Hi All
First post hopefully not last. Have a first off the production line Oct 94 HSE in Epsom Green and we have shared 30,000 happy miles together. To 131000 miles on clock. Now, I have lots of steam on start up after a minute or so running and significant loss of coolant. Both head gaskets done by an expert a couple of weeks back but still the same. Am I talking scrap heap time due to slipped line or porous block of is there still some hope please? Runs sweetly no apparent misfire plenty of power with firm top hose but not blowing off or overheating even on a 50 mile run or extended tick over in traffic. Any advice other than top hat liners in the block would be very much appreciated. From the experts gathered here about me...should also say no appreciable bubbles in expansion tank cream on dipstick oil in coolant or excessive blow back pressure in expansion tank. Runs on LPG mist of the time when I can get hold of this increasingly rare commodity in my neck of the woods....

If you hadn't mentioned the loss of coolant I would have told you it was normal when running on LPG. As a far simpler hydrocarbon, a much larger proportion of the exhaust gas is water vapour when running on LPG so, particularly at this time of year, there does appear to be a lot of steam in the exhaust. Have a sniff of it, can you smell antifreeze in the exhaust? Of course, it might be that the coolant loss is somewhere else and it is nothing more serious that a leak from heater matrix, O rings, etc. To cause a liner to slip you'd need to have done something to it, usually a serious overheat, it won't just do it because it can and it is far less common that people that will try to sell you a replacement block with have you believe. When the head gaskets were changed, was one of the pistons steam cleaned or were they all covered in carbon? You would also have serious pressurisation causing the coolant to be spat out. It would also run rough, often dropping to 7 cylinders.

What Gilbertd ^ says!
My lpg 4.6 also quite happily steams away from the exhaust which worried me when I first got it a couple of years ago. No coolant loss though.
As well as checking your carpet in the footwell for damp, you could do a sniff test to see if there are hydocarbons in the coolant.
I take it you're on single point lpg? There have been cases where corrosion inside the vapouriser has led to coolant leaks where you can't see them.

I recognise this, this is a rangie I did the heads on, redid them as it was slightly pressurising.
This time I went old school way, used wellseal on all gaskets, torqued head down rather than 20nwt, 90/90. I torqued 50-60-70-80, a little more than usual, but mines done the same with no problem.
OB, it's running a multi point system, but you saying about vaporiser is an interesting point..
Steve have you run it down the motorway yet to get exhaust nice and hot ? It certainly died down when I left it running for 40 minutes.
I smelt the exhaust when running with no obvious carbon smells, or oil burning smell.
Are you losing any water ?
If you can, have a look at the vaporiser and get the make, so I can get a diagram to see what gaskets are needed to rule that out..

Thanks to everyone gotta say a really helpful response compared to my last go on a forum which shall not be mentioned! Doesn't seem to be missing on any cylinders so as you say you'd think it would be if it had slipped a liner or had a serious crack in the block. Should have mentioned a recent stainless steel exhaust which is supposed to increase the LPG condensation side of things. Hi Chris yes it's me thanks again for all your hard work to keep this truck on the road. Will try and work out which bit is the vaporiser iand get a manufacturer but just flew through an LPG service and there was no mention of anything being wrong except and this may be a clue I guess, a severely bungled up lpg filter even though only done about 3000 miles since the last one.. Have done about 100 miles since gaskets up to 50 mph but no motorway run as yet.

If it was sucking water into the engine then as Richard says the piston would look steam-cleaned. The plugs would also look steam-cleaned on the affected cylinders, and those would be most likely the rear two (and apparently, for some reason it's usually number 8 cylinder - it certainly was on mine).

You'd also have the temperature gauge shooting up after a short drive - if it's staying bob on in the middle it's likely okay.

If the liner is slipping (mine was, the previous owner had thoroughly roasted it) then when the engine is hot at idle you'd get a ticking noise at twice the rate that a tappet would tick at, that goes away a little off idle. Don't confuse it with the terrifyingly slipped-liner-like noise that the evap purge valve makes :-D

Nosieparkie wrote:

Thanks to everyone gotta say a really helpful response compared to my last go on a forum which shall not be mentioned! Doesn't seem to be missing on any cylinders so as you say you'd think it would be if it had slipped a liner or had a serious crack in the block. Should have mentioned a recent stainless steel exhaust which is supposed to increase the LPG condensation side of things. Hi Chris yes it's me thanks again for all your hard work to keep this truck on the road. Will try and work out which bit is the vaporiser iand get a manufacturer but just flew through an LPG service and there was no mention of anything being wrong except and this may be a clue I guess, a severely bungled up lpg filter even though only done about 3000 miles since the last one.. Have done about 100 miles since gaskets up to 50 mph but no motorway run as yet.

Again thanks for all the helpful posts some being on the positive side. I have further retightened up a couple of hose clips on connecting pipes disconnected when the new head gaskets were fitted. Fingers crossed now as the coolant level doesn't seem to be sinking as swiftly as before. Did 50 miles at motorway speeds though M25 wasn't brilliant for long at 70 mph as usual to try and burn off any excess coolant build up which may have run into the system but still steam in large amounts on start up continuing for about 5 minutes which may be 'normal' condensation for the GEMS 4.6 running on gas. Was shocked to find I had to top up with 1.5 litres of engine oil as well so need to check more regularly now she has 130000 miles to her credit. Just as wellI I added Slick 50 a while back 😊 Finally, got a We Buy any Car Quote for a laugh....not sure I would know how to spend all the £50 they offered for my shiny old truck! I haven't told the old girl for fear of offending her feelings causing an early breakdown just to get her own back😄

Take the money :)
Oil consumption's a bit of a worry depending on how many miles to use 1.5 litres. My '95 has 130k on it and only goes from max to 1/2 way to min between oil changes (3000 miles or 6 months).

Mine wasn't even going through that much oil when I pulled it out and sent it to V8 Dev to be rebuilt. It had 287,500 miles on it then......

Mine goes from max to min in about 700 miles last time I took notice. I know a bit is leaking out of the rocker cover, and some appears to be escaping from somewhere underneath, but not enough to drop on the ground when parked. So I presume despite the lack of any blue smoke or smell from the back, it must be burning the majority of it. Plugs look fine though too. It's just vanishing :)

That and the annoying clattering at idle when hot are my main reasons for considering a shiny new engine next year.