So its slips my mind that today is the first. Must be the heat

Y'all keep it cool as possible & stay safe.

 

I tried my best to stay in out of the heat today, but couldn't resist finishing up my truck today. Finally got the valve cover gaskets replaced and cleaned all the trash from the old valve seals out of both heads. I also started installing the oil/temp/amp gauges under the dash.

Gonna drop the battery in this weekend, and start her up for the first time in a while. Hopefully i've cured my smoke issue (mostly) and i can save up enough to get the valve seals and other work done soon.

 

Tim, If you can find one of these:

Universal Overhead Valve Spring Compressor

To buy or rent & return, and a clean length of rope, you're half way there. A set of seals is less than $5.

Let me know when you're ready & I'll tell you the steps.

 

David,

I think I got a buddy who has one of the valve spring compressors. I didn't realize the valve seals were that cheap, i was expecting a full set to run around $20 or so. I'll have to get these when I get paid and possibly borrow or buy the valve spring compressor.

My issue here is that w/ the big block, getting at anything on the engine is a bear. Getting the spark plugs out of the drivers side of the engine will not be too bad, but the passenger side is going to be dreadful. Not only is the truck factory a/c, it still has the AIR injection tubes on the manifolds that are pretty much welded in place by all the rust.

If there is a shortcut, or method of removing the air tubes so i can get a little more room to work I'm all for it. Nobody likes a smoking truck, and i most certainly don't.

 

Wow. Don't know. But to do it, the plugs have got to come out. Also, the price of seals may have gone up, but I didn't think they were that much.... Checked Rock Auto just now, average of .16 cents a piece or $9 & change for a set.

 

I got an old carburetor fed 302 for my 68 project.... Got it to crank and idle during the past two days. I have to replace the spacer between the intake and carb to see if I can completely resolve my air leak, however it's better than it was originally. I also put a PCV valve on the back of the valve cover and ran the hose to the breather, as for the front (oil cap) I have no ideas. I put a 'breather filter' the little cone shaped one that autozone used to sell (had one laying around my house for the past 10 years or so), but I still have oil coming out of it and falling onto the engine block. Any ideas how to keep the oil on the INSIDE of the motor?

 

Sounds like not enough vacuum or the PVC valve isn't right for the engine. A small jar with the hose from the pvc going through the lid in to the bottom of the jar stuffed with steel wool and another hose at the top only going to the vacuum source makes a dandy oil separator. Make it up with some plumbing fittings sealed with epoxy to stay air tight & mount it where it won't break. Empty regularly.

 

THAT is an AWESOME idea! so you are supposed to 'lose' some oil through the valve/ oil cap? it just isn't supposed to go all over the motor.

 

First thing is check your compression. If the rings are too far gone it won't help. But I'd also check to make sure you've got the right PVC & the vac line is going the right place.

 

I have a compression tester, but would it be running with a compression problem? (toldya I'm a newb). I may have some hoses crossed up somewhere, the back one ran to the bottom side of the original carburetor. The front one (where the oil cap is) went to the breather.... I rerouted the back one to the breather and put the filter thingy on the oil cap. (neither is ran to the bottom of the carb now), although I did see where some of the 4v spacers have a place to attach. I'd like to swap over to a 4v and 4 barrel eventually anyway, maybe that swap needs to come sooner than later.

 

A engine will run with lousy compression. Where it loses compression is going to be one or all of three things: worn or sticking rings, bad valve sealing due to worn seats or carbon on the valve faces or chips on the valve face & worn valve guides. The rings are usually the cause of excessive crankcase pressure that will blow oil out of the breather cap. If there is a lot of crud on the top of the heads (baked oil, crumbled oil seals) then drain back to the pan is hampered & puddling of oil happens. Making it easier for the oil to escape the breather when the pressure increases.

I can't remember the lay out exactly of PVC/breather plumbing for late 60s V8s. I know sometimes the pvc was routed to a spacer under the carb (strong vacuum) & sometimes it was routed to the side of the air cleaner (weak vacuum, particularly if the lid is not sealed or flipped or replaced with an open element)

First thing I'd do is pour a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil in the crankcase & run it for a couple thousand miles & change it. That might free up any rings that are sticking in their grooves & dissolve some crud on the top of the heads & aid drainback.

But definitely see if you can find an illustration in a manual of how the plumbing was routed stock & put it back that way first.

 

Afternoon David and Tim

-The Great

 

makes perfect sense, the inside of the intake looks terrible! lol it looks better on my locked up 351w! I'll definitely try the mystery oil and see if that helps. thanks for the suggestion! as for the plumbing, I can't really go back original because the carb is not the 'right' carb for it.... I took the carb off my 351w and put it on the 302 just to get it running, but eventually I wanna go 4 brl and the plumbing will be made right on it.

 

Just as an update I finally got around to starting the truck up after my recent cleaning of the heads and replacing of the valve cover gaskets. There is no smoke on startup, and for the few minutes I had it running it did not smoke as it sat idling in the driveway.

Of course I had to goose the gas a little bit, and even still it didn't show a single bit of smoke. Still need to put valve seals in the heads as a safety measure, but it makes me wonder why it went from smoking to not smoking unless the valves were being drowned in oil and i removed the problem, albeit temporarily?

 

Yeah... it's gotten beyond HOT outside.

Feels like you're inside an oven.