Here recently, I installed a new GM Crate back in December 06.  The car runs fantastic, has close to 80 psi oil pressure at idle and 80 psi while cruising.  I cut the cats out prior to installing the motor, have Flowmaster mufflers and probably stock exhaust system. 

 

I took it easy on her, but ran her pretty good at about 700 miles.  I changed the oil at 50 miles, 300 miles and 600 miles.  I now have about 1800 miles on the motor.

 

My issue is the car intermittently smokes sometimes out the passenger side alone and sometimes both passenger and driver and sometimes not at all.  It is apparently oil as it smells like oil and burns white.

 

The new distributor cap was damaged out of the box and we had a hard time getting her started initially then realized the cap was defective.  We had cranked and cranked and when we finally got her running, it was not right, so we shut her down and that is when we realized the cap was defective. I got a new cap and all was well once that was installed.  The spal fans did not come on also as planned, we were caught up in the moment and she did overheat that day - not bad or for long.  I am hoping I did not damage the rings or valve stem seals, but I am not sure.

 

Any ideas what might be happening here?  I would appreciate any of your thoughts.

 

Thanks,

 

gurtz  

 

 

 

If you drain the oil after sitting for a couple of days and you see any signs of condenasation, antifreeze or foam in the oil, may be time to check the heads and head gaskets.

 

Good luck!

 

Paul

 

Pull the plugs on that side and see if you can spot extra deposits on one or more cylinder (oil), or if one is very clean (water)

 

 

I will start by pulling plugs then testing block with the tester as Ken mentioned. 

 

To answer Lost in the 60's question - it sometimes smokes at start up, idle while warming up, at a red light and probably while getting on it - too busy watching the road ahead and THE LAW.

 

For instance, I drove 4 hour round trip to Biloxi yesterday, 230 miles port to port.  At different times in the trip for example - at one red light it was smoking yet at another red light it was not smoking.  I pulled her into the garage and let her run for 30 seconds finishing up the trip and she did not smoke.  Prior to closing up everything last night, I pulled out of the garage and ran her for about 20 seconds and she did not smoke.

 

The overheating issue was my biggest concern with everything.  Obviously no overheating is best especially during initial start up, but we caught it immediately, shut it down, put a fan on the motor.  But I guess any amount of overheating is bad.  Hard to say.  My friends did not think it was a big of a deal and they are both professional mechanics, again - Hard To Say.

 

One more thing, I am not losing any coolant.  I check it all the time because I cut the antifreeze to about 20% and added water and (2) bottles of Water Wetter to get the temp where I wanted her.  (1) bottle did not do it for me.  I check this all the time especially during any trips over 2 hours.  I have consumed some oil also, about 1/2 quart in 1,200 miles. 

 

Thanks,

 

gurtz 

 

I have read in past engine rebuilding books and presently am reading "Rebuilding the small block Chevy" that cranking a new engine very much without it firing can damage internal components and cause camshaft failure.

 

My present reading says to stop cranking immediately if engine doesn't fire quickly. Extended cranking can wipe lubricant off the cam lobes and cause cam failure.

 

Curiousity was killing me, so I drove her over to my bud who is a great Chevy, ASE Certified mechanic.  He quickly ruled out the head gasket due to all the driving I have been doing.

 

He did say some high performance engine builders will not install the valve stem seals because they believe you get better performance; however, he doubted it.  He did say for me to check with the builder and see if they used chrome moly rings and if so, it can take several thousand miles to seat.

 

He also looked at the smoke and was not alarmed by it.  It is not a tremendous amount of smoke, but it was concerning me.  I did replace the valve cover gaskets once and have tightened them recently and it calmed down the smoke, but I did wipe the underside of the valve covers b/f I threw out the post/thread and it was nothing like it was prior to replacing the gaskets.  I don't want to crank down too hard on the gaskets, b/c I am sure it will kill them.  I will call builder on the rings and again check the gaskets.

 

The car runs light years better than it did before I did the swap and it runs strong and does not overheat, so I think I might be making a mountain out of a mole hill.  I would lovr for the excess exhaust and smoke to go away. 

 

Thanks again,

 

gurtz