Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing 1976 Plus 8 Started To Smoke??

Anybody have any thoughts on a +8 that has suddenly started to smoke on start-up. It hadn't been started for some time (months) and was misfiring quite badly which I traced to corrosion on the distributor cap pins – once they were cleaned off it fired okay. However it has started to issue quite a lot of blue smoke. It has side exhausts and smoke comes from both banks, possibly more so from the driver side. Pushing it up to a higher rev seems to clear it a bit want to goes back to fast idle or above it smokes. The driver's side exhaust also looks a bit wet inside and what comes out the smell of petrol.
I did wonder with such little use if the valve stem seals have gone hard? I did disconnect the breather pipes from the rocker covers and that seemed to cut down the smoke somewhat but not totally. I've heard you can take them for a hard run and that my clear it but that seems potentially dangerous if there is something significant wrong.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Sounds like worn rings or valve guides.
Does it clear once warm or get worse?

What sort of mileage does the engine have on it and when was the last oil change.

John's guide above sounds right.

Thank you for responding

I'm not sure it can be rings because the engine was rebuilt by previous owner only a few thousand miles ago and with rings I would have thought it wouldn't happen suddenly?
I did think valve guides as they may have gone hard due to the engine not being used.

To be honest I haven't let it get warm as I shut it down because of my concern over the smoke. I think I might remove the plugs and see what they look like, see if any of them are particularly oily. I might then run it up to normal operating temperature to see what happens.

Thanks again for responding

Thank you for responding, please see my response to John regarding the engine having been rebuilt. Since I've owned it (almost 3 years) I haven't done very much mileage at all but haven't had smoking problems up until very recently.

The oil was changed a few hundred miles ago and I checked today, it's not over full. I was also wondering if something is happening with the carburettors and their pumping into too rich a mix

Rings can stick with lack of use.
Valve stem seals going hard is also a possibility - easy enough to remove a rocker cover to check.

On another note, wondered why you ticked the "add to events" box when posting this query - it now appears in the calendar

My Plus8's have had automatic chokes I wonder if yours has and it maybe is sticking on and over fuelling as you suggest. Checking the plugs is the best plan I would think.

Good luck.

Check inside the rocker covers as Graham suggested, the Rover V8 is very prone to gumming up with black tarry deposits in the engine.

Sounds like it needs a long hard run. Unless its making nasty noises, unlikely you will do any (further) harm. Then check to see how much its improved

Back in the day this was the typical garage tune-up for little old ladies cars.

Yes this would be my approach if there was no nasty noises, you could soon find out if it was over fuelling too.