EscortMatt

Hi there, the oil filler cap blew off my series 2 yesterday, was driving it quite hard, looked in the mirror and saw quite a lot of blue smoke, backed off and it was popping quite loudly and wouldn't idle. Found out the oil cap had come off, put it back on and it seems fine now, but why would it do that...??

Cheers.

jayjay

head gaskit hole in piston or some think like that normaly as for it not idel thats because the filler cap was off they dont run when its off or dip stick out

SafeChav

excessive pressure in the breather system, dont know why it would smoke though

T28 RST

Could it not have blew a bit of oil out and maybe landed on the turbo/exhaust

SafeChav

maybe!

EscortMatt

No oil came out, which i thought would have, just looked on auto specialists website at their oil filler caps with a screw on the side says "stops oil filler cap blwing off"...???

SafeChav

the oil cap should never really blow off, as it is they sit very close to the bonnet, so that must of taken some force to blow it completely off!

You may well find your engine is on its way to going bang

Excessive pressure in the breather system usually means worn piston rings & bores

turbo

i second safechav my fiesta rs turbo used to blow its oil cap off, & the guy who had the car after me only had it a few weeks before the engine went tits up .

Moonie

As above, excessive crank case pressure is usually a sign that the rings/bores are worn.

I would also have a look at the breather system as any blockages in that can cause a build up of crank case pressure.

Tombra

Are you running std breather system?

StephenC

Did it on mine on a fresh engine, seal on oil cap gets worn. See how tight yours is now mate, it should offer at least some resistance. If your driving hard with big boost with a standard breather or partially blocked one your gonna get slight pressure which will blow it off. Smoking will be linked to the oil cap blowing off. When mine came off it made strange noises, wouldnt rev and slowly died, think there was alot of white smoke out back if I remember rightly.

EscortMatt

Yea im running standard breather system and the engine was only rebuilt 9,000 miles ago...

EscortMatt

The seal on the cap feels quite tight and with the engine running the caps is being sucked on, because of vacuum i think? so don't understand why it's coming off, unless it's a blocked breather pipe as said. Looked at it again today and was starting to lift off again...

SafeChav

9000 miles though.........that engine would have had to take some serious abuse to die in that sort of mileage.

First things first, a compression test, that will give you a much better idea of what sort of state the engine is in

timturbo

oh matty doesnt sound gd!

SafeChav
He propa looks after it it hasnt been abused for 9000 miles

StephenC

mine was 1500 miles when it did it whilst getting set up, first time the car had seen 22psi and it blew off, new cap and all sorted. Compression test was done and was 'A' ok

SafeChav

Should be all good then.

A compression test is never going to hurt though

twinkle_2k86

before buying mine, that was the problem with the engine, oil cap wouldn`t stay on.

First thing to check is breather pipes, make sure they are all clear and not blocked.

then compression test it. on mine 2 bores where down to about 40, after stripping, 2 pistons had cracked and that had been re-built about 3500 miles. just shows how people treat cars

djmillsy

mines only done 100 miles and its not going

cossieboyIOW

mine comes off when ya proper booting it, my bro faffed around with the breather system added a couple filters and it sorted it i dont think the breather is very good so it could be that? it did kick out a lot of blue smoke after about 30 seconds of starting it though... changed the breather system back to how it should be and it stopped the smoke...

iansoutham

As some of the other people here have said, check the breather system 1st. Every Escort I've ever had has suffered with breather problems when brought.

There is a breather pipe that runs from the top of the rocker cover down to the back of the block which normally goes hard and fills up with gunk.

Finis number was 6140438 for the pipe @ about £8 or so from Ford.

... and I normally check the adapter it goes into @ the block as well to make sure it is clear.

If this pipe blocks up or collapses, then all the crankcase pressure will have to vent somewhere, normally via the rings, which gives the signs of cracked pistons, etc...

Or, of course, it could be that bad