Renault Kangoo - help with engine problems

[AndyStobbs]

Think it was mentioned in the thread earlier that it would be skimmed. A blob of weld on the exhaust manifold will sort that, but the time to have done it would have been when the head was off.

Unless you took the water pump out before you lifted the head, there will always be cross over of oil/water on re-assembly. You should do an oil change really, but as its an unknown engine, and you want to keep it cheap, just run it with the oil filler cap off, and a rag over the hole, helps to vent the steam once the oil is hot. Some cam lobes can flick oil out of the filler cap at an alarming rate, depends on position of cap, so be mindful, if its very bad for this on your engine, leave the dipstick out instead.

 

[puffernutter]

Taking the exhaust manifold off is dead easy. Being a hobby welder and having a cast iron manifold, how do I go about welding it? I have oxy propane (mainly used for silver soldering brass/copper on my locomotives), MiG (mainly used for blowing holes in car bodies and TiG (mainly never used it!)

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Taking the exhaust manifold off is dead easy. Being a hobby welder and having a cast iron manifold, how do I go about welding it? I have oxy propane (mainly used for silver soldering brass/copper on my locomotives), MiG (mainly used for blowing holes in car bodies and TiG (mainly never used it!)

Do you have a MMA electrode holder on your TIG, if so you can use some cast rods, alternatively I have done cast repairs using normal wire in the MIG, a small tack, wait for it to cool and then another small tack, repeat till done.

 

[AndyStobbs]

Just mig it, will be fine.

 

[puffernutter]

Right. Next steps (and apologies for me ignorance in these matters!) I've just done an oil change and reduced the level on the sump to what it should be. I then started the car again. Initially it runs OK, as the manifold warms up, there is a line of oil appearing along the crack, the smoke gets worse and the engine revs pick up. Could this be due (and this is totally winging it!) to the fact that when teh crack opens, there is air/oxgen introduced which confuses the lamda sensor? (I did look and there isn't much blue smoke coming out the exhaust).
Next step (when I get a chance is to MiG the manifold, that will be a week or so as I need the car out the way tomorrow as we have a dog show on Wednesday and I need to bring the van home! I've then got the Spring/Summer newsletter to do for the Clumber Spaniel Club (busy, busy busy!)

 

[the snooper]

I would be more concerned where the oil is coming from, did you install new valve stem oil seals ?

 

[puffernutter]

I was waiting for that question (a very guilty - no!)

 

[puffernutter]

I was hoping the fact the sump was overfilled was causing the problem. Obviously not

 

[the snooper]

I was waiting for that question (a very guilty - no!)

unless the head has another problem that could well be your answer

 

[puffernutter]

Let me get the manifold fixed and see if that makes any difference to the running. In all honesty, it's £12 for another set of head bolts and now I know what I'm doing, probably only a couple of hours to get the head off again.

 

[the snooper]

Let me get the manifold fixed and see if that makes any difference to the running. In all honesty, it's £12 for another set of head bolts and now I know what I'm doing, probably only a couple of hours to get the head off again.

in all honesty I don't think it will if its only a crack, the problems with lambda usually arise if they are able to suck in air and even then will only increase the fuel supply to the cylinders, there should be no oil present there at all

 

[puffernutter]

Thanks for that. A slight confusion. I'm not expecting the repair to the crack in the manifold to solve the oil problem, I wanted to see if it would solve the engine suddenly picking up speed problem :-)

It only seemed to happen when the car got warm and the crack opened, hence my thought about the lambda sensor getting the wrong indication of CO2/O2 levels.

 

[the snooper]

even if the crack did cause fuel problems the idle control valve should keep the speed constant, if it still happens try cleaning out the idle control valve

 

[AndyStobbs]

Get a welding glove on and cover the crack to see if it stops the revving.

 

[the snooper]

Get a welding glove on and cover the crack to see if it stops the revving.

it wont make a difference, when peoples lambda sensors fail and the car runs rich they only usually know because the EML illuminates or the car fails mot on emissions

 

[puffernutter]

OK, I have now given up! I removed the exhaust manifold to attempt a repair, I found the crack was around the whole part of that exhaust (only being held together by the web at the top!) and that ports 1 & 2 were very heavily oiled. It's cost me far too much, getting it running won't get me that much more back, so I'm getting rid of it as is! To really make my day, we've looked at our options and found a way of using one of our other cars in a different way, so I needn't have bought this damn thing in the first place!

 

[the snooper]

nows your chance to attempt welding cast then, nothing to lose

 

[puffernutter]

It was and I did! And I don't think it was too bad, even for me! It doesn't leak any more anyway.

It also showed another problem in that on starting one weld (on a more rusty area) the welder blew its 13A fuse. so I finally got around to putting the 32A plug I've been meaning to for a long time and I think at 13A on the garage feed (probably less than 230v as it's then original feed using 2 x 2.5mmFTE) I've been throttling it! It's now on a dedicated 32A feed (run in 10mm SWA from the house) and it seemed to weld better (or it could just be psychological!)

 

[normspanners]

connect the 32A to the kangoo see if that runs better!!

 

[puffernutter]

Don't tempt me.....