So I left the car running for nearly 40mins today and it just kept on blowing white smoke out of the exhaust which got worse if I rev'd the engine. But when it cooled down it had not used any water, and from what I could tell it had not used any oil. There are what look like copper particles in the expansion tank so I suspect that the previous owner had used something to mask what they thought was head gasket fault.
I have the compression tester so I will see what that reveals but I may not be able to do that until the weekend.
So basics since rebuild, Ignore the exhaust steam for a min...?
compressions look fine...?
is it loosing/using water water...?
have you bled it properly and does the top of the rad get properly hot and is the bleed pipe from the top of the rad to the expansion tank free and flowing coolent when running? that plastic pipe should get hot too, thermostats are prone to play up once overheated..?
if it is bled properly, when running does the system pressurise more than cap pressure (15psi) are there any bubbles in the expansion tank, put a clear pipe in the rad bleed pipe to see if your getting bubbles etc...
does it overheat or run hot stood still, I know you havent driven it..and does the viscous fan appear to work ok...
you really need to make sure that the cooling system is really sorted before you can really tell anything, and it really needs to be driven on the road to get the exhaust cleared out....they steam alot when running perfectly ok, and it being run withought being driven will make the exhaust worse...
My rad bleed was blocked when I got my car and that caused problems, my top hose was leaking too but you couldent see the leak it dried before it dripped...
Hope this helps...?