Lump tickover & smoking out of the exhaust... help?
 

Recently picked up my s12, she had been sitting around for a good year without any driving, anyway drove her back to my place (say bout 8 miles) & she was fine got me home fine, was ticking over really smoothly once i got home so got her up my drive & jacked her up in prep for me working on her. She had been sat up my drive for a week without being driven so thout i should start her up & let her run for a while, but once i did she was running terriable idle was so lumpy & was really dirty coming out of the exhaust.... what do people think my be up with her & what can i try to get to the bottom of the prob?

Help please, thanks James

What colour is the smoke?

Darkish grey but no black.

sounds like it's only firing on 3, check out the sparkplugs and leads first, then do a compression test

Thanks will go check that out soon (if it stops raining) but not able to do a compression test.

Sorting out the lumpy idle & smoking, was running on only 3 cyclinders but she is now starting up rough then idling high & will slowy drop to 0 revs & cut out, if I rev her up while she is running it is really rough & engine shakes loads, any ideas?

thanks James

Head gasket?

My well be the head gasket but the car has only done 66,000 miles & has sat around for the last year when I drove it home it was fine started her up a few times to have her ticking over But other than that it hasn't been driven (I have been working on her a fair bit removing & cleaning things but nothing major), any other tell tell signs I should look out for if the head gasket has gone?

what have you removed and cleaned out?


sounds a bit like a vaccum leak