don't be afraid to let her eat!
Very light smoke still there
- Thread starter Carmine
- Start date
I was shifting at about 4800 rpm's and actually did make it to 4th gear. The car was pulling real strong but I was quickly running out of straight away, so I had to shut it down. Have to admit, it was quite a thrill. Already looking forward to the next time. Have to find a longer strip and as suggested, keep the rpm's to 4500, Carmine..
Good, I was afraid you had a 3 speed
No, its a 4 speed T-10. Never had one before. Shifts nicely except when first starting out. You can feel a little sensation when shifting to 2nd gear. After warm up, no problem. And, that thing is heavy. Half cast half aluminum. I think what surprises me is the shifter. Its a stock Hurst shifter/linkage and the shifter looks flimsy. Like it would break off if shifted hard. I only banged the gears a few times and the shifter felt very solid. Strong. I'm thankful, Carmine.
Went to a cruise in last night about 45 miles from me. Checked the oil on the dip stick before I left. Speeds anywhere from 30-55 mph. Car ran fine. Pulled nicely. No misses. 180 temp. 45 lbs. of oil pressure. Returned home and checked the oil level. Down about 1/4 inch whatever that represents overall in the oil pan. Took the car out today and just returned home. Put it in the garage and left it running. Saw the same color, quantity of smoke now coming from passenger side exhaust also. Before, it was just the driver side. Either that or I didn't see the smoke from the passenger side. In a way, this is might be a good thing. My reasoning is at least its not confined to one side only. There is something that is affecting this entire engine, not just a portion of it. Now knowing this, would anyone have an additional idea as what is causing this. I know from previous thread discussions, we spoke about just the one side having this issue because that is all I knew about. Would the PCV system cause this problem?? I changed from the road draft tube to the PCV kit from ShowCars. A rubber grommet and tube fit in the hole in the back of the intake. Hose and PCV is attached. This line then goes into the rear of the carb. I also have a vented oil fill tube breather cap. Could the PCV valve be in the line backyards and cause this??? Many thanks, Carmine.
Are you cetain your carb isn't over rich?
Yes, I'm pretty sure it isn't the carb. This smoke is very light blue, faint looking. I would think a rich carb. might produce a dark smoke. And the oil consumption has me really wondering.
Yes, blue is oil, black is fuel if you can see the color that well. What was done to the heads when it was built? Hopefully, new guides and good seals.
I wish it was black, but definitely a faint light blue smoke. Heads supposedly received new guides and good seals.
L-60, I could always do that. I'd have nothing to lose at this point, Carmine.
More miles, change speeds, if you have been driving it easy it "likely" needs to be broken in a bit more. I'd start worrying after 1500 miles or more. Rev it to 2000-3000 RPM when changing gears, lay some rubber.
Your PCV/venting sounds fine, if it is valve seals, burning a bit of oil like this won't hurt anything so just wait until you get a bunch more miles on it. "Normal" oil consumption back in the day was 1000 miles to a quart of oil, unlike new cars today which can go 10,000 miles with no oil consumption.
Your motor is not yet broken in would be my uneducated guess Carmine, keep driving and enjoy the car for the summer, see if it stops smoking by September. You could start tearing things apart and find everything was put together fine and just waste money?
Don
Your PCV/venting sounds fine, if it is valve seals, burning a bit of oil like this won't hurt anything so just wait until you get a bunch more miles on it. "Normal" oil consumption back in the day was 1000 miles to a quart of oil, unlike new cars today which can go 10,000 miles with no oil consumption.
Your motor is not yet broken in would be my uneducated guess Carmine, keep driving and enjoy the car for the summer, see if it stops smoking by September. You could start tearing things apart and find everything was put together fine and just waste money?
Don
That's going to be my approach. I've waited a long time for this car and motor. I am going to continue driving and monitoring it. I have about 500 miles on it and I'm just trying to figure things out for the future should the problem continue. Unless I absolutely have to, I'm not taking nothing apart until late fall. I plan on driving this car right up to the first snowfall.
I do thank everyone for their responses, Carmine.
I do thank everyone for their responses, Carmine.
Have you pulled the spark plugs again for inspection? They looked pretty good last time.
I have not, but I can and will. Nothing has really changed performance wise. The engine idles nicely, sounds good and pulls great with no hesitation or missing. Very strong. That's why at least to me, it is so puzzling. I would think that using oil like it does, there would be signs of it someplace other then the tailpipes. And I would think that it would affect performance, but it doesn't appear to, Carmine.
That's a very small amount of smoke, you wouldn't be able to notice a performance difference by the seat of the pants. Just drive it, and drive it a lot. It very may go away if it's the rings. If it's from valves it won't get better, probably increase. Drive it like you stole it and let's revisit this in the fall. Good luck. Do make the engine builder aware of this issue now though.
Yes, I'm going to continue driving it. Just returned from about a 60 mile ride. Varied the speed and rpm's. I'm going to check a few simple things and I believe that will be it for a while. I'll post again if I find something earth shattering. The engine builder is aware, Carmine.
I hadn't driven it for a while because of bad weather. But this afternoon, it cleared up and I took the old girl out. There is an interstate not far from me. A few hills (actually mountains) and several straight aways. The speed limit is 65 mph and they drive past you when you're doing 75. So I jumped on the interstate and got up to 75 mph. Held it there for maybe two miles or so, then came upon a straight away about 1.5 miles long. It was a good distance with a great view and visibility of not only the road but surrounding area. I was by myself in the car and no one else near me on the road. Didn't see any police so I decided to "let it eat". The back 2 barrels kicked in nicely and I was off to the races. According to the speedometer, I was at about 110 mph and taching 4800 rpm's or so. Could have been a little more/less but I only took a quick look. Had to keep my eyes on the road. Didn't hold that speed very long. Maybe 2-3 seconds at the most. Then, came back down to 65 mph. Held that speed for a while then a few times I kicked it up to 85 mph. Have to admit, it was a thrill for me to drive that car up to 110 mph. I was amazed at how fast it got there. The engine pulled very well. Not a bit of miss or hesitation. The car itself tracked well. Straight. No shaking or vibrations. I don't see me doing that again. I know that too any things can go wrong such as blowing a tire at that speed. I'm grateful that I had a good ride and everything stayed intact. Got off the interstate and came home at about 45-50 mph. Before putting the car away, checked for smoke. Didn't see anything coming from the driver side tailpipe, where I originally did see it, but I did see some coming from the passenger side. A very light smoke. I let the car sit for a few hrs. then checked the oil. Its down a little bit from where it had been but nothing like before. I did have it out for several rides previously. Its not down because of today. I now have 750 miles on the engine. Looking forward to an oil change at 1000 miles, Carmine.
All it needs is a few dozen more 60-90 mph pulls,she's seating in.A couple or 6 second gear pulls from 2,000-5,000 at full throttle pulls will help too.
Look at the time, you posted your message.