hi! im new here, I bought a l500 Centro and found that it has a oil burning issue. as when it goes up a hill the motor then blows a heap of blue oil smoke out of the exhaust. the car also had a headgasket done when I bought it as the guy I bought it off overheated it.
The cylinder head was machined when he did the gasket he also decided to as well do the timing belt and water pump. since then it hasn’t really gone through any coolant but it currently isn’t driveable because of how much oil smoke it creates. it is a 1995 charade centro, with the ef-el EFI motor which ive seen on here is also used in the l200 Mira.
wondering if any of you guys could point me in the right direction to figuring out what the problem is, as my local mechanic just wants to buy another motor.
If it’s blowing smoke going up a hill, valve seals are definitely not the problem. Either the head developped a crack while overheating or the oil rings have accumulated varnish (a frequent Daihatsu problem), due to infrequent oil changes. The latter is easy enough to remedy
I hope it’s just the rings problem as the head would be quite expensive and I don’t really have the money to replace that. The bloke that got the head machined took some photos of it and the block when he disassembled them.
All you need to do would be to free the oil drains in the pistons, cleanse the ring grooves and then hone the cylinders for the old rings. New rings wouldn’t be necessary, as long as the cylinders measure within specifications and show no signs of unusual wear
oh woah, that’s good. is that something that I could possibly do myself, or should I see if I can get a mechanic to do it for me? I know a few people with tools though I’m not sure how I’d be able to get the pistons out as I don’t have a working engine hoist.
In all honestly taking the engine out would be a better option. Taking the sump of is a royal pain in ass. would be better to take the engine and gearbox out as a whole unit and do the work then. Separate the engine and gearbox if necessary.
That’s how I would tackle it anyway.
ah fair enough, I’ll ask my local guy how much it’d be for him to mess around with it. I’d have enough for the rings and parts it’d mostly be the Labor for a mechanic to bugger around with it. @evilhighway if I do take it to him, would it be a good idea to replace the bearings on the crank and rods while it’s apart? not sure how long the seals last on the motors either
seals yes so you aren’t doing it again in 6 months ( Murphy’s Law ) bearings are a maybe dependig on what your mechanic says they are like. my opinion anyways
Must do seals. Might as well do bearings. The only two ef-els I’ve rebuilt I didn’t. But one I didn’t even check and did head off and engine in the car. Only had to do the head gasket and went that bit further and did rings because it had a huge lip in the bore. Wanted to rev it hard and all was a bit experimental so didn’t want a lip that might crack a ring. The other rebuild was to help someone with no cash and I drew the line at giving them a free set of rings, head gasket and vrs kit. In this case the bearings looked really good and all measured up good. Someone with a good understanding could make the right call. Might also be a matter of availability. If you read all the things I’ve had to say about the efel I don’t like them, the heads are an awful design and the dome pistons stop the things from having good bmep.
@Mr_Gormsby ah fair enough, since I’d be getting my mechanic to do it, I’d rather him replace all the stuff that wears out if the motor isn’t maintained too great. I’ve seen a few videos of putting other motors and turbos in the car so I may check out some of that stuff down the line awhile. I’ve still got a awhile to go before I’m legally able to drive a turbo’ed car but they sure look fun. the clutch pedal has about 30mm of travel before it does anything so I’ll see if my mechanic wants to mess with that
as well or not.
the dude that had it before me parked it in his shed for awhile and didn’t really do the maintenance on it because it was just sitting. the week before I got the car he did the LH cv axel because it was making some noise, and then also did the timing belt, water pump and fixed some dumb thing he did to the coolant line to make it run out of coolant and overheat the motor. I think he just taped up the hose after he buggered it up who knows how.
