Smoke...smoke everywhere.

[FordCustom]

Please tell me this is a "sat a long time" problem, and it will slow down at some point? Smoke from the tailpipe, smoke from the crankcase oil filler breather, etc etc. Not huge clouds, but you know it was there for sure. Does this subside after it runs for a while?

There was also a little bit of valve train noise. Should you be able to hear this at all?

I drained and filled the pan with 15/40, and added some MMO for good measure. Filter is the stock canister style, and has a new cartridge in it.. Both thermostats popped open and worked fine.

[Kube]

Originally Posted by FordCustom

Please tell me this is a "sat a long time" problem, and it will slow down at some point? Smoke from the tailpipe, smoke from the crankcase oil filler breather, etc etc. Not huge clouds, but you know it was there for sure. Does this subside after it runs for a while?

There was also a little bit of valve train noise. Should you be able to hear this at all?

I drained and filled the pan with 15/40, and added some MMO for good measure. Filter is the stock canister style, and has a new cartridge in it.. Both thermostats popped open and worked fine.

I can certainly appreciate your concern. Unfortunately the only accurate answer is: "time will tell".
I am hoping for your sake that perhaps there is a stuck ring or two and they will free themselves up.

[FordCustom]

Man, they sure sound awesome though, don't they? I seem to have gotten my carburetor troubles solved at least for the time being. Hearing this truck run and have such a smooth idle is pretty much a dream come true. I don't know if I am hooked enough to do an entire rebuild on it, but "time will tell".

[Fibber Mcgee]

When you are looking for problems you will usually find something to worry about. Kube know what he is talking about and I wouldn't worry to much about a little valve noise. Flatheads have noises come and go sometime , at least that's my experience.

[Henry Hopper]

If the car has sat a long time with Ethanol fuel in it, it will smoke like crazy.That fuel breaks down over time and turns acidic and easy all the rubber components in the fuel system.I imported a 32 roadster and when I fired it up it almost filled the street with whitish smoke and then burst a fuel line and sprayed fuel everywhere....it burns like mad if you get it on your skin as well.

I emptied what I could from the tank and filled it up with proper petrol....the smoke issue went away instantly.

[FordCustom]

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Oh this is a rebuilt carb, with a small tank sitting on top of the cowl. Fresh oil and gas. The truck did sit for a long while in storage, though. 25-30 years.

[r_reed]

a compression test will probably tell you a lot. it will give you an idea of overall shape of the motor and ID any down cylinders.

[Kerk]

The rings may be stuck. You coild try adding Mystery oil to the gas and or try spraying some in each cylinder and let sit for a day and re-try to see if it helps. just a suggestion. Runnung may solve the problem.

[FordCustom]

I've had so much MMO through the cylinders that it was dripping from the holes in the exhaust. Worth another shot I guess. And yep, I will try to get my friend to come over and help me out with a compression test. It runs great and seems to have plenty of power, so a compression test is in order.

[G.M.]

Drizzle the MMO in both sides of the carb while running to free the valves and put it in the gas. I never put it in the oil but it won't hurt anything but may cause smoke. G.M.

[FordCustom]

I've been wondering this morning. Would it be feasible to remove the bottom rotating assembly(crank and rods/pistons) to free up stuck rings? Is it worth bothering with going that far? I'm pretty meticulous about things like this, so I would make sure everything went back together correctly.

[FordCustom]

That's if the compression test comes up bad on a few cylinders?

[Kube]

Originally Posted by FordCustom

Oh this is a rebuilt carb, with a small tank sitting on top of the cowl. Fresh oil and gas. The truck did sit for a long while in storage, though. 25-30 years.

20 - 25 years?
Yep, I'm sticking with my first instinct.
Stuck ring(s) and or/ or stuck valves.
You may very well get lucky and with some hours of running and the addition of MMO in both the oil AND the fuel system, the stuck pieces may dislodge.
At this point I would not bother removing pistons. I'd give the MMO more of a chance to work.
Take both a wet and dry compression test. If it turns out to be stuck rings, remove the spark plugs of the offending cylinder(s) and dump the MMO directly down the hole. Let it soak for perhaps a week.During that time, manually rotate the crank shaft 90° now and then. Make sure you vacuum out the cylinder before installing the plug and attempting to start it after soaking.

[FordCustom]

The valves were never really an issue. They were all operating up and down as they should before gas was ever introduced into the engine. There was one stuck one, but it freed itself up quickly.

[AnthonyG]

MMO causes a lot of smoke when used, I believe it using and think it's good you did. It will soften and burn off any carbon buildup which is good but depending on how long you let the MMO soak ( another good thing to do ) it will smoke longer. Compression test all cylinders is an easy good move. If as you say it's running smooth and has power I would run it daily for a week or so at varying RPM without going crazy to see if it clears up. Some small amount of valve noise is common even on a fresh rebuild and if you have quiet mufflers you'll hear it even more. Good luck!

