back home but with more troubles

[gotgcoalman]

water from under the rocker cover?
possibly water running round the lip on the cover and dripping on the exhaust.

Check hoses and core plugs in the area of the steam then work back:idea:

[Mac1984]

I could not explain it either, but it really looked like the water came from underneath there..
It will be some oil running out maybe and taken the water with it.

I see if i can shoot some pics at some stage.

I suppose checking the cooling system for exhaust gases and doing compression test will be next.

[Mac1984]

Here we go: bit of oil leak underneath the rockercover, the water came actually from the other side.

What i have done now: replaced a few hoses that showed obvious signs of aging, i found a few small cracks in them also..

There is a good amount of pressure in the coolant reservoir now, and also the hoses feel much firmer then before.

However, the temperature gauge still goes up, but then the needle stays pretty stable when driving around. It just seems
Strange that all of a sudden, the average temperature is so much higher. Engine warms up far quicker also.

I just cant make any sense out of it. Had the van at a garage yesterday and they have done a pressure test ( i have no tooling for it) and they said its all pretty normal. Had no time yet to check the timing

That will be my next job..then i will be slowly but surely running out of ideas..

Any more thoughts always more then welcome

[Mac1984]

Timing looks ok..

I should add that i have noticed very fine greyish smoke when accelerating on lower revs, anything coming close to 2000 and above seems ok. Very fine smoke it is, looks more like grey dust or mist. Seems to be only at the beginning when the engine is cold. I need to take a closer look as under what exact circumstances this happens.

[Mac1984]

Just a small update on this:

Timing was good. Since a few days, all of a sudden the engine wont start on the button anymore. I had to give the starter a good cranking this morning to get the engine
Going. Was very good until recently.

The exhaust spits out a huge grey cloud combined with black smoke. I would suspect an internal oil leak maybe?

Once started, the engine sounds normal and the idle speed is as usal. Runs on all pots too..

Any guesses as this might be the head gasket after all? Maybe somebody had similar indications?

Thinking its time to get this van involved into a bigger project.. For now its my only driver though, so will need to find a sub for it first..

Thanks for any advice