Morris Minor Owners Club

It turns out you can see where Ive started my car thanks to a sprinkling of what I think is oil from the exhaust...

Is there a simple explanation? and is it serious?

Tris

Oh and on the bright side her wood is now solid

I think that's fairly common - I have a little black trail in my garage. Only seems to happen when the choke is out, so it's probably sooty petrol.

But could also be that the engine is burning oil, in my experience. Possibly the rings? *Just noticed thst you said that in the title... *

Thats what we thought.. how easy to sort?

keep an eye on the oil level over a few weeks, if it drops it may be an issue, if not its just soot and condensation from a start.

Most old cars I've had as well as some newer diesels have left some sort of mark on the garage floor over time.

cylinder head gasket oozing a bit too dunno how long thatl last... probably a bgger issue

It's more than likely carbon from an over-rich mixture (choke). I have these areas dotted all over the place. You can tell if it's oil as you will have blue smoke at the same time (on start-up).

If it is oil it could be a sign of worn valve stem seals. All the time the engine runs the oil is burned but when switched off the oil runs down the valves and collects. It's then spat out when the engine is first turned over.
It's not an expensive job to do fortunately.

those stem seals being those tiny rubber thingies?

No wonder the go bad easily

those stem seals being those tiny rubber thingies

That's the widgets

My dad thinks the piston rings are worn, apparently she sounds different from when we bought her.. to be honest I hadn't noticed.

y dad thinks the piston rings are worn,

if it smokes a bit only at start up it is most likely valve guides / valve seals
if it smokes when warm / at speed then it could well be rings.

My traveller used to leave a nasty soot 'smoke ring' on the garage floor or on the house wall if I was on the drive. At night you could see the exhaust smoke in car headlights behind - the engine was on borrowed time and struggled to get back from the national last year

Engine pulled apart..

Piston rings intact

Replaced headgasket, and the tappet gaskgets

Engine running.. no oil leaks to be found however I need to replace the accelerator cable job for tomorrow i guess

Have you compression tested the engine? That should tell you whether the rings are at fault or not.

Mine leaves little "calling cards" on the garage door/wall etc. I put this down to a combination of water spitting from the exhaust when the engine is cold and carbon in the exhaust.

Thats what I am telling myself anyway

Bob's stopped doing it now... random

edjones wrote:Mine leaves little "calling cards" on the garage door/wall etc. I put this down to a combination of water spitting from the exhaust when the engine is cold and carbon in the exhaust.

Thats what I am telling myself anyway

Same as me! Seems worse on cold mornings as well, so it would make sense.

Yeah spose that goes along with cams choke theory

Yeah, it seems (on my car) that it happens more when the car is cold, not when it has been left to stand for a long time.