My wife's 57 wagon is on the road now and it has the original 292 in it. It seems pretty solid but it has quite a bit of smoke out of the road draft breather on the front of the block. This is sort of embarr***ing when you are at the drive thru and it's rolling out from under the hood. Now eventually, I will pull the motor and go through it, but for this summer I would like to drive it. Is there an easy way to convert to a closed loop system or maybe even reduce the amount of vapors? Thanks Root
there is a filter inside the draft tube and does get clogged up from age and use. try taking it off and washing it and corresponding parts and reinstall. if still breathing heavy, would suggest doing away with it and installing a pcv kit in the valley cover and hooking up to the manifold/carb. that most likely will eliminate smoke and make everyone happy.....
You can run a length of heater hose from the oil filler directly into the top of the air cleaner lid near the center. be shure to get the hose on the inside of the filter Lots of early chevy 261 truck engines had similar system that way the engine takes in the oily blow by and it helps seal the compression somewhat. OldWolf
Tommy's got the right direction there but worn rings don't fix themselves. PCV can only draw so much, it's worth a try. Good luck.
You might try freeing up the rings with a product made especially for that purpose. I know a lot of guys would recommend Marvel Mystery Oil and other stuff along that line, but the Auto-RX has had some pretty good reviews and seems to work. I've been using it in some of my newer cars to prevent the rings from ac***ulating carbon buildup and sticking in the first place. Quite a few users of this stuff give the engine a dose whenever they buy an older used car to help clean the inside of the engine and seal up the rings to make it run better. http://auto-rx.com/
I know it is tired, but I was hoping to make it last a while until I can get another one built on the stand or possibly swap it out with something else.
USE RESTORE Peggys 57 312 smoke so bad that one time entering a show the lady said you best get back to your car as it's on fire. I would put a can of restore in & it was good for 1,000 miles before having to add another can. We drove it across country to nationals & back to Oregon & all over for a couple of years before I got around to rebuilding it. You can purchase it @ wal-mart or most parts houses. Sells for around 7.00/8.00 for the 8 cylinder can.
The biggest issue is keeping oil in it. Don't be afraid of it. I put a used engine in my P/U that had sat in a garage for over 20 years. It smoked like a freight train mostly out the tail pipes. I was embarr***ed to drive it. I added some Marvel Mystery Oil and drove it anyway. It took several trips of more than around the block for the rings to start to seal again. The difference is amazing. Mine had the road draft tube and I would actually get drops of oil on the front fender (no hood) that came from the RD tube. A trip of over a 1/2 hour required that I immediately wipe the right front fender down before anyone saw it. I built a PCV system for it that helped a lot. Now the excess blowby causes drips of oil on the fill tube breather on long runs. I solved this embarr***ment by slipping a tennis players wrist sweat band over the breather, black ones. It lets the air in but catches the oil drops. The perfectionists are probably aghast at these admissions but I can drive the wheels off of it and not get embarr***ed at the shows. We always built hot rods using donor drive trains so that we could afford to build one. The era of the crate motor and everything brand spanking new is a more modern interpretation of hotrodding. IMHO If you're lucky the blowby may decrease with use. It did for me. I'm content with mine now.
My 57 Ford 272 before I put the 427 in it was so bad a kid ran out while I was stopped at a red lite & said " Mr, your cars on fire". Thats when I decided it was time for a a new engine.
The crazy thing is that it depends on how I drive it etc. Sometimes, it quits for a while.... I am hoping it gets better the more I drive it. It has been sitting over the winter, just getting started to pull in or out. This filter that was mentioned, are you talking about on the intake side or the actual road draft tube side?
