Smoke...smoke everywhere.

F

FordCustom

Senior Member
Please tell me this is a "sat a long time" problem, and it will slow down at some point? Smoke from the tailpipe, smoke from the crankcase oil filler breather, etc etc. Not huge clouds, but you know it was there for sure. Does this subside after it runs for a while?

There was also a little bit of valve train noise. Should you be able to hear this at all?

I drained and filled the pan with 15/40, and added some MMO for good measure. Filter is the stock canister style, and has a new cartridge in it.. Both thermostats popped open and worked fine.
 
FordCustom said:
Please tell me this is a "sat a long time" problem, and it will slow down at some point? Smoke from the tailpipe, smoke from the crankcase oil filler breather, etc etc. Not huge clouds, but you know it was there for sure. Does this subside after it runs for a while?

There was also a little bit of valve train noise. Should you be able to hear this at all?

I drained and filled the pan with 15/40, and added some MMO for good measure. Filter is the stock canister style, and has a new cartridge in it.. Both thermostats popped open and worked fine.
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I can certainly appreciate your concern. Unfortunately the only accurate answer is: "time will tell".
I am hoping for your sake that perhaps there is a stuck ring or two and they will free themselves up.
 
Man, they sure sound awesome though, don't they? I seem to have gotten my carburetor troubles solved at least for the time being. Hearing this truck run and have such a smooth idle is pretty much a dream come true. I don't know if I am hooked enough to do an entire rebuild on it, but "time will tell".
 
When you are looking for problems you will usually find something to worry about. Kube know what he is talking about and I wouldn't worry to much about a little valve noise. Flatheads have noises come and go sometime , at least that's my experience.
 
If the car has sat a long time with Ethanol fuel in it, it will smoke like crazy.That fuel breaks down over time and turns acidic and easy all the rubber components in the fuel system.I imported a 32 roadster and when I fired it up it almost filled the street with whitish smoke and then burst a fuel line and sprayed fuel everywhere....it burns like mad if you get it on your skin as well.

I emptied what I could from the tank and filled it up with proper petrol....the smoke issue went away instantly.
 
Oh this is a rebuilt carb, with a small tank sitting on top of the cowl. Fresh oil and gas. The truck did sit for a long while in storage, though. 25-30 years.
 
a compression test will probably tell you a lot. it will give you an idea of overall shape of the motor and ID any down cylinders.
 
The rings may be stuck. You coild try adding Mystery oil to the gas and or try spraying some in each cylinder and let sit for a day and re-try to see if it helps. just a suggestion. Runnung may solve the problem.
 
I've had so much MMO through the cylinders that it was dripping from the holes in the exhaust. Worth another shot I guess. And yep, I will try to get my friend to come over and help me out with a compression test. It runs great and seems to have plenty of power, so a compression test is in order.
 
Drizzle the MMO in both sides of the carb while running to free the valves and put it in the gas. I never put it in the oil but it won't hurt anything but may cause smoke. G.M.
 
I've been wondering this morning. Would it be feasible to remove the bottom rotating assembly(crank and rods/pistons) to free up stuck rings? Is it worth bothering with going that far? I'm pretty meticulous about things like this, so I would make sure everything went back together correctly.
 
FordCustom said:
Oh this is a rebuilt carb, with a small tank sitting on top of the cowl. Fresh oil and gas. The truck did sit for a long while in storage, though. 25-30 years.
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20 - 25 years?
Yep, I'm sticking with my first instinct.
Stuck ring(s) and or/ or stuck valves.
You may very well get lucky and with some hours of running and the addition of MMO in both the oil AND the fuel system, the stuck pieces may dislodge.
At this point I would not bother removing pistons. I'd give the MMO more of a chance to work.
Take both a wet and dry compression test. If it turns out to be stuck rings, remove the spark plugs of the offending cylinder(s) and dump the MMO directly down the hole. Let it soak for perhaps a week.During that time, manually rotate the crank shaft 90° now and then. Make sure you vacuum out the cylinder before installing the plug and attempting to start it after soaking.
 
The valves were never really an issue. They were all operating up and down as they should before gas was ever introduced into the engine. There was one stuck one, but it freed itself up quickly.
 
MMO causes a lot of smoke when used, I believe it using and think it's good you did. It will soften and burn off any carbon buildup which is good but depending on how long you let the MMO soak ( another good thing to do ) it will smoke longer. Compression test all cylinders is an easy good move. If as you say it's running smooth and has power I would run it daily for a week or so at varying RPM without going crazy to see if it clears up. Some small amount of valve noise is common even on a fresh rebuild and if you have quiet mufflers you'll hear it even more. Good luck!
 
AnthonyG said:
MMO causes a lot of smoke when used, I believe it using and think it's good you did. It will soften and burn off any carbon buildup which is good but depending on how long you let the MMO soak ( another good thing to do ) it will smoke longer. Compression test all cylinders is an easy good move. If as you say it's running smooth and has power I would run it daily for a week or so at varying RPM without going crazy to see if it clears up. Some small amount of valve noise is common even on a fresh rebuild and if you have quiet mufflers you'll hear it even more. Good luck!
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Exactly, and like you said you had so much in it it was dripping out the exhaust...thats most of your smoke it the MMO buring in the exhaust system. My convertible did the same thing, smoked like it was on fire as the MMO burned. After 40-60 miles it went away for the most part
 
Ahhh, so it shares a characteristic with Seafoam then. Though not as much smoke . Seafoam is like you lit an entire quart of used motor oil on fire. That's the main reason I always do it at night, lol!
 
My car sat for 23 years before I got it going in 2013. And like a lot of others I used the MMO to help things along. After the start up the car smoked pretty good for the first few minutes and then after a short time the smoke went away. Same day. Was not a problem
 
I went through a similar situation a year ago when waking up an 8BA that had sat for 50 yrs. Initially, after getting it started it smoked like a diesel. Only five cylinders were functional at first. Brought in the MMO and used it all ways mentioned here previously and got two more cylinders to open up. Still smoked pretty bad at this point. Removed the plugs and did a visual check on the valves in that last holdout cylinder. One valve was still sticking and hanging up. Continued with the MMO for a while longer, triggering a few clean air alerts here in Calif. as I went. Even without MMO the engine produced plenty of smoke, running on just gas. Decided to do a ring and valve job and solved the problem. Turns out the rings were seized quite a bit and not working properly. Cylinder walls looked great, had not been over bored. Cleaned everything and put in new rings. One note here, your oil pan most likely has a thick layer of sludge in the bottom. Mine was nearