So I have recently noticed that smoke is coming from the valve cover breather tube and the dipstick tube and I am not sure why. It ran great for 3 years and then all of the sudden this is happening. What could it be? I removed the engine a few months ago and had to take the disturber off so the timing could be off. I thought I had it set right but did not have it done professionally, so I think it is off quite a bit. Could it be off so much that it is causing most to come up? Other then that I am thinking that the piston rings are gone and I need to rebuild the engine. Any ideas? It is good on oil and all the fluids. It does leak a little oil from the bottom of the engine but I think that is my rear main seal.

It is a 1984 F150, 302 engine, holly carburator. It also has an electric in line holly fuel pump with regulator. 4x4 with a C6 transmission.

I am really disappointed cause it is currently on craigslist and I was trying to sell it. But I don't think I can do that anymore.

 

check that the PCV valve is free and that the line is connected and not clogged.

 

Already did. PCV valve is new and the pipe is clean and not clogged.

 

That's really a shame.
Could be rings/bore or you could have holed a piston if the timing was off.

 

Could the smoke be coming from the timing being off so bad?

 

No
Timing will not cause your crankcase to smoke.

Timing will cause pistons or rings to fail.

That will cause smoke and oil vapor.

 

Damn. That sucks to hear. If I get the timing correct, will it be drivable?

 

Wait wait wait.. Does the PCV valve and hose lead to the air filter and cleaner on all models? My PCV valve has always gone to a port into the back of my carburetor. It never made since but that's how it came and worked for 3 years.

 

Yes the PCV goes to the carburetor base.

Correctly setting the timing will not restore damaged pistons.

Maybe you should do a leakdown test?
At least pull the plugs and see which one(s) are different.

 

The PCV valve and line goes to a port that has vacuum on it, the valve should suck on your finger when the engine is running and you pull it out of the valve cover.

The PCV valve sucks the junk out, the other line from the air cleaner lets clean fresh air back into the engine.

A little bit of smoke coming back up the line into the aircleaner is no cause for alarm, your engine is worn, but still has some life left in it. Along with the smoke may be a little knocking in the morning on a cold start, and a little bit of oil use.

If the smoke is really pouring out in large volumes, or is actually puffing, you might have a broken ring letting compression into the engine crankcase. You can run it as long as the plugs don't foul and it starts missing.

 

Yes I understand how it works. The smoke is coming from the valve breather. Where you pull the oil into the engine. It is smoking excessively and not normal. My question is where should my PCV hose be leading? Currently it goes into the carb but that makes no since to me.

 

What do you not understand? I don't know what more to say than what I already posted.

 

Sorry I did not see the response of yours. I will look into it tomorrow and make sure all my hoses are good. How do I test to see if the rings are bad? Do I test the compression or just see which spark plugs look damaged?

Obviously the setting the timing will not fix the rings, however, I read that with a little smoke and bad rings that the engine can still work and run for a bit longer. Is this true? How long will it be expected to last?

 

Run a compression test, a leak down test, check the sparkplugs. Longevity is a shot in the dark. It'll give warnings before it goes. Probably would last 5,000-20,000 miles. Who really knows. Does it sound like it runs normal still?

 

Yeah I mean the engine ran fine for the years and drove fine the pas 6 months. I was driving it around town and parked it and it wouldn't start again from there. But it revved and drove great before that.