I recently purchased a 57 TR3 and upon getting it started I have
discovered some issues with the engine.
After about 10 minutes of motor idling, smoke/fog in great volumes exits
the exhaust pipe. I also noticed that engine oil is blown out the
dipstick when the dipstick is removed while the engine is idling.
The previous owner had indicated to me that the engine has about 4800
miles on it since a rebuild and had no issues. The rebuild was done in
1985. The car has not been driven since May of 2000.
I do not believe that the engine was operated at all in the last
four/five years as there was a gas leak at the rear carb and the gas had
gone bad.
The engine oil (Castrol 20/50) had last been changed in 1997 and there
is 400 miles on the odometer since the oil change.
I assumed that I had a stuck ring/rings and a valve that was not seating
properly creating the blow by.
I checked the rocker arm/valve gap clearances and found them to be at
the recommended setting.
I removed the spark plugs and discovered #1 and # 2 to be on the black
and wet side indicating oil usage whereas #3 and #4 seemed okay.
I decided to see if I could free up the stuck rings by adding a mixture
of kerosene and transmission fluid into all of the cylinders.
Did this a few time and ran the car with no improvement although I
thought there was less blue smoke.
Upon removing the plugs after running the engine, I noticed some steam
coming out of cylinder 1. (Happened twice)
Did a compression test, I think after one of the soakings and found
compression at 185-195. Would probably consider this a wet test. Seemed
on the high side but have no idea what it could/should be.
Decided to remove the cylinder head to see if I could spot a problem
with the head gasket or perhaps a crack in the head. Found nothing that
would explain the water usage.
With the head off, I added more kerosene 1/4 to 3/8 inch to the
cylinders to work on the rings and found that on # 3 and #4, the
kerosene works its way through in a couple of hours whereas # 2 takes
about 6 hours and # 1 does not seem to pass any.
I would assume that the kerosene should work it's way through as the
ring should have a gap on the butt end
The engine serial # is S19047E and it has 87 mm liners. The liners do
not appear to be as proud of the block as recommended (.003 to .055).
More like .002. The existing copper head gasket was for 86 mm liners,
and bears a Stanpart number. The pistons are labeleed with STD 7E.
Any words of wisdom on the situation would be appreciated.
Larry :'(
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