Hi Folks,

It's my first post here, so hi to everyone, but I have to kick off with a problem.....

I've got a 53 plate 2.2 (Z22YH) petrol Vectra C, which has been sat static for 3 months. The last time it was driven, it was behaving perfectly, apart from a slight, but persistent oil loss problem.
Last week when i tried to start it up, for some reason it refused to have any of it. Plenty of battery life and cranking going on, but no engine start.
When i went back out to it the following day, it fired up quite quickly, but ran rough as hell for a minute or so, and was making a clicking noise from the right hand side of the engine. At that point i switched it off and left it.

I took another look at it this weekend - it fired up immediately, and the clicking noise has gone (although there's still something that doesn't sound quite right). I left it for 15 minutes or so, but when i came back to it there was white, wet smoke coming out of the exhaust. Checking the oil filler cap, there was a thin layer of mayo starting to build up. So that presumably would imply the head gasket or head has failed.

But what i can't understand is what would cause the failure. I started it up again when the engine had cooled right down, once again it fired up with no problems, and the exhaust was reasonably smoke free (no more than I would expect from a cold engine). As the engine started warming up the smoke started again. It was switched off when the gauge was reading around 80°C.

Now, here's the thing; I don't know this engine at all. But i did notice that on the cold / warm (not hot) engine that there was no coolant being returned to the coolant tank. Is this normal for a cold Z22YH or is it a sign my water pump has given up? If so, what is the likely damage to the head? Just a gasket failure, or do i need to start swearing again and phone the bank for an overdraft?

Or maybe, just maybe, could this all be caused by condensation or a water build up somewhere in the exahust that is just blowing through? I'm nervous about running the engine to find out in case it causes any (further) damage.

It's worth saying that the coolant tank has "-15°C" written on it by hand. My coolant temp checker was showing the coolant should be good til -32°C though. Probably not relevant, but since this post has trurned into a waffling scrawl, i thought I might add it in!

Thanks to anyone who can help. I've posted this problem on the VXON forums, but haven't really had any responses.

NMW

Quick edit: didn't mean to post this in cam chains! Nevermind!