so, i have my freshly rebuilt ford 260 v8 is still smoking. I think I've got about 750 miles on it. It is embarr***ingly smoking.. HELP! what do i do?
What color smoke? Lingering black or white smoke? Can you post a video? When is the smoke present? Under heavy acceleration, idle or no matter what the engine is doing?
Is it dual exhaust? One pipe smoke more than another? If you can narrow it down that way you can pull the plugs on that bank and look for oil burning plugs. That way when you contact the builder you can say " it smoke bad and cylinders three and four plugs have oil on them", for example. Faced with this kind of evidence what else can he say but pull it out and bring it back?
smoke is blueish in color. present during idle. gets worse under hard acceleration. rebuild is top to bottom. heads, bottom end. color is blueish. exhaust is dual with an x pipe. will check plugs again. last i looked they were clean
Also, what type of ignition and fuel system are you running? Sometimes blueish smoke can be rich running.
It can't burn that much oil for long without it showing up on the plugs. If you can narrow it down to x cylinders then you sound like you know what you're talking about when you call the builder.
Leak down test for sure. Give the dipstick (the one on the car..) a sniff to see if the oil is contaminated with gas... always do the cheap and easy stuff first. Any smoke out of the breather? Bob
Be sure to check valve guides and seals..........common place for SBF to let oil p*** into combustion chamber. SBC too, for that matter.
That would show mainly on de-acceleration, but worth a look. I've seen sets that were not seated all the way, cracked or not installed... that would account for the gross amount of smoke on acceleration. Bob
After spending more years than I care to admit in the auto industry, rebuilt doesn't mean everything was redone. There are way too many definitions for "rebuilt." If the plugs are clean and it is smoking blue as bad as you say, it has to be oil coming down the exhaust guides and out (burning in the hot exhaust manifolds). That's the only way I have ever seen lots of smoke with clean plugs. Loose or knurled exhaust guides or worn exhaust valve stems would be my guess.
Dont know if this is your situation, but I have heard instances where some people line up all the piston ring gaps in a straight line, instead of clocking them.
Maybe your exhaust is full of oil, from prior to the rebuild. You would think 750 would burn it all out! I think you will find your engine builder is the problem.
What kind of rings did you use and was the cylinder bored and honed? I always use non detergent oil for break in oil, what did you use? I also use cast iron rings as they seem to seal much better than other types of rings.
Rebuilt means everything. There is only one definition. Anybody using the term, in any other way, is just wrong.
True. But I've heard people use "rebuild" to describe everything from a total blueprint overhaul to a spray can repaint.
If it's oil smoking as bad as you say, you should be down a quart or so. What's the dipstick say? Jack E/NJ
If the PCV valve is plumbed in wrong, that will cause the problem too. I have seen instances where the engine has aftermarket valve covers, and they are not baffled to cover the PCV valve. That will cause the oil from the rocker arms to be ****ed into the engine causing lots of smoke. Check the obvious before condeming the engine rebuild
sounds like they broke a ring putting it together do a compression test on it .could also be the cam bearings if they werent changed. just a thought
rebuilt vs remanufactured I don't consider the definitions iron clad by any stretch. FWIW I've heard the difference explained this way from time to time for about 50 years, usually by the guy selling "remanufactured" parts. http://www.jasperengines.com/about-remanufactured-engines.php http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JFBT9XMm-0 http://www.demanddetroit.com/pdf/press/pr-2005-09-07a.pdf When I "rebuild" something I consider re-using parts within factory "wear limits" when available. So I guess it is safe to say the life this time around is likely not going to be as long as if a like new part was used. Despite the marketing pitch some of the parts in "rebuilt" ***emblies can be pertty bad. A buddy got some re-somethinged calipers for his 76 Corvette. One of the bead blasted pistons was missing a lot of material due to corrossion. The seal groove was sort of intact, so I guess it probably would have worked.
The Jalopy Journal
