# F8 engine in Vanette advice please



## altair (Sep 9, 2015)

Hi all, have a 1996 Nissan Vanette, F8 engine, 1800cc 5 speed manual 4WD.
Recently started smoking in morning startup. Got worse, so have valve stem seals replaced with head gasket/waterpump/cambelt etc.
Now is MUCH worse, but does not start smoking until it has ran for 20 seconds, and there is huge clouds of smoke until engine warms up.
Done 105,000 miles, does not use oil, runs well apart from rough idle.
Does this sound like rings?
Unsure of service history but probably not good judging by van when I bought it.
Anyone have experience with the F8 motor (sohc 1.8 litre)?
Love this van, so useful and capable being a 4WD, never get stuck anymore!
Thank You all.


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## sprocketser (Jul 9, 2013)

What s the color of the smoke mate , white or blue .


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## rogoman (Dec 16, 2004)

First thing you might try is to run a compression test on all cylinders to determine the general condition of the engine. I don't have the specs for the F8 engine but the compression specs should be somewhere around 180 - 190 psi, minimum around 140 - 150 psi. A good way to test for oil burning is to first fully warm up the motor. Stand behind the car. Have someone rev the motor to 4,000 RPM and hold at that RPM for about 15 seconds. If you see a lot of blue smoke come out of the tailpipe, the motor is burning excessive oil; time for new rings. If it's black smoke, then it may be leaking fuel injectors.

If the smoke is while, then coolant is most likely getting into one or more cylinders, coming out as water vapor. Are you losing coolant?


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## altair (Sep 9, 2015)

Cheers guys, blue oil smoke for sure, and not loosing coolant. Starting to smoke more each day, so think something has happened to rings. Okay once hot, but in the warm up period I'm living in a blue cloud..
Mechanic said he tried 'unsticking the rings" while driving..think he unstuck the rings from the pistons.....
This is an old SOHC carb engine, as used in early Mazda 626, Ford Econovan etc.
I'll have to bite the bullet and get rings, here in NZ its impossible to find a secondhand motor you know is good.
Don't have a compression tester, be interesting though to see what readings were. 
Thanks all for your time.


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## mr.nino20 (9 mo ago)

hie there, vanette f8 engine
i once had one with the same problem, smoking soon after staring and using too much oil. i changed both stem seals and rings and all is perfect now.


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