Hello Again Everyone
My rover 400 petrol 1998 made what I can only describe as a "whooomph" noise and covered both lanes of the A38 in blue smoke for many miles yesterday.There were no warning lights about oil pressure or anything else.
It continued on and off-usually when pulling up hill or changing gear.I started it up this morning and the smoke wasnt too bad but got a lot of engine noise.Anybody got any ideas before i face the journey home?

Hello Again Everyone
My rover 400 petrol 1998 made what I can only describe as a "whooomph" noise and covered both lanes of the A38 in blue smoke for many miles yesterday.There were no warning lights about oil pressure or anything else.
It continued on and off-usually when pulling up hill or changing gear.I started it up this morning and the smoke wasnt too bad but got a lot of engine noise.Anybody got any ideas before i face the journey home?
i had this once on a ford escort when i took the plugs out they were fouled with oil it was seeping past the pistons rings and burning with the petrol, quite an expencive job so i scrapped it, have a look at the plugs first if they are black and oily then i think the rings are gone post back on here to let us know hth

Was it definitley blue smoke? How was oil consumption before? It wasn't head blowing with water leaking into the combustion chamber? Have a look at the colour of the oil. Is it milky?

Another possibility is that it could be the valve stem seals rather than pistons.

Had a look at the oil -its ok but very little left. Plugs were very wet and oily-but one of them was covered in gritty stuff!
Looks pretty bad to me-oil leaking from engine and some splashed in the engine compartment.

Took it to a professional for a look and you were right my friend.It is the valve stem seals-its going to mean a HG,water pump and timing belt change as well while theyre about it-but should , fingers crossed, give me a few more years out of it.
Thanks for your help.

I seem to recall a method (going back a few years) of renewing valve stem seals without removing the cylinder head. Basically it involved forcing a quantity of string into the cylinder after removing the spark plug to pack it preventing the valve assembly dropping. Not sure about how this could work on 16 valve heads though as i recall this being done on a standard 8 valve with spark plug on side of combustion chamber

Came across this tool that claims to do a similar thing for renewing seals without taking head off which may warrant further opinions from others who have stripped down K series on these forums.

http://www.tooled-up.com/artwork/ProdPDF/DRA59085ins.pdf

If there is a way of doing it without removing head it is a bonus.

used to use a tool on 8 vavle ford which allowed you to remove stem seals and replace with new without removing the head, but they had hydrolic lifters and the tool bolted onto there the rockers sat with a cut out going over the valve to allow u to remove the securing cups on the stem,and place engine with piston at top of stroke (on the bore your working on),to stop valve from dropping in and not bending the stem. (hopefully lol)