New engine or start tinkering?

[PaulRainbow]

I've got an early 1970s Volvo MD7A which starts first time and runs pretty well apart from alot of white exhaust smoke. She hasn’t missed a beat in the 30 hours put on her this season. Other than that, I have no idea of her history apart from the fact she was rebuilt sometime in the 10-12 years. I do all the servicing myself.

No offense gentlemen, but why on Earth are some of you talking about full rebuilds or engine replacements ?

White smoke in unburnt fuel. If you spent a zillion pounds on a rebuild it will still white smoke, unless you sort the injectors. If you just do the injectors it's 99.9% certain that it'll stop smoking.

If your expensive car was suffering with a bit of white smoke would you scrap it ? If the answer to that is "yes" please PM me with details and i'll be straight round to collect it.

 

[DownWest]

Late to the party.. but white smoke (if the only prob) would make me look at timing. Black/grey smoke is more about oïl/ worn injectors, that do not atomize well.
Had this white smoke problem with a recently installed Perkins. Found the pump was out by several degrees (not sure what pump is on the MD7A) and adjusted it. Bit later, when the owner turned up, he asked me what I had done, as previously they would be choking in the cockpit. I gave him a cleaned up version of RTFM.

 

[robertj]

Exactly the same dilemma? Apart from his starts first time, yours doesn't; his smokes, you don't mention that; your ancillaries and mounts need refurbishing, he doesn't mention that; yours wasn't powerful enough, he doesn't mention that.

I think he did say his old engine was under powered some what.