my new integrale

[lancianut666]

Nice result...had a similar problem on my Dedra Turbo as the loom from the cps had frayed and would short on the body when you gave it full throttle cutting the engine off as the engine moved on it's mountings as the torque built up.
Clarkey

[Jaydub]

Brilliant job Kevin, truly a man of many talents!
Jaydub

[Kevinlincs]

Cheers guys, yes a huge relief to have it running right now, just a shame it's so late in the year!
Interesting that you seemed to have had an identical issue Clarkey, same symptoms too, mine was OK driven gently. Now I don't have to though! Just hope to get a few more days out in it before the road salt goes down..

[Kevinlincs]

Car is now safely tucked away for the winter next to another of my old cars, the Dedra turbo that my friend Jim bought off me probably 10 years ago..

[Kevinlincs]

It's been a while since I posted but like most of us, not much happened last year!
I have been busy restoring a Y10 which I have now finished, and with the prospect of going anywhere much in the Delta not looking likely for a while I decided to attend to a rather annoying issue that the car has had for some time now, pretty much since the rebuild.
An oil leak from the upper reaches of the engine which gave that horrible burning oil smell as it was mainly on the exhaust manifold!

I have been putting it off for some time now, not relishing taking it all apart again. Told myself that I will tackle it next winter.

An unexpected week off meant I could bring it forward in an effort to stop the embarrassing smell and smoke from under the bonnet. A lady actually came up to me at a petrol station last summer, not that she was interested in the car (or me!) but she asked quite innocently "do you know your car is smoking". Yes I said, it's like me, old and leaky.
But embarrassing.

The leak was making the exhaust manifold wet with oil, no wonder it smelled. Didn't seem to be the cambox gasket, or the top cover gasket. Distributor was a bit damp inside but not enough to be the source.
My mind said it could only be the head gasket, isn't it always the worst?

So I set to and took the head off.

Stripped it all down, found an issue or two, wrong cambox base gaskets for one thing. I also changed the oil seal inside the distributor as I'd only done the outer O ring last time.
All pointed to the cambox wrong gasket which had a circular seal where it needed a slot to match the underside of the cambox.

A chance conversation with my friend Chris though alerted me to a phenomenon that I have never heard of, so not that I didn't consider it to be a possible cause it just didn't occur to me to consider it.

I'm sharing this for those who do take their cars apart and miss this vital step, so if you already know then don't condemn me too much!

The exhaust manifold has two studs that go into the head which are not in blind holes, as in they continue into the head internals, or more specifically they end up in the oil gallery exactly where the oil return is...

[Kevinlincs]

Now what happens is that the hot oil can work its way down the threads of the stud and out onto the manifold. I was a little bit sceptical, must be an old wives tale surely but no, Google confirmed its quite common especially it seems on turbocharged cars.
On the Delta of course the manifold studs are angled down at over 45 degrees which aids oil flow.

When I removed the stud a trickle of oil ran out just to confirm things, the stud threads were  wet too so definetly my leak source.... confirmed when I looked closer at the oil staining on the manifold...

On checking with the makers of Loctite threadlock they confirmed that the one I had to hand will do the job so I was able to get them refitted with the Loctite threadlock/sealer. Loctite 243 from memory but I will check that.

So if this prevents one person from overlooking an unknown, to me fault then I can put up with the embarrsement, just I hope to avoid the embarrassing looks at filling stations now! Or once I have reshimmed the valve clearances and put everything back together!

[frankxhv773t]

It must be good to have that sorted. Having done so much work n the car it must have been mighty frustrating to have an embarrassing oil leak. You should have told the lady in the petrol station that the car was over 18 so it was perfectly legal for it to smoke.

[Kevinlincs]

Yes, very frustrating Frank you're right, and very embarrassing.
Every day is a school day though as they say, never occurred to me to seal the studs.
Car is almost back together now, been re-shimming it today so next Saturday I should be able to start it up, and hope it's no longer an 18+ smoker 

[Mikenoangelo]

You are not alone - my son who owned an Integrale 15 or or years ago had exactly the same problem with the same cause. Must be a design fault. He fixed it the same way. He also had problems with the alloy wheels going pears shaped due to potholes - this we once fixed with the aid of a lead sash weight to beat the rim back into shape.

Mike

[lancianut666]

Hmmmm...my Dedra Turbo leaked oil from around the exhaust manifold area but I think the man at Walkers near Northallerton was mumbling something about an oil breather/trap gizmo that needed cleaning out at vast expense. It too was embarrassing as it would gout engine oil onto the exhaust manifold on the first start up of a morning and reek of burnt oil all day...I had always thought constant loss lubrication systems were the domain of Wankel engines. Still went like stink though 
Clarkey

[fay66]

My last Dedra, a 2.0ie auto had the same problem that I though was a leak from the cambox gasket, but turned out to be from the same source.
Stud was put back with a thread sealer, no more problems, but stank until all th oil burnt off.
Brian
8227

[Kevinlincs]

I'm amazed at how common a problem it seems to be yet I've never heard about it! Del Amitri, Always the last to know 

It does make sense when you think about it though, the studs in question face downhill at over 45 degrees so as the oil is designed to flow it tight spaces like crankshaft journals and cam bearings it seems logical that aided by gravity it will eventually find a way past the threads without any sealant to stop it.
Being honest I'm just happy, and confident that I've found the issue....time will tell, this Saturday hopefully as long as the shims arrive in time..

A bullet has been dodged though in the oil supply pipe to the turbo. The original was a bit pitted but cleaned up OK when done a few years back. I had painted it with high temperature aerosol paint in an effort to protect it but the signs were there that the rust was coming back as I hadn't dare blast it back originally. But on reflection I should have done, if it is weak enough to get holed from blasting then it isn't fit for purpose. Now it's off I am less keen on taking the risk so gave it some vigorous cleaning with the knotted wheel, which produced a small hole near the mounting bracket. OK the knotted wheel is very harsh and can cause holes where they wouldn't necessarily be a weak point but if it was solid enough then it would have been able to withstand the cleaning.

Doesn't warrant contemplating what would happen should a hole develop while driving and a jet of hot engine oil spray over the turbo and manifold! A new pipe arrived today. 

[frankxhv773t]

I just did the same knotted wheel destruction on a Beta top water pipe. I may try brazing a patch over it but thankfully I think I've sourced another replacement.

[lancianut666]

You big rough so and so's

[Kevinlincs]

You big rough so and so's

guilty as charged