[Chris]

Originally Posted by AnthonyG

MMO causes a lot of smoke when used, I believe it using and think it's good you did. It will soften and burn off any carbon buildup which is good but depending on how long you let the MMO soak ( another good thing to do ) it will smoke longer. Compression test all cylinders is an easy good move. If as you say it's running smooth and has power I would run it daily for a week or so at varying RPM without going crazy to see if it clears up. Some small amount of valve noise is common even on a fresh rebuild and if you have quiet mufflers you'll hear it even more. Good luck!

Exactly, and like you said you had so much in it it was dripping out the exhaust...thats most of your smoke it the MMO buring in the exhaust system. My convertible did the same thing, smoked like it was on fire as the MMO burned. After 40-60 miles it went away for the most part

[FordCustom]

Ahhh, so it shares a characteristic with Seafoam then. Though not as much smoke . Seafoam is like you lit an entire quart of used motor oil on fire. That's the main reason I always do it at night, lol!

[TonyM]

My car sat for 23 years before I got it going in 2013. And like a lot of others I used the MMO to help things along. After the start up the car smoked pretty good for the first few minutes and then after a short time the smoke went away. Same day. Was not a problem

[lonewolf]

I had the same problem with a 51 victoria. In my case it got worse as time went on

[banjoQ]

I went through a similar situation a year ago when waking up an 8BA that had sat for 50 yrs. Initially, after getting it started it smoked like a diesel. Only five cylinders were functional at first. Brought in the MMO and used it all ways mentioned here previously and got two more cylinders to open up. Still smoked pretty bad at this point. Removed the plugs and did a visual check on the valves in that last holdout cylinder. One valve was still sticking and hanging up. Continued with the MMO for a while longer, triggering a few clean air alerts here in Calif. as I went. Even without MMO the engine produced plenty of smoke, running on just gas. Decided to do a ring and valve job and solved the problem. Turns out the rings were seized quite a bit and not working properly. Cylinder walls looked great, had not been over bored. Cleaned everything and put in new rings. One note here, your oil pan most likely has a thick layer of sludge in the bottom. Mine was nearly a 1/2" thick and real gummy. Good time to do some cleaning. Same for the valley under the intake. Did the valves and buttoned it up. No Smoke and runs like a champ, no valve noise. Thats my experience, yours may differ. The compression test is good advice, do that first and save time. Good luck.

[gearhead1952]

What weight oil did you use? I've found multi weight is too thin and can cause smoking out the tail pipe on a tired engine. I use straight 30W with good luck. Anything added to the oil will probably thin it out causing blowby and smoke out the exhaust.

[FordCustom]

I used 15/40, which seemed to be the general consensus across the internet. Can there be a big difference in how it runs with low compression on one or more cylinders? It seems to run and idle fine, though I admit I am curious as to what shape this engine is in. It doesn't miss a beat on the idle, just smokes. I do plan to change the oil again fairly soon, to drain out whatever can be drained. I may very well use straight 30.There seemed to be a little sludge, but mine was the consistency of bearing grease, with no gritty feeling. I shot a good bit of carb cleaner into the drain plug hole, and let it sit for a while to evaporate. At the very least I will pull the inspection plate on the next oil change. I have a roll of cork gasket material, and can make a new gasket.

Where I am at for the time being. I am about to have to put a rebuilt motor in my 98 Ford, so spending on this truck will have to take a break for a while.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by FordCustom

Please tell me this is a "sat a long time" problem, and it will slow down at some point? Smoke from the tailpipe, smoke from the crankcase oil filler breather, etc etc. Not huge clouds, but you know it was there for sure. Does this subside after it runs for a while?

There was also a little bit of valve train noise. Should you be able to hear this at all?

I drained and filled the pan with 15/40, and added some MMO for good measure. Filter is the stock canister style, and has a new cartridge in it.. Both thermostats popped open and worked fine.

The 15/40 should be fine. MMO won't hurt anything but tends to smoke a little even in good known engines.
Take the car out and run it hard. Accelerate through the gears hard several times and pull a steep hill in second gear. Don't lug the engine.
Keep it humming. If the smoke doesn't subside, you may have major problems.

Remember, all machinery and electronic equipment runs on smoke.
If the smoke escapes you generally have something worn out or broken.

[FordCustom]

Hehe... out? The brake pedal is locked up, it has four rotten tires, no wipers, no signals, and worst of all, no seat.


There no steep hills here either, I hate to say.

