Long time reader, first time poster.
2001 Disco 2 4.0l 179k miles purchased with blown head gasket (blown from 3&5 and 4&6, both sides)
Head gasket job finished with resurfaced heads, reground valves, new valve seals, arp head studs, new valley pan gasket, plenum gasket, air intake gaskets, oil pan gasket and cleaned pickup with new pickup oring, new water pump gaskets, MAF sensor cleaned, IAC valve cleaned, new spark plugs, wires, and coils, PCV valve mod and inline tstat installed, new oil pump, new cooling hoses throughout, new camshaft, lifters, pushrods, (reused rocker assembly) timing chain and gears...basically took it down to a short block and replaced all gaskets and seals I could.
Smoke is pouring out of the exhaust and all in the engine bay and the engine sounds exceptionally loud. It has new downpipe to manifold gaskets as well as the manifold to head gaskets. The manifold to head gaskets are torqued and the new downpipe gaskets have copper gasket sealer on them as well as torqued. A few studs snapped to where I had to drill them out and are replaced with through bolts
Should I just take it to an exhaust shop? Maybe the cats got destroyed from the previous owner driving it around with 2 spark plugs backwards and a blow head gasket? Is the smoke coming out of the exhaust just the cleaning products I used when it was apart? I've only idled it for a few minutes not wanting to smoke up the neighborhood and fear driving it because the new cam needs to break in, correct?
Would love in person help if anyone is around Bellingham or could make it up for a day. Happy to pay for gas and nice food!! Feeling pretty over my head and discouraged currently haha
having issues connecting a video so here is a link :

 

If it was me and it has only run a minute or two, I would ensure that the engine oil and coolant were good, and then run it longer to see if the smoke clears up.

 

Should I be concerned about the cam with the engine idling (I.E. not doing that 2k rpm for 20 minutes thing for break in)

oil pressure is at 50 on glowshift oil pressure gauge

 

Did you happen to do a compression check? That's the first question my mechanic asks me for problems like this. It takes my 4.0 L about a minute before the lifters quiet down. Took longer after the rebuild.

On both my Rover V8s, the crank bearings were down to copper. One had 181k and one had 145k miles. Those can be replaced by dropping the oil pan. Rod bearings were also worn out down to copper. I replaced the rocker assemblies on my 94 (only needed to remove the valve covers). My 96 ticked like a diesel until I fixed the vacuum leak between plenum and intake manifold. With great oil pressure, I wouldn't worry about cam break-in, just drive it.

If you are in Bellingham, WA, we are in the same state, but still not close by.

 

Thanks for the info. Good to hear you have some experience with these things. I'll check compression tomorrow. Good to hear the lifters might just need a second to quiet down. It sounds just like a diesel.

I'll be draining the oil here soon, probably at 100 miles once I get it driving, since I cleaned out a lot of junk. Nothing was covered, but I was thorough with cleaning. Happy to do crank bearings then. At this point I can't start pinching pennies when I'm at the tail end haha

It does all these sounds immediately after start up. So that shouldn't have anything to do with a slipped sleeve, right? being an '01 4.0L it shouldn't really have that issue (or at least less likely).

Sounds like straight to the muffler shop if this smoke clears and compression checks out! This has me hopeful

 

something sounds off with that engine

 

Did my first ever compression test on my first ever engine rebuild and it came back better than expected!
Not really any oil on the spark plugs which is good piece of mind.
Had all the plugs out, did 10 revolutions on a charged battery. Compression was typically 180/190 with a few 200s and cylinder #2 was at 160 but again, no oil on the spark plugs. I'm sure 160 isnt great compared to some 200s but I am just happy all this effort isnt in vain and that the head gasket took.

I bought a small shop vac to pressurize the exhaust and am going to use soapy water to see if there is a crack in the manifolds, or if it is just those damn gaskets.

Feeling more confident now that I have a plan!

 

I mean, engine work often involves a lot of degreasers, lubes and cleaning agents that end up all over the exhaust and other places around the engine bay. All of this smokes off and takes several minutes (or maybe even a short drive) before it's all burned away. Is it still smoking after a few drives?

 

So I've learned! Working out the exhaust leak from the manifold gaskets tomorrow then I'll be cruising. Just an abundance of caution since this is my first rodeo with these types of things. The biggest job I've done prior to this is pads and rotors. (I was a high end bicycle mechanic for 7 years though so familiar with wrenching). I appreciate the reassurance! I'll chuck up a vid when she's purring.

 

I spilled some coolant into the top of the valves and it made a lot of coolant smell and white smoke that eventually burned off.