Ian wrote:
On 10 May, 12:50, Conor wrote:

In article , Chris Whelan says... Conor wrote:


Sorry, I must have missed the part of the OP where he mentioned loads of
blue smoke...

He mentioned smoke billowing out from under the engine.


Original post in full:

"Hi, i have a Ford Mondeo 2.0 16v Ghia Auto. Ive been having a
problem with
an oil leak which has now been diagnosed as the sump gasket wearing
away. I
have purchased the gasket and was wondering if it is an easy enough
job to
attempt or whether to get a pro on it ?? any feedback would be graetly
appreciated. "

Only other posts by OP:

"that may be a bit difficult ! garage job then ?"

"Yeah apparently its a cork gasket thats worn away ? just what i was
told. Ok
i think that could be my best option as my mate said he'd do it but
needs a
set of ramps to do the job or no chance. ! "

"ok thanks for your help chris "

So, where's this billowing smoke?

Ian

He did talk about billowing smoke, not in the op but in his reply to me.
Sounds a bit ropy to me:

Hi Dave, yeah mine is at the worse stage i think. smoke bellowing out of
bonnet when driving. Major stains on driveway and having to put a
litre of
oil every couple of days. could be garage or scrap man even !!

On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:20:18 +0100, David Jones wrote:

He did talk about billowing smoke, not in the op but in his reply to me.
Sounds a bit ropy to me:

Hi Dave, yeah mine is at the worse stage i think. smoke bellowing out
of bonnet when driving. Major stains on driveway and having to put a
litre of
oil every couple of days. could be garage or scrap man even !!

Possibly not as bad as it sounds - when mine went the oil dripped
directly onto the exhaust manifold. So the smoke was being generated
outside the engine, not quite such a sign of ropiness..

Mine was retightened (and a couple of 'wrong size' bolts replaced) and
the smoke/drip went away. Until next time it started dripping, which was
just the oil filter getting a stone through it..

PCPaul wrote:
On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:20:18 +0100, David Jones wrote:


He did talk about billowing smoke, not in the op but in his reply to me.
Sounds a bit ropy to me:

Hi Dave, yeah mine is at the worse stage i think. smoke bellowing out
of bonnet when driving. Major stains on driveway and having to put a
litre of
oil every couple of days. could be garage or scrap man even !!


Possibly not as bad as it sounds - when mine went the oil dripped
directly onto the exhaust manifold. So the smoke was being generated
outside the engine, not quite such a sign of ropiness..

Mine was retightened (and a couple of 'wrong size' bolts replaced) and
the smoke/drip went away. Until next time it started dripping, which was
just the oil filter getting a stone through it..

You could be right. I was wondiring, with this talk of "some kind of
"gunk" (like a slightly spongy silicone)" if you could just lossen the
bolts, squeeze some gunk into the gap and then tighten them up again
(assuming the gasket was the problem, not the tightness of the bolts).
It seems to me that the difficult thing would be reattaching the exhast
after removing it to get the sump off completely.

On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:53:27 +0100, David Jones wrote:

PCPaul wrote:
On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:20:18 +0100, David Jones wrote:


He did talk about billowing smoke, not in the op but in his reply to
me.
Sounds a bit ropy to me:

Hi Dave, yeah mine is at the worse stage i think. smoke bellowing out
of bonnet when driving. Major stains on driveway and having to put
a
litre of
oil every couple of days. could be garage or scrap man even !!


Possibly not as bad as it sounds - when mine went the oil dripped
directly onto the exhaust manifold. So the smoke was being generated
outside the engine, not quite such a sign of ropiness..

Mine was retightened (and a couple of 'wrong size' bolts replaced) and
the smoke/drip went away. Until next time it started dripping, which
was just the oil filter getting a stone through it..

You could be right. I was wondiring, with this talk of "some kind of
"gunk" (like a slightly spongy silicone)" if you could just lossen the
bolts, squeeze some gunk into the gap and then tighten them up again
(assuming the gasket was the problem, not the tightness of the bolts).
It seems to me that the difficult thing would be reattaching the exhast
after removing it to get the sump off completely.

I would guess it's only the downpipe/cat section that needs removing, so
thats not too bad compared to the whole manifold. I haven't done it
though, I've only had the exhaust off from the cat back.

The HBOL suggests you need to lift the engine a few inches to get the
sump off completely... I'd definitely go for tightening the bolts first!

Also, as has been said, it might well be worth using chemical metal and
not doing a showroom condition gasket replacement since the problem is
minor (but annoying) and the fix is very time consuming and disturbs a
lot of bits that might then suffer (e.g. AFAICS you disturb the water
pump and belts on blacktop engines so they are probably worth replacing
while you're in there, etc. etc.)

On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:20:18 +0100, David Jones wrote:


Hi Dave, yeah mine is at the worse stage i think. smoke bellowing
out of bonnet when driving. Major stains on driveway and having to
put a
litre of
oil every couple of days. could be garage or scrap man even !!


Just reread this bit. Are you certain it isn't just a holed/rusted
through oil filter?

That sounds like a lot of oil to be coming from a knackered gasket.

The front crankshaft oil seals go a lot on these engines too, just to add
to the list..

In article 8d00150b-9b9f-4dfe-be3a-
, Ian says...

"ok thanks for your help chris "

So, where's this billowing smoke?

Ian

Here, thick ****:

Message-ID: 83e621af8bdb6@uwe

Hi Dave, yeah mine is at the worse stage i think. smoke bellowing out
of bonnet when driving.


--
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't
looking good either. - Scott Adams

On 11 May, 18:44, Conor wrote:
In article 8d00150b-9b9f-4dfe-be3a-
, Ian says...

"ok thanks for your help chris "

So, where's this billowing smoke?

Ian

Here, thick ****:

Message-ID: 83e621af8bdb6@uwe

Hi Dave, yeah mine is at the worse stage i think. smoke bellowing out
of bonnet when driving.

Whoops. Hadn't arrived here when I posted.

Ian

On Sat, 10 May 2008 11:29:40 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

Would high temperature silicon sealer work better? It sticks like anything
to a clean surface.

It's hardly clean though.

This is a sump, it's not at any pressure, so just goop it up and hope.
"Oyltite" is the stuff - it's a stick of chewing-gum-like goop that you
squidge into the gap. Check the bolts too - you might find one is
actually missing and the leak is through the bolthole.

Also clean the crankcase breather. If that's blocked and the crankcase
is running under pressure, it'll make any sump leaks worse. It's a rare
sump leak that's this bad though.