Runs fine cold...but

[Rootboy]

When i shut her down for a while and then go to start it up again, the engine spits and sputters for a few minues and then it runs fine again after a few minutes. Any ideas on where to start?

[jp2609]

Hi there,

I had the exact same problem with mine. Unfortunately turned out to be a sign that the head gasket was on its way out. What happens is that watter gets into the head when the engine stops and when you start it up again after leaving it for a while it takes a minute or so for the water to burn away again before it starts running smooth again. One way of confirming this is that it will loose a small amount of water over a short period of time - hardly noticable at first but will get worse as time goes on. Keep an eye on your temp gauge too - this will run higher than normal when the problem starts to get worse. Once i had a new head gasket fitted to mine its ran perfectly fine. Sorry if this sounds like i'm putting a downer on things but sounds just like what mine did and had same advice given to me.

Hope its of help to you anyway.

Cheers/ - John (UK)