After passing the MOT with flying colours there has been a development of white smoke from the exhaust and cream on the underside of the oil cap. Fitting a new head gasket to a Felicia Fun. Easy? Is is necessary that the cylinder block is skimmed beforehand? Is it a do-it-yourself job? If not, any ideas on a reasonable price for the work to be done? Sods law that it happened just in time for Bank Holiday weekend.

Edited 2 April, 201016 yr by richardjohnson

Are you sure it's not just steam?

It only happens on starting up and goes after a minute at most. It has also become unreliable in starting. Two weeks ago it used to be easy and quick but now it stalls when stationary after starting unless I rev it. Other ideas? Choke? Carb? I haven't been out of the car to actually smell the smoke either.

It only happens on starting up and goes after a minute at most. It has also become unreliable in starting. Two weeks ago it used to be easy and quick but now it stalls when stationary after starting unless I rev it. Other ideas? Choke? Carb? I haven't been out of the car to actually smell the smoke either.

doubt its the headgasket mate the 1.6 engine doesn't really suffer from tham, sounds more like a temp sender problem causing it to run too rich which will cause lots of condensation when cold

doubt its the headgasket mate the 1.6 engine doesn't really suffer from tham, sounds more like a temp sender problem causing it to run too rich which will cause lots of condensation when cold

Would seem the head gasket is fine. Changed the oil, cleaned the cap and the smoke has slowly disappeared. Major banking crisis avoided thankfully. Thanks for the help.

It only happens on starting up and goes after a minute at most. It has also become unreliable in starting. Two weeks ago it used to be easy and quick but now it stalls when stationary after starting unless I rev it. Other ideas? Choke? Carb? I haven't been out of the car to actually smell the smoke either.

check exhaust smoke while reving / accelerating, if you see white smoke then the fuel mix is too lean, also put your hand in the muffler (as close as posible) air draft, if it feels lukewarm then is ok, if hotter you have bad fuel mix

hard starting is also a symptom of lean fuel mix