Excessive blowby is usually a good indicator that your cylinder walls and/or rings are worn. Glazed cylinder walls will allow increasingly larger amounts of gases to slip out of the pressurized cylinder, past the rings thus creating more blowby. Worn rings will do the same. But there is hope, A person can take some of the glazing off of the cylinder walls without tearing the engine apart.... ... changing the oil to a non-detergent oil, and running the engine on it for a couple hundred miles, can have the effect of taking some of the glaze off the cylinder walls which aides in creating a better seal with the piston rings etc... It was an old mechanic friend that first told me about non-detergent or break-in oil years ago. And that's what he called it, Break-in oil. I was having trouble with a 60's 350 powered truck that smoked and his advise was to use a break-in oil to take the glaze off the cylinder walls. Break in oils contain special additives that aide in seating rings etc., They can also be used on older engines to re-break in the engine (not really but...) or re scuff the cylinder walls. This is not a be all to end all but it will take some of the glaze off the cylinder walls, more if you leave it in longer..... -I ran the break in oil for about 300 miles and the badly smoking 350 cleared up to the extent that there was no longer smoke coming out from under the hood when I stopped at the lights as well as it cleared up the excessive oil burning and the proof showed up on the under dash mounted vacuum gauge, at idle went up form a low 14 to about 17 which is still low but acceptable. Re breaking in an engine works and it works especially well on engines that have sat for many years only to be brought back to life and then show excessive blowby and/or oil burning. http://www.frontierpower.com/service/breakinoil.htm http://www.vpracingfuels.com/BI30.html -------------------------------------------------------
That's not crazy...... Irregardless of whether you have a pcv systems or not, .....I'd be tempted put a vacuum gauge on the engine and observe the readings during normal driving. An engine in good condition should read between 17 - 21 inches at idle with a steady needle A vacuum gauge will help you figure out what the internals of the engine are like. As far as blowby goes, the 'after effects' tend to be more noticeable when you pull up to the light as you have noticed. Driving down the street at 40 mph a person will notice that the vacuum gauge will read a steady 5 or 10 inches as the engine is not working hard to idle the car along at that speed.. Putting your foot into it and accelerating and then maintaining 70 mph will cause the needle to drop to zero inches and beyond into (a) pressure. When the needle drops to below zero (pressure), The engine starts pushing fumes and residue out thru any/all openings. This would tend to exaggerate the small amount of fumes that would normally be present as you pull up to a stop sign, Some of the fumes may be caused by the excessive residue burning off the hot engine and components just after working/running the engine in a positive or pressurized state. The optimum engine operating rpm will be at the point were you are able to drive along while maintaining some sort of negative reading. Preferably 3 or 5 inches of vacuum - as a normal engines pcv systems will still have enough air movement to draw fumes/blowby out of the crankcase and direct it into the cylinders/combustion chambers were it is consumed in the charged cylinder. ...As you tend to work the engine harder and the vacuum drops to zero and then starts/creates a pressure, The ability of the pcv system is severely hampered in that the ac***ulative effects of blowby (fumes) are not drawn into the charged cylinders and ac***ulate inside the crankcase and engine. When you pull up to a stop sign, These ac***ulated fumes are more noticeable as they waft out of the engine. On a tired engine or one with no pcv system, you are limited in what you can do about excessive blowby/smoke when you pull up to the stop sign....Other than, be aware of your driving habits and use the vacuum gauge as your guide in as to how far you push the gas pedal while cruising along,... Allowing the engine to work with somewhat of a negative reading (vacuum) on the gauge will aide in moving the ac***ulative fumes thru the pcv system and into the cylinders to be burnt off with the charged air/fuel mixture. Driving/cruising with a heavier foot will cause the engine to become pressurized and the fumes will ac***ulate in your engine and be far more noticeable at the stop lights. As stated earlier, re breaking in an engine by running non detergent oil for (no more than) 300 miles may help to the extent the blowby all but disappears but the truth is your engine is old/worn and it will eventually need to be re ringed. -Taking the glazing off the walls with break in oil will hold you over and stop the embarr***ing smoke at the lights until you decide to rebuild. hope this helps.... Just my two cents worth... moe
I had to buy this when I saw it. It's for a flathead. The breather is replaced with this fitting and a flexible metal tube runs to the air cleaner to whisk away the excess fumes. It's for the earlier flathead with the smaller road draft system. There is a plate on top that slides away for adding oil.
That Is exactly what I was referring to. It mixes the blowby with the incoming air and gas and reburns it. the oily mixture will help compression somewhat. dont cost much to do and wont hurt anything. OldWolf
Right there will help your chances. A closed system will help eliminate the toxic gases and embar***ing smoke. I replaced the puke tube with a PCV system from the manifold to the valley pan on my 64 F100 and it works well. My pickup still has the factory built 292 motor and it greatly reduced the nasty smell and fumes. Now I get condensation instead of the black puffy stuff. Big difference.
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