Blowin' Smoke! Please Help

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dartkory

dartkory

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My motor is only about a year old but has been blowing a bluish black smoke when its cold. After she warms up I dont see any smoke at all except for a little bit of black smoke when I floor it, because she burns pretty rich. It seems like it started doing it more often than before once I put my new 1406 on the motor. My guess was either valve guide seals, or maybe something with the choke on the new carb. any ideas?
I thought valve guide seals will make your car blow a little blue smoke every time you shut off your car and let it sit a while than turn it back on, but like i said it only does it when she is completely cold and as soon as i drive a couple miles it stops. Thanks for any input! Kory
 
So many situations. Like Kim said; start there. Choked up, washes rings, blue. Black-rich. What color are the plugs? Timing?

It all works as a unit, and this ain't modern fuel injection/computer stuff.
 
Blowin' smoke? Then this is what you do, It's called puff, puff, pass! Now you know what to do:D
 
Did you tune the carb on your engine, or just bolt it on? What is the combo?
 
If it's very light blue, then it's oil. If it's more grey or black it's fuel. It could just be the choke being adjusted too tightly.
 
when its cold if I push on the gas a little to much it bogs really bad, and stops once its warm. other than just setting the idle screws and timing i just bolted it on to the engine. my engine is the 318 build from an engine master magazine build. its the 318 with 360 heads with keith black pistons, except i used the 275 DEH comp cam and eagle rods. the plugs are a dark gray, however, when I checked them I noticed my number 8 cylinder look a little more "wet" compared to the rest. being worried i might have a bad ring seal in that cylinder i checked the compression but all cylinders read the same, right at 145. Thanks. Kory
 
Sounds like it's running rich. Does it have an operational choke? Those carbs are fairly simple to tune. Meterin rods jets and such. Not much to them. Before I did anything regarding tune, I would make sure it is adjusted properly, including choke function. That 600 CFM should be pretty close for you.
 
[It could just be the choke being adjusted too tightly[.[/QUOTE] i would check this first
 
It does sound like an overtight choke.
Running way too rich can cause it to miss and vacuum oil into the cylinders making blue smoke and the over rich will cause black smoke.
Back off the choke spring and I'll bet the problem goes away.
 
If you ran it rich from the rebuilt for a year you probably destroyed your rings. I see alot of cars where guys build a combo and just fire it and drive it thinking they will get it right when they get a littke more money. To much fuel is the worst thing for a motor. Does your oil get dirty quick and does it smell like fuel? check the compression and compare it to what it was when installed. Or do a leak down. You can also pull the oil fill cap off while it running and see how much blow by it has.

When the rings are bad it will smoke more cold and seal up when hot from expansion. The black mixed with blue could be there isn't alot of compression cold, And it can't fire all the fuel which is only making it get progressively worse.
 
I was playing with this 2.2 . It had pull over which made it run rich on the low end. The rings were shot in 850 miles. It didn't smoke yet but when we changed pistons to go to a turbo. We check the ring wear and they were past the wear limit.
 

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He said he did a comp test and that they were all right at 145.
 
I think that's about right compression wise - But on the carb...
What wire is feeding the choke coil? Have you checked to see that it's opening fully, and in a timely manner? With today's fuels, "grey" to me is running rich. I want the plugs basically clean, with a tinge of brown color on the base and near the weld on the ground strap. What I would suggest is checking to make sure the choke is NOT powered by anything ignition related (factory choke coil wire is usually blue and right next to the carb pad if it had one). Pick up the strip kit for that carb... Then I'd check the timing, then using a vacuum gage, check the level of vacuum in gear, at hot idle. Then pull one of the step up springs and see what color it is. I'm thinking the spring is wrong (probably too stiff), and it's probably one or two steps rich on the rods. The smaller Edelbrocks seem to come rich out of the box, the larger ones lean. In other words, make sure the choke works, then tune it.
 
I had a problem with the same type syntoms. It was because I installed a pair of valve covers that did not have a shield to block oil from the PCV valve.
 
Eddy; buy the $50 kit to calibrate. I don't have the book in front of me. but take a 1407; secondaries lean, primaries an eye watering mess. Just wire back the choke. Start with metering rods, smell exhaust, keep playing with the kit, may have to change the jets.

Once breathable, take it out and burn it, then check plugs. Getting the light brown? Now start tweaking the idle screws, using a vacuum gauge, Set the accell rod to closest to the carb. Did I forget to say time it first?, and throw away the book?

Advance initial, using your ear, and a vacuum gauge; you will find the sweet spot. It;s gonna be higher than the book. then pull out cent advance, to stay at what ever doesn;t ping.

I like carters, afbs. those dam holleys were a pain.
 
I put an eddie on my teen ootb and was very rich especially at wot. I didnt have the choke issues you are having though.I guessed on my jet's fairly well,bought em 3 steps leaner and all was good!
 
Thank you all for all the help. Im gonna purchase the tune up kit and try adjusting the choke, and hope I can make it a little leaner and cross my fingers that its not bad rings. This is the 4th motor I have built, and all of them have burned rich yet none of them had ever blown blue smoke. I feel my timing is right were it should be. It idles great, runs great, and is set right at the point before it starts pinging. I just went out to check my valve covers, and they do have the shields on them. Thanks again. Kory
 
So i wanted to do a follow up on this thread. since last time i wrote on this thread I have installed eddy rpm heads and was hoping that all the smoke issues would be solved. I was able to fix the smoke issue when it was cold and with the new heads it doesnt blow any black smoke at all in the top end of a run. However it does put out a very slight amount of blue smoke which I know is oil. I have checked my timing which is set just right, about 16 initial and 36 total. and I have checked my compression all of the cylinders are right about 150 except for my #8 cylinder is around 143-145 psi. now I know I probably dont have to tell you guys that the most discouraging thing is when you finish an expensive rebuild you have been working on for a long time and find out you have a bad cylinder. so I was wondering do you guys think that is where the smoke is coming from? even though its such a small difference? and do you guys know any tricks to help it seal up with out tearing it apart? I know many of you will say pull the motor and tear it down but there is just no way because of the funds. I was thinking of trying that "mechanic in a can" stuff, I forgot what its actually called but its blue and comes in a silver can with a pull top kind of lid. any of you guys ever try it with positive results? sorry for the long post I just feel very discouraged and upset right now. thanks for any feed back. -Kory
 
i have used engine restore in a few high mileage engines and the stuff works. it really helped in sealing the rings. you have good compression, but it sounds like oil is still getting past the rings . with the new heads i would think you have eliminated the possibility of it being the valve guides. there really isnt any other way oil can get into the combustion chamber. is the smoke coming out one pipe or both? or do you have an X or H pipe?
pull your plugs and inspect them. if you are burning oil in one cylinder, it will show up on a spark plug.
 
this might sound a little crazy but I was messing with the timing and when I advanced it quite a bit (not sure how much cause it went far past the timing marker) but before it would ping, in fact it wouldn't ping at all, but it had about the same power and didnt blow as much blue smoke, but it didn't idle as well as it does when the timing is set correct, and it didn't cruise on the freeway as nice either. any ideas on why it wouldn't blow blue smoke as much? and thanks for the reply 73abodee, im gonna go buy some right now. would it be better to add with a fresh oil change or can i just dump it in as long as i dont overfill it?
 
ive dumped it right in and ive also added it to fresh oil. there is not enough in the can to worry about overfilling it. but like has been said, read your plugs, those little guys will tell you what is going on inside the combustion chambers and with your timing/carburetion
 
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