Ford Focus not a happy chappy!! Help

Hi all.. hopefully you can help.

I have a Focus 1.8i 16v Zetec. Over the past while I have noticed that it runs more like a 1.3...no oomph left in the poor thing. The engine has always ran really hot but its getting stupidly hot now - to the point it has started to melt the rubber piping on my throttle lead thingy (not very clued up about cars as you will notice!!! :rolleyes:)

My water levels seem fine as do my oil levels but last night I popped the bonnet and discovered white/gray smoke coming out from underneath my manifold thing on both sides. There is oil on the top of my engine around the seal which I cleared away somewhat with some degreasant, but the smoke is coming from behind the manifold (I think thats what its called - big metal thing at the front of the engine) - low down.

So with loss of oomph and a hot engine and decent water levels and oil levels and smoke coming from behind the manifold what do you reckon. I was thinking the head gasket was split and causing oil to leak but would this cause loss of power and a very hot engine.

When I say hot I mean you could do an barbeque for 40 ozzies on it after a 10 minute drive!!! :iceslolan

Any thoughts...and remember I am a wench with limited knowledge so feel free to explain things in a way that I can understand :)

Thanks

Update - just been to a parts suppliers and they reckon its the exhaust manifold gasket that needs replaced. The Rocker Gasket seal looks likes its leaking but the smoke isn't coming from there so I think he might be on to something. Is it difficult to replace an exhaust manifold gasket?

A leaky exhaust manifold gasket would not explain an oil leak. The valve cover gasket, or rocker cover gasket, would leak oil, but you don't really think the leak is that high up.

If the engine has been getting as hot as you describe, there's a good chance it's over heated which may have warped the head allowing the head gasket to leak. The lack of power could be due to a bad head gasket, or if the intake air tubing (piping on throttle lead thingy?) has a hole in it, that's a vacuum leak of unmetered air and could also explain the lack of power.

As for the temperature of the engine, if it's getting that hot you have another problem which allowed it to get that hot in the first place. I'd suspect that your radiator cooling fan is not working and allowing the coolant to get really hot. You need to resolve that issue before fixing the other items or they will just continue to recur.

-Rod

Overheateing could also be a faulty thermostat or a temperature sensing switch for the fan. Does the smoke smell sweet or acrid? Sweet smell is coolant, acrid is oil.

If the head gasket has failed, you should check for coolant in the oil by looking under the oil fill cap and seeing if there is a chocolate-milk like goo. You may also see it on the oil level dipstick.

But hopefully the leak is just from a loose valve cover or bad cover gasket and the oil is just smoking as it runs down from there onto the hot engine block. Oil visible that high on the engine usually isn't from a blown head gasket.