Hi all.

Writing this just in case it might help anyone who may have inadvertently turned their vehicle into a monster white cloud machine.


A neighbour recently asked if I could oversee him changing his cambelt as he had never done it before.
Even though he is not a mechanic, he said he would do all the manual work if I would check it was correct, so of I agreed.

Obviously, I suggested he change the water pump and tensioner etc. at the same time, so the coolant was drained from the fat(ish) lower radiator hose. All good.

The old belt was slipped off and the new one installed after confirming the timing marks were correctly lined, then we turned the engine over by hand just over three times til I was happy and left him to put it back together.

To cut a long story short, wen he started the engine, there was the most extreme amount of white smoke coming from the exhaust, as well as liquid dripping from a small hole in the main exhaust pipe. It was exactly how it is when the head gasket goes or you crack the cylinder head, only (to my knowledge) we hadn't done anything which could have caused that kind of damage.

The engine was running fine, no knocking, clacking, rattling, no bubbles in the expansion tank, just a ton of thick white smoke everywhere!!

???


I was completely baffuffled...
What was going on? This is just NOT supposed to happen.

A proper, 'Does-Not-Compute' moment!

Phoned a mechanic friend (or three) and no ideas...

Until, the neighbour explained that he hadn't filled the coolant into the expansion tank, HE HAD FILLED IT INTO THE INTERCOOLER TURBO HOSE!!!




As we had drained the coolant from a fat hose at the bottom of the radiator, he had assumed that the fat hose at the TOP of the rad was part of the same system... DOH!


So listen kids... If someone calls you out for a an impossible amount of white smoke when the head gasket is clearly ok, then maybe, just maybe, it might be worth asking where they fill up their coolant.




As I say, hope this may help someone from being SERIOUSLY confused (as I was).