start up failed in smoke.

[Juarez]

1980 spider. After headgasket change and general check ups. Emptied oil, coolant, took off head.

After putting it back together, started it up making quite a bit of noise started puffing white smoke from a lower point possible exgust connection to head, not certain. Any idea what that could be?

Could it just be the fact the coolant and oil are not in place currently? Is there a particular way the car should receive coolant or oil?

Opinions, advice or fiat spider witchcraft all appreciated.

[fiat218]

White? Means leaking water and steam coming out the tail pipe
Start it and cup your hand at the end of the tail pipe! Your hand wet

Prolly your gasket is not sealed?

[SLOSpider]

Not sure why you would have noise unless your timing marks are off. Did it have a bad head gasket before then you may just have residual coolant in your exhaust system. How long did you let it run?

[Juarez]

Wow thanks for the quick replies.

I also was thinking water. keep in mind the smoke or steam is coming from the engine compartment near the exgust connection to the head.

You know the tidings may very well be off, it did shake a little bit. they seemed off when we looked at them, and after the start the timing belt was far to the front portion of the gear.
Yes, the previous head gasket was no good, so I wouldn't be surprised it we have to let it run. we only ran it for a few moments once it started smoking it started shaking bit too, so I turned her off. Should I run it longer if it keeps shaking?

[fiat218]

The belt does ride to the front,I believ

[SLOSpider]

Need to check all the timing marks including the AUX shaft before you start it again. If they are ok then start it up and let run as long as you have coolant and oil in it. Keep an eye on the temp gauge incase you have a trapped air pocket in the cooling system

[Juarez]

Perfect, that would explain everything I was seeing. I'll do just that and let you know how it goes.

Also, I feel like I may have put my coolant in incorrectly. What's the best way to do that. Is there a guide or post for that?

[4uall]

this may help

http://forum.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtop ... on#p151872

[So Cal Mark]

did you repair the cylinder head, or just slap a gasket in?

[Juarez]

That's awesome 4uall! I'll run through that too. That would answer many of my questions.


Depending on what you mean by repairing it, probably not. I cleaned it up real nice, cleaned the coolant and gunk out of the head and top of block and then slapped on the gasket. Did I miss something important?

[So Cal Mark]

without knowing why the old gasket failed, you stand a good chance of having the same failure again. Was the head flat, cracked?

[vandor]

>Could it just be the fact the coolant and oil are not in place currently?

You mean that you ran the engine without oil? That will ruin it very fast.
It can run without coolant for half a minute, maybe, without doing damage, but you should never run it without oil.

[Juarez]

The head seemed to be in great shape. To my knowledge it was an over heating issue. Important to note, when pulling the water pump we found a nice cake of white grit that would obviously add to overheating. Any idea what that is?

[SLOSpider]

Mark will ask so I will. Was the head check to make sure it was flat? Was the block and head surfaced cleaned completely? The white stuff is silicate/sand that is from using the green coolant. Its good and bad but usally a sign someone is not changing their coolant every two years.

[Juarez]

I'm not sure if there is a particular way to check if its flat, but we tried to look for signs of it. Yes, we cleaned the head, but not thru block though. Just did the outside maintenance on the outside and outside parts. Although we cleaned the inside of the block where the coolant lies with a vac.

Good to know the grit is just old coolant, we cleaned that out.

Today we saw oil around the airbox where it connects with the air in take. Theres obviously oil seeping from the intake. . .