Hi, has anyone got any ideas as to the cause of a puff of dark smoke appearing between the engine and bulkhead on the offside, when the accelerator is blipped.

You have checked the manifold for any leaks i take it

Hi, thanks for reply.
I dont think its coming from there as there is no noise, which i would associate with a problem with the exhaust.
I am wondering if it might be something to do with the fuel injection.

you can get slight leaks without noticable noise, I would check the manifold and any joints, as well as around the intake for any leaks or backfiring of gasses, in these instances nothing beats careful observation of the apparent location whilst its happening.
Grendel

Hi, we have tried to look at it from above and below but it just appears then goes again, we cant get close enough to see. The puff of smoke obscures the view, then by the time it clears enough you cant tell where its come from.

I know this is a bit late, but I haven't been on for a while! I had a similar problem a while back, except I noticed that I was trailing smoke whenever I was hard on the throttle, problem was that I was towing a caravan on a single lane stretch of the A30 over Bodmin Moor. If I had stopped where I was to check if I was on fire, I would have blocked the whole road!!! Anyway, on a wing and a prayer I made it up the hill and pulled into the layby, popped the bonnet and looked in to see oil dripping from a split in the rocker cover gasket, straight into the center of a nice little pool of burning oil on the exhaust manifold!!! This is directly under the injection system on the 1.8!!!
In the absence of a proper fire extinguisher on the car, I grabbed the first thing that came to hand, a can of WD40, Erm? not a good idea! but a bottle of Coke did the job nicely!
So puffs of smoke around there, could be an oil leak!