020 by Graham Davis

[jddevel]

19 hours ago, bizzard said:

Probably not invisible on a pitch black dark night with the engine running.

Having had the same problem years ago I`d already had all the lights off in my workshop with virtually nil visibility and no tell tale flashing. It was only when in the end  the inside of the cap was finally viewed under a magnifying glass  that I was able to see what I determined was a fine crack. Change the cap and problem solved. To WV my daughter once had a boyfriend who would quite happily handle HT leads with his bare hands when a engine was running. Totally weird. She`s married to someone else now!!!!

[David Mack]

 

8 minutes ago, jddevel said:

To WV my daughter once had a boyfriend who would quite happily handle HT leads with his bare hands when a engine was running. Totally weird. She`s married to someone else now!!!!

 

There was no spark between them then!

[Slim]

45 minutes ago, jddevel said:

Having had the same problem years ago I`d already had all the lights off in my workshop with virtually nil visibility and no tell tale flashing. It was only when in the end  the inside of the cap was finally viewed under a magnifying glass  that I was able to see what I determined was a fine crack. Change the cap and problem solved. To WV my daughter once had a boyfriend who would quite happily handle HT leads with his bare hands when a engine was running. Totally weird. She`s married to someone else now!!!!

I have a life long friend who, when we ran old bangers,  always touched the HT leads to check them out. 

[ditchcrawler]

47 minutes ago, Slim said:

I have a life long friend who, when we ran old bangers,  always touched the HT leads to check them out. 

That is how the local farmer always tested his electric fence

 

[dor]

20 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

That is how the local farmer always tested his electric fence

 

At least I used to do it by holding a piece of grass on the fence wire.  Still gave quite a bite.  Some fencers were particularly powerful, the idea being to burn the grass if it touched it to stop it shorting, or at least reducing the strength, of the wire.

Edited May 14, 2020 by dor