[Cecil/WV]

Originally Posted by FordCustom

Hehe... out? The brake pedal is locked up, it has four rotten tires, no wipers, no signals, and worst of all, no seat.


There no steep hills here either, I hate to say.

Sounds like you might as well just junk it!! LOL, or let me haul it to WV where we have some steep hills.

[FordCustom]

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I only paid $500 for the whole truck, which is the same price some people ask for a cab, or a set of rear fenders. No reason to junk it, not when I am already ahead of the game.

[FordCustom]

Originally Posted by Cecil/WV

Sounds like you might as well just junk it!! LOL, or let me haul it to WV where we have some steep hills.

But yeah you'd be fine in this truck....at least until you get to the top of the hill and start back down the other side,haha.

[flatford8]

I'd do the compression check for sure then wait till you can run it on the road before any major engine tear down if the comp.cks.good. Nice buy!!!

[FordCustom]

I cranked it up just now, and let it idle again. NO smoke from the tailpipe, but there is still some from the breather. Not as much as before though. Could that be from it being overfilled? It has no more than 5 quarts, though the MMO I added to the crankcase bumped it up to below the 8RT stamp on the dipstick.

Uploading a movie now. I will link to it when the upload is done.

[Mart]

Just running it in the chassis is probably not helping much (though, granted, you do say it was better last time). It may be better to just concentrate on the rest of the truck and then tackle the smoke issue when it is driving.

That said, what the hell, why not just buy a gasket set and pull the motor - pan off, heads off, pistons out. free up the rings, make sure the valves are all working nice and free.

Don't get drawn into a full rebuild, just clean well and reassemble. The crank and cam etc can stay in place.

Then when it is time to run and drive it, you can have some confidence that the motor is in an ok state.

Mart.

[Ross F-1]

Originally Posted by Mart

...

Don't get drawn into a full rebuild, just clean well and reassemble. The crank and cam etc can stay in place.
...

Mart.

Exactly what I did when I first got my truck, $60 for a set of gaskets gives a lot of confidence (provided you don't find a real problem). A great opportunity to flush out the crap in the water jackets, too.

[FordCustom]

Here's the movie. You can see the smoke from the breather.

http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n...84558.mp4.html

[FordCustom]

I wanted to see how well it ran before I pulled it out, and the bed/cab off. The plan right now is for a flatbed, but high enough to still use the rear fenders.

[Fibber Mcgee]

That must be the wrong video. It took me to a shoebox and no smoke coming out the breather , for that matter I couldn't see the breather.

[FordCustom]

Fixed it. Sorry.

[41ford1]

Mart has your best solution. Open it up and clean it out. Sounds good in the video. Most likely a case of stuck rings. The MMO may fix the problem but you really need to be able to drive it to find out.

[FordCustom]

Well then, it sounds like a ring cleaning is in order. I need to pull the engine/cab/bed, and get going on the whole truck.

[FordCustom]

Wouldn't it also smoke out of the tailpipe if it was getting blow by from stuck rings? There was not a sigle bit of smoke out of of the exhaust. Only the breather.

[gearhead1952]

Originally Posted by FordCustom

Wouldn't it also smoke out of the tailpipe if it was getting blow by from stuck rings? There was not a sigle bit of smoke out of of the exhaust. Only the breather.

Yes I would agree with you but you can have blowby and still have a decent engine especially with no smoke out the exhaust. Seems odd that smoke is coming out of the breather as that should be an air inlet not outlet. I see you have the road draft tube in place. Anything coming out of it? Maybe it is plugged with sludge. Breather tube inlet is in the lifter valley and road draft inlet is crankcase via a baffle. I think before you go crazy tearing the engine apart to clean rings just pull intake and pan clean it all out then run again. If it is just some blowby but no blue smoke out the exhaust I say run it and work on other stuff.

[FordCustom]

Nah, it's clear all the way through( road draft) I wonder if there's any other places where it could be plugged to make it blow out of the intake breather? I asked the following before but didn't really get an answer. Is there any chance that over filling the oil even by a little could cause this? I will have to watch and see if anything is coming out of the road draft tube. Maybe there's something plugged internally in the intake or block that would cause it to blow out the breather?

Just questioning the cause really. The fact that it runs and this well, is enough to make me happy. Anything else I can deal with as it comes.

[40cpe]

Overfilling the crankcase by a little won't cause the smoking. You are loosing compression by the rings or valves. It gets into the crankcase and has to go out somewhere. Driving at a little speed, the road draft tube creates a vacuum to exhaust the gasses out the bottom.

The compression rings can be worn or stuck and the oil rings still do their job reasonably well.

[Cecil/WV]

Smoke out the oil fill is usually caused by ring blow by.