just had the head reconed and now its blowing blue/grey smoke, anyone have any ideas whats wrong.

Blue smoke is a sign of oil combusting, chances are you have not replaced or damaged a valve seal during he reco.

Extreemly poor head seal?

the engine had plenty of power, im taking it back to mechanic on monday for compression test, could it be the rings are gone, it was a change over head, the cat converter is also making noises, could it be that?

how bad was the old head,is the exhaust full of oil and your burning it? give it a good run and check.

what do you mean is the exaust full of oil, how would i check it, i took it on the highway last night and ran it at 110km/h seemed to have plenty of power.

i also wana add in that when i ran on petrol before it wasn't blowing smoke, it started after the head was done.

who changed the head?it may have been over oiled on assy,how far did you drive,20ks or more to heat the exhaust

mechanic changed the head, it was a swap for a fully reconed one, been driving round town today and is not as bad as it was yesterday, ok so after monitoring it didnt blow smoke while driving, only in idle or when you accelerate. last night yea id say i drove 15km or so.

give it over the weekend,its starting to burn it clean

yea i went back to him today for a bit while it was in idle there was no smoke, so ok, ill do what you suggest, so if the rings were gone it would blow smoke all the time wouldnt it?
Still smokes a little at start up and in idle or reving. thanks for advice ill will keep ya posted. ohh also wondering why when i accelerate i hear a spluttering sound, could that be the cat converter as there is some rattling coming from around it and it misses on petrol but on on LPG i hear no spluttering. And where is the heater tap im gona replace it.
I bought this car for $1700 privatetly and seems as though its been neglected and needs a bit of work to get it up and running in good working order again. when i bought the car the owner said that they had the motor changed and to me it seems as though it was a backyard job and they didn't know what they were doing, mechanic told me there was a heap of bolts missing from all over. :-/
Ive been quoted another $1400 to have all this stuff replaced.
Some of this stuff im gona do it myself to save some money on labour.
The over all body and interior of the car is in perfect condition and i am happy with it and runs pretty good but as i said needs some stuff attented too.

have a good look and make a list of bits you need,wreckers or the guys in your area.if the rings are shot it wont stop smoking and get worse above idle.

Heater tap is worth looking at... You'll find it slightly towards back of engine (about cylinder four or five) underneath the intake manifold on the passenger side of the car. You can follow the hose from where it leaves the head at extreme front of head, ducks under the manifold and heads towards the firewall of car. All these hoses get old and split eventually and these heater taps were a pain in the bottom. You can buy bronze ones to replace the plastic if you look hard enough. But, at the end of the day, it is only a T-junction with a tap which is connected to hoses using hose clamps. Not hard to replace, but a little tricky to find and get to. WELL WORTH DOING THOUGH. I've seen so many of these cars leak from there and result in over heating damage to engine. My first two engines went this route. One of them within twenty K's of me buying the car!

If ever doing a head swap yourself, try using AU multilayer steel gaskets... Raises compression a little as they are thinner than standard E series, but they seal real nice and you can tell your mates you have more compression than them.

(Still, got the car for a grand because of it... Drove it for 100,000 and then put together a midly worked Tickford engine to replace it... Another 100,000 and all is fine....)

alright, thanks for the advice on the heater tap, ill try to locate it on the weekend, mechanic wants $47 for the tap, ive just got so much neglect here, ive only had the car 3 months and already spent over $2000. I wana cut some costs a bit

just had a look, cant seem to find the heater tap, would it be easier to see from underneath?