Fuel Additive !!!

Hi all once again.

Iv'e not been around for some months as we had an unexpected death in the family and then being made redundent in October, it has been a little hectic :pinch: , but that aside this has given me time to spend getting down to working on the lower paint job on my VS, in changing it back to how it should look and not black gloss.

Having done some minor other body work in the process, anyway I must stop the babbling and get down to the topic in question.

The car has been in the garage since late September, and has been started regularly, but I have noticed that she is beginig to smoke :blink: , and Blue smoke at that!!, this has never happened before and has never smoked or used any oil before.

Now having just had a light bulb moment, should I be using a fuel additive ? after reading the topic on here surrounding that very nice VS that was for sale in Malborough Wiltshire, and on it's service history it is mentioned that it had a conversion done for unleaded,

Soooo, should I be using and additive as I am concerned that iv'e kanackered the valves :oops: :oops: .

If so then i have a little more work to do over the winter period than I thought,

Any thoughts and advice !


Cheers Guys

Hi Nigel, Mine smokes too and the oil gauge is flickering up and down, however not really been that worried as the gauge is probably faulty. I did replace the sensor a year ago and didn't make any difference. Ref your problem, have you actually driven the car as it could well be moisture in the exhaust. Is it definatly blue smoke?

There are a host of reasons why an engine burns oil in sufficient quantities to show blue smoke in the exhaust.

The obvious #1 reason is the head gasket is blown. No amount of additives are going to fix this but there are other possibilities.

The most common reason for oil smoke is the valve stem seals have perished and are allowing a trickle of oil from the cam carrier and valve train to leak down into the combustion chamber. This typically only shows on start up as it burns off quickly and the trickle is insufficient to sustain the smoke.

The cylinder head is known to crack sometimes, this can allow oil or water into the combustion chamber and equally will allow compressed gas out resulting in pressure loss.

Next on the list is worn piston rings/bores, this is two-fold. First of all it allows oil from the bore walls to creep into the combustion chamber but by this stage the engine runs like a dog and tends to be very hard to start. The second side of this is the pressure of combustion is leaking into the sump, forcing excess oil up through the breather, into the air filter housing and back down via the throttle. You can easily diagnose this by taking the cover off the air filter while the engine is running and rev the throttle repeatedly. Normally the breather "sucks" on the sump to reduce the gas pressure and allow the engine to run more smoothly, a small amount of atomised oil is sucked into the combustion chamber this way and is intentional. Huge globs of oil getting in this way are very bad.

If in doubt get a compression test done and if any of the cylinders is showing low get someone to take a look with an endoscope. Loss of compression can be the result of a damaged valve or valve seat but this normally doesn't result in oil smoke although it can produce a darker smoke as that cylinder will run very rich.

As to additives - most are a preventative. Helping to lubricate the pistons and the valves and replacing some of the components that are being phased out of oils and fuels that maintained the surfaces of components in older engines. (hint don't use the latest grades of oils, they might be good for modern engines but they are very bad for old engines - you don't want to use cheap trash either but keep an eye on the oil spec and if in doubt check).

Some additives will help to rejuvenate gaskets and seals, rubber seals especially can "dry out" and shrink resulting in leaks but once a gasket or seal has failed the additive can't do much to fix it.

With regards to the oil pressure. If the gauge isn't showing a consistent reading beyond increasing along with the revs then something is wrong. Loss of oil pressure generally results in a catastrophic engine failure so it is worth paying some attention it. The oil pressure sender isn't foolproof though and you have an idiot light as well that runs of an independent switch. If the idiot light comes on the best thing to do is stop the engine and don't start it again until it has been checked, if the gauge is all over the place then you probably have an electrical fault but do you want to take the chance?

When an engine seizes it tends to do it very suddenly and at high speeds that can lead to a big accident. Thankfully it is more likely to happen at low engine speeds where it just stalls and refuses to start again...typically preceded by classic knocking noises from the engine especially under load. If it does let go at high engine speeds there is also a chance that a large part of the engine will try to escape from the block and it is pot luck as to whether that will be forward or backward, forward means it will try to go through the bulkhead too and you can guess what happens next. If you're lucky it will bounce off, if not you need to pray that it misses the fuel tank and the inhabitants of the cabin. The result is rather akin to a grenade going off - very, very messy...

One last point - the X1/9 engine was designed to meet the requirements of unleaded fuel from day 1. The valve seats are exactly the same as those fitted to the federal spec engines and they have never run leaded fuel. The problem with unleaded fuel is NOT the valve seats it is the metal holding the valve seats in - continued running at high engine speeds under heavy load (ie trying to find out what the top speed is) results in the fuel mixture going lean combined with aggressive erosion of the metal around the valve seats. Drive normally though and the amount of erosion is minimal and there is enough metal there to last the life of the car (whatever that might be). The owners club received a letter from Fiat many years ago confirming that there was no particular problem with unleaded fuel but they did not go so far as to say that such fuel won't damage the head for the reasons I've described. In short you can't convert an X1/9 engine to unleaded, all you can do is fit new seats and make sure the metal in the head is not eroded.

If its been stood a while, could just be a sticking piston ring or similar. Personally i would just keep an eye on it to start with & see what happens when it's properly up to temp before you do anything drastic

Hi Damon.

Thanks for your reply posting, If you want I have a spare instrment cluster you can have to check out your quage, give us a bit of postage and you can have the cluster, I will be glad to get rid as my garage needs clearing.

Also have spare steering leather wheel, bonnet cover and pepper pot alloys I need to flog !!

Julian- yes I think i'm not going to panic just yet as it may be as it is standing, it all ran perfectly up until put in the garage in Sept.

Keep you posted

Nigel, I'll let you know on the gauge. Does your one definately work and not go up and down like a yo yo? Also you say you have a bonnet would you have any other panels? Are they in good nick?

Hi Damon.

The cluster came out of my car and worked perfectly in every way, I changed it as a spare came with the car and it had the Fiat wording in it and not Bertone which I felt it should have as the rest of the badging on the car was Bertone.

As for panels, I only have a Engine cover in black (Sorry), also a Targa in very good condition with perfect black lining, an numerous other bits and bobs, I will have to have a sort out at the weekend.

How is yours running apart from the oil guage ? were you not recommisioning another also ?

Hello Nigel,
If you not going to run it over the xmas period. Why don't you take the plugs out and squirt some WD40 down the bores and leave it for a few days. If it's a sticking piston ring it might help loosen it up..

Then try running it again and get it really warm. I had a Range Rover a few years back that I rebuilt the engine on and it had been standing outside for quite sometime before I got to eventually fire it up. I had loads of what I thought was smoke and it was condensation from the exhaust. It took ages to clear with the car idling and i thought maybe it was the head gasket. But took it for a run and it was all good eventually when it had cleared itself and warmed up..

Nigel, I'm still trying to source parts for the 1300 I'm going to restore and now my parents are in the process of trying to sell up. The car is in their garage which is where I was going to start the restoration. Not sure what is going on really as I want to start work on this soon. Worst part of the car though is the windscreen surround. I think I might have to just go full guns blazing and strip the car down and assess what work is required!!!

Damom my learned friend. Are you fully aware of whats involved in stripping a shell down and rebuilding it from scratch?

From the limited info and pics of your car I have seen up until now, I would say this car will break you

Charles, don't worry as I have restored quite a few cars in the past and used to be a mechanic in the motor trade. I know it will be a challenge however I'm sure i'll enjoy every minute of it. I restored a 1300 about 20 years ago when I first started in the trade and quite a few of the parts for the current car I have already!!

Looking forward to the updates on your 1300 mate. And I hope you are aware that the replacement of the windscreen surround requires a work of art for it to fit properly.

We need the pictures bud

Hi Terry.

Thanks for the advice, sounds a good idea! i will do just that as she's not going to be used until the spring time.
The car starts on the button with no issues it's proberbly me being over worried about the fact that I should have used a fuel additive and the fact that all was running well before with no over heating or missfires.

I'm concentraing on getting the lower bodywork done first, slowly working my way around the car and then on to replacing the rear arm bushes as they have a lot of play in them, apart from that she will be ready for the spring

Any ideas on being able to get the headlights to lift both at the same time ? I took these out to overhall the nosecone and generally tidy up around those areas, and now the N/S is a few seconds slower to lift, they both worked fine together before.