getting little puffs of smoke started at the brothers truck show. where should i start valve guides or rings??? thanks Robert
Smoke Hi Robert, never noticed any smoke when the motor was in my truck. Hope its nothing major. Roger
Diagnosis What you need to do depends on when the smoke emits ~ under acceleration , means it's pistons or rings . When you first start the engine or let off the throttle (up shifting , de accelerating) means it's valve guides . Of course you already checked to ensure the oil isn't diluted with fuel from a failing pump or from running too long with the choke pulled out...... Often simply too much in town driving @ low RPM's will coke up the engine until it begins to smoke & a good freeway run when fully warmed up , will blow it all out . If you need it , I know a very good , honest & affordable Mechanic in Temple City who LOVES Advance Design trucks & misses his old '53 greatly , he has a leak Down Tester Tool and can diagnose your engine spot on .
puff puff at take off or shifting puffs of blue smoke started at brothers truck show idling about 20 mins or so in line to get in show. Nate please do pass on the info. can he do valve guides?? thanks Robert
top end a few people tell me to just drive it. If I just do the top end will it hurt the bottom end of the engine?? Thanks Robert
Top End Work O.K. Robert ; PM sent . Yes , most of the time if you simply overhaul the cylinder head , you'll wind up with more smoke as the rings will be blown out . For this reason , I typically do an in frame overhaul like God & GM designed to be done..... . Expect to drop some serious $ into the cylinder head , replace all the valve guides with bronze ones and have the seats replaced with Stellite ones too , now is the time . Then scrap all 6 pistons & replace the bearings , it'll be good to go for longer than you live . The oil pump rarely needs replacing and the new ones are all over the map quality wise so replacing it is a total crapshoot . More $ can be spent , that's my minimum job in a nutshell .
Puffs I have had a couple vehicles with high mileage and a puffing problem. I too kicked the hippie out My International 304 that used oil taught me a few things. So did a KZ1000 with 65,000 miles on it. Before those I did replace the guide seals on a Pinto. It's the manifold vacuum that draws the oil down the intake guides. If the guides are new, guess what? The car will smoke if the seals leak. So rebuilding the heads will not help the leak except for the small fact that they replace the seals while replacing the guides. On a very tight budget and a friends advice I replaced only the intake seals. The car stopped smoking. As you can imagine, the exhaust ports are under pressure and oil does not seem to slide down the stems anymore than needed to lubricate the guides. What the KZ and the Int'l taught me came in 2 parts. When I rebuilt the upper end of the KZ, which was using oil at an annoying but not unsafe rate, I found the oil return holes in the pistons clogged shut, full stop. Here again is the thought that no matter how new the oil wiper rings are, if the holes are clogged, the oil will back up on the cylinder walls and the wiper rings will merely hydroplane and burn the oil in the combustion chamber. After conferring with my dad, who was a teenage farm boy and fixed all the farm equipment, it all made sense. All the new parts in the world aren't going to make a difference if the oil cant go where it is supposed to go... or not go. The '63 International had a 304 with 167K when I bought it. it used a bit of oil, nothing I was concerned about. I started with 30w, then 40w, then 50w. Each used more and more oil. One day I was at the local gas station and the old fart there used to be a rep for Rislon oil products. He told me he used to run around town with 4 qt's of Rislon and one qt of 20w oil in his pickup/camper rig. When he hit the highway he put in 1 qt of Rislon and 4 qt's of oil (like it says on the bottle lol). He told me that it is the best crap dissolving thing you could put in your engine. It's not like the snake oils that strip the varnish and turn your engine into a bigger oil burner. This also confirmed what my retired GM trade school teacher told us. You should use a qt or two of ATF for 500 miles before you change your oil and filter. It seems that ATF is pure detergent and cleans like the dickens. He also ran 20w for 100,000 miles before switching to 30w. He liked to get the oil to the cam asap. So I put in a couple qts of Rislon for an oil change and then ATF for an oil change. After a couple changes of really black gunk, the oil usage seemed to stop! I also went to straight 20w to test the usage. This test was a trip from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. I changed the oil in L.A. and drove back to SLC. No oil consumption! I mean to the line! I stayed with 20w for the rest of my ownership. My conclusion was that the oil return holes under the wiper rings were open and the wiper rings seemed to have stopped hydroplaning. I never did overhaul that motor. I ran the speedometer another 150,000 and sold it. A little short of compression and power, but no smoke at over 300,000 miles! It's been a few years but, I clearly remember replacing the intake guides on that engine as well, remembering the pinto a few years earlier. I can't remember which I did first, I was always working on that crew cab Corn Binder, It was my pride and joy. Try the cheap way first before you open your empty wallet Try 20w or even the 10w15 or 5w15 you can find for small cars. Add a qt of ATF (ATF is about 7½w) Drive below 55 and keep an eye on your dipstick. The minute it goes from opaque caramel to solid chocolate, change it. Don't wait for it to go Black (like me ). Document the miles you go each time you change it and you will probably watch your engine drive its self clean. Replace the intake guide seals and watch your rear view mirror. You might just find the smoke has cleared up.
What He Said As I too use solvents to clean out old gunked up engines . Synthetic oils do this to rid the engine of sludge , literally allowing you to drive your engine clean. KROIL from Kano Labs in Tenn. makes a liquid specifically for this solving of clogged piston ring lands~ you fill the cylinders and let it soak . amazing stuff . I also am a HUGE believer in thin oils as they get up out of the pan & lubricating really quickly and most engine wear occurs @ initial startup .
Robert ; Do try the Rislone trick first , it's cheap and easy : remove the spark plugs & fill the cylinders , let it soak for a week before spinning the engine to clear the cylinders then re install the spark lugs and start it up ~ expect a large cloud of smoke that will dissapate as you drive it to 7-11 for coffee .
Valve Guide Seals An after thort... You don't have to take the heads off to change valve guide seals. You can get an over the top valve spring compressor and an air compressor thingy that goes in the spark plug hole to hold the valve shut while you have the spring off. Oh, I found a youtube that shows all. Changing Seals This fella shows moving the push rods around and the old school way is to keep all parts where they came out of. I've changed them around (okay I dropped them and didn't care on that motor) and it didn't seem to make a difference in the long run. It's your choice. Also I just changed the intake seals on my 2 motors because I was major broke. You could just change the intake to test the oil smoke, then change the others when you have the money to rebuild the heads. ya'll have fun now, hear?
