when i start my car in the morning or after work
it smokes for a couple of minutes after its started then clears
and doesnt smoke after that,its blue smoke but it smells
like its running rich but this i think will be because of the
auto choke and it ticks over at about 1800rpm then drops
down to about 400rpm when its cold,it ticks over at about
800 rpm once it has warmed up

 

Blue on start up could be knackered valve stem oil seals mate. Cheap as chips to sort. If it is then get the one piece top hat type not the crappy two piece ones. Cost about £13 and take you about an hour to change

 

What he ^ said

 

thats what i was hoping it would be,its good if it is cause ive already
got them lying around,i bought them just after i bought the car
cause i got it and was told that the valve stem oil seals might hav
gone but it turned out to be a knackered turbo,i got the car off ebay
for £1020 and my neighbour had a saab turbo in his garage which
he let me hav for free,ive got the tool for doing the seals without taking
the head off so thats all good

 

Poke a rag around the base of the valve spring you are working on. I always drop a collet and am glad to have the rag there to stop it disappearing into the guts of the engine

 

ok will do that cheers ,thats the kind of thing that would happen
to me and dont want the hassle of that happening,would i get
away with bringing each poston up then letting the valves sit
on the top of the pistons while i change the seals

 

Yep. Need to do that or the valve drops into the combustion chamber once the collets are removed. Done it myself once

 

doh bet that pleased you when that happened,i will probably do
it myself now when i do it

 

I gently brought the piston back up and fortunately the vlave popped back up again

Take the plugs out as it makes it easier to turn the engine by hand as it doesn't compress the air in the chambers

 

that was lucky that that happened then,yeh was going to take the plugs
out dont want to be putting to much effort into it,i work on cars every
day at work but got this week off so i will be wanting it to be as easy
as possible