Oil Leak, carb tune, etc....

[Korndogg]

I tried that...that's why I'm just going to try out the dye

[Ricky Bobby]

why the fuck pull the motor unless its the rear main seal and the motor is 4yrs old with 1000miles on it shit mine is 6yrs old but doesnt leak except for the carb should I pull mine also

[jbiscuit]

Sounds like he has several leaks. Might be the best way to seal everything up

[Ricky Bobby]

well mark find the leak first then we'll decide if we need to disassemble

[Korndogg]

Forgot about this thread lol. Just wanted to say, it was shitty valve covers......

[Irish]

Lol

[Korndogg]

good thing i didn't pull my engine!!! haha

[Prince Valiant]

here's the thing though, even though it's just the valve covers, it could still be a secondary leak due to high crankcase pressure...though if I remember, you vent it quite well. There aren't other signs that something is amiss is there? Like the dipstick keeps getting blown off the tube, etc?

[Korndogg]

yes, my dipstick does keep getting blown off. I was thinking my rings were shot because of the oil pissing out of my valve cover and also the dipstick getting blown off. I have a breather on each cover so I would think that would be enough to get rid of any pressure if there wasn't blow-by. But would that be causing the huge amounts of black smoke?

I locked my other thread but this is what I posted in it if you didn't see.

Ok well the exhaust is still black as hell. I had it tuned at WBD last year and that didnt change my exhaust color at all. They said all the numbers are right where they should be so im lost.... It looks like im rolling coal ffs and when im idling, deposits come ou of the tailpipes and get all over eveything. Any ideas?

I haven't had much money to work on it in the past couple years but I want to fix this. Its kind of embarrassing lol...

[Prince Valiant]

Black and not blue grey makes me think it's not oil getting by the rings, but the fact that you are apparently getting so much blow-by makes me think it's worth pulling and taking it apart for inspection.

Hopefully given that there is not too much wear-n-tear/miles, you could at worst get away with re-honing the block, new rings, gaskets, etc, put it back together and go...and probably be much better off. Something like this could probably be done for less than 400 dollars total, and won't have the fresh start break-in hassles of a new engine if you reuse the cam/lifters.

[Korndogg]

Should I do a compression or leak down test to see what I'm dealing with before I do anything? My issue is I don't have a compressor yet at my new house so I'm kind of screwed when it comes to that. I suppose I could borrow my dad's though. But I still don't have testers either.

I guess I don't understand how blow-by could cause black smoke though?

[Prince Valiant]

I don't know that it can...it's just that the amount of crankcase pressure strongly suggest that whatever the cause of the black smoke, you have an issue that needs addressing.

Doing a leak-down test would be instructive, but ultimately an academic endeavor; there are enough signs suggesting you need to re-ring the beast. I still say doing an easy compression test could give you an idea of what you're looking at as well...less in terms of "how are my rings" and more "are there any other changes I may need to pursue?" while you're in there.

Fixing the known problem may or may not address the black smoke. It couldn't hurt.

[Korndogg]

Yeah I suppose I could just pull it and look at everything. Time to get a propane heater for the garage!

[jbiscuit]

Do you have a choke on the carb? Have you verified its not sticking shut? Verified the float adjustment is correct?

[Korndogg]

I'm going to double check everything tomorrow and also do a compression test. I paid wbd $400 to make sure my car was tuned properly so I would hope my shit is in order.....

[jbiscuit]

You need to verify some basic stuff before you pull the motor apart. Black Smoke is rich condition. So what causes that? Could be float too high, choke stuck shut, blown power valve in the carb etc. It smokes at idle and on the gas? But WBD tuned it? Was it doing this when you picked it up after they tuned it?

[Korndogg]

It smokes all the time no matter what. It smoked before and after it was tuned.

[stenchmiester]

mark i have a leak down and compression tester i cpuld lend u till monday

[Korndogg]

Compression test went well. 190 psi was the average and they were all within 5 psi of eachother.

Here is a picture of the plugs just for the hell of it.

[Irish]

Top row, plug #3, is that one wet compared to the others?