Please help ><

Hey guys,

Im hoping this is not a major problem, but my missus drove to work today when she got there the engine was creating a massive cloud of blue smoke!

Looking at it, the water tank is empty and the oil was low (maybe watery hard to tell) No milkyness under the oil cap (know this used to own a rover!!) and no warning lights on the dash.

The actual radiator is empty aswell....so filled up the oil filled up the water tank and lastly poured water into the radiator directly. Then the leak happened. If you check the picture the water would come out the area indicated but also very hot, I also belive slightly oily.

Any ideas what the problem could be??

**cant get the picture to display but the area looks like a black tank at the base of the engine jsut below the oil filter. The leak is in the corner at the seal.

1998 1.3 Jimny.

Cheers guys.
Damo.

I'm not too familiar with this kind of issue, but unfortunately blue smoke generally means that the engine is burning oil. I'm not sure if there is any other way for the engine to burn oil except for the piston rings being ruined.

If there is oil in the radiator or vice versa, the heads could also have cracked.

The black tank at the bottom of the engine is the oil sump, basically it encases the crank shaft and holds the oil. If that is leaking, it should be a simple fix of changing the gasket, but wont eleviate your other issues.

I can't really help out further but unfortunately it seems rather serious, I wouldn't drive it if possible and get it checked out by a mechanic if you dont know what to do

Oh Dear

This doesnt sound good.
Sounds like it may be a gasket .. possibly head, possibly lower down.
If you have lost oil and water then it sounds like you have a potentially large bill on your hands if you cannot do it yoruself.

From experience, you donot always see milky oil inside the oil filler if you have blown a gasket.. the only test really is to get a hydrocarbon test of the water done .. or strip the engine to locate the affected area
If you suffer a gasket failure, it is possible that the water in teh cooling system can pressureise the oil system, this blowing gaskets elsewhere .. it sounds like a sump gasket is the affected one at the bottom, but the real cause might be elsewhere

(I say this because last year, my TVR deficed to blow both head gaskets whilst travelling up the M5 .. instant smoke, engine temp went off the scale, sevear lack of power)

Advice .. get a garage to give you an assessment on it before you spend any money fixing it.

Thanks for the speed replies. Just had the AA out to tow it home,he rekons its just the water pump along with the sump gasket.
This doesnt explain the blue smoke tho does it? ><

well, it could ... if the water channel has leaked into the oil channel, then you could have a pressure buildup. This would force oil both around the piston rings and also "could" blow the sump gasket.