Hey guys... Ok, I start my '57 Cadillac and it runs pretty clean. But after it warms up it has tons of white smoke coming from the pipes. The carbs are newly rebuilt, timing and tune-up done. What do you think? Sound like rings? Any ideas... Tips or tricks? Thanks, Hyfire
white smoke sounds like water. throw some Aluma-Seal or Bars-Leak in the radiator and see if it clears up...
Ok... Got the car outside to check the color of the smoke. It does have a slight blue cast to it. It smells like burning oil, so I am guessing my first post was misleading. It gets worse when the pedal is pushed down. Anyone have any luck with any additives & thicker oil? Or is it looking like a rebuild? Thanks.
If the cloud(?) goes away pretty fast, it's steam. If it lingers, it's smoke. So, first find out what you've got
If it's been sitting a LONG time it's possible the rings are stuck in the piston grooves(not too likely) and will free up with some driving. Another thing if it's smoke and not steam is the oil drain back holes under the valve covers may be plugged (fairly likely)causing oil to "puddle" around the valve guides and overloading the valve seals. Pull the valve covers, and if there's a bunch of sludge, clear the returns with a coat hanger or screwdriver. I've seen it take quite some driving afterwards before the smoke went away.
Billowing white smoke is quite often a ruptured transmission vacuum modulator ****ing trans fluid into engine. That is, if whatever transmission you're running has a vacuum modulator.
If you are not losing any coolant, and you have power brakes check to see if you are losing any brake fluid. My Olds smoked like mad and it turned out to be a pitted master cylinder bore allowing brake fluid to be ****ed through the booster into the intake. A new (resleeved) master and no more smoke!
. if it only smokes blue, after setting awhile its probably the valve seals. try some marvel mystery oil in the oil and the gas tank., or replace valve stem seals. can be done with heads on. fill cylinder with compressed air to hold valve up. good luck cadillac dave
Pressure test the cooling system overnight with the plugs pulled. If coolant blows out of the plug holes next morning when you crank it, you have head gasket problems or a cracked cylinder head. The stop leak might seal the head crack, but no help on a blown head gasket.
Pressure test the cooling system. Start it up with the gauge still in place. See if the pressure rises and falls as you rev the engine. If it does then high pressure g***es are getting into the cooling system...not a good thing. This may sound funny to some but I read that Cali. is having unusually low temperatures that they are not used to. I've had customers come back complaining that their new dual exhaust system made their engine smoke. Of course it was a cool damp day. They never looked at their tail pipes until they got those new stainless tips. If the problem coincides with the cool weather, it's possible that what you see is normal for those rare temps in your area. There is little vapor out of the tail pipes untill the system gets up to temperature. Worn valve stem seals usually throw out an immediate puff of smoke in the morning with no more smoke until it sits for several hours.
Tommy, Thats a great point, i was concerned about my Packard engine but the smoke didn't smell and puddled on my hand if I kept it over the tail pipe for a bit. Steam! the concerns I had was some black material coming out of the pipes, but if you get condensation and then heat it up, I was basically steam cleanning my exhaust pipes. But keep the anwsers coming, there is some really good information in this thread on trouble shooting smoke! HAMB Rules! Jon
DO NOT DO THIS, that stuff is evil ****, if you want to clog your radiator permanantly and do untold damage then go right ahead. Go to a radiator shop and get them to test it, it will be cheap and you'll get a diagnosis right away.
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