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BMC 1.8 Overheating / Oil leak


ASupertramp

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Good evening!
 

Hoping to gain some advice. I’ve got a BMC 1.8 that overheated and cut out, billows of steam in the engine bay and burnt paint. Checked the coolant, couldn’t see any (despite virtually full a week or so earlier). Bilge always has water in so hard to tell where the coolant went. 
 

After the engine cooled down, the following day I topped up the coolant and it’s been reasonably fine since however I’ve been keeping a close eye on it and can see steam coming out of the front of the engine (near the alternator) shortly after starting it up. Coolant also seems to be dropping again but can’t see where it’s leaking from. 
 

Secondly, while looking for coolant leaks I spotted an oil leak coming from the side of the engine next to the air filter. When running it streams out and then when I shut the engine down I can hear a splash of oil dropping into the bilge. No idea if this is connected or incidental finding as prior to the engine service a few weeks ago, I’ve never had a problem with oil levels. 
 

Engine is skin tank cooled and has a calorifier which gets hot. 
 

Pictures and videos attached. 
 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 
 

 

 

Edited by ASupertramp
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1. Look under the pulley at the front of the engine just below the top of the cylinder head in case it is the water pump leaking, but if so it should take a while before it steams. Could this be damp steaming off the hot alternator, they will get hot very quickly and the air that gets drawn through the alternator exist around the pulley.

 

2. It is a leaking side plate gasket. Get a new gasket. The cover is held on by just one centre bolt.

  • Greenie 1
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The oil leak appears to be coming from the cam follower cover. It has a single bolt securing it and is sealed with a cork gasket. First step is to check the bolt. Don,'t overtighten as the cover is only a pressing. Second step would be to replace the gasket .v

Will look at video when I get a good signal

See tb bet me to the punch.

 

One word of maybe premature warning. If you find yourself replacing the water pump expect to have to grind down the casting and open out the mounting holes. Quality of replacement pumps is c**p

Edited by Slim
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Thank you both, so nothing catastrophic which is reassuring. 
I’ve just bled the skin tank, lots of air in there and I ran the engine for a couple of hours, nothing major though a steady stream of steam emanating from the front of the engine. I’ll try and have a look at the water pump (thank you Tony) though it sits mighty close to the bulkhead. 
 

Glad to know the oil leak is something obvious, I was worried it was related to the overheating and thought I’d cracked something. 
 

I ran the engine with the coolant filler cap off just to see what was going on, how ‘bubbly’ should that be? I wonder if when I connected the calorifier up, I introduced air into the system. 

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9 hours ago, ASupertramp said:

I wonder if when I connected the calorifier up, I introduced air into the system. 

 

Probably and if it found its way into the skin tank it would reduce the effective cooling area, and as narrow boat skin tanks are often undersized it is all too easy to get into overheating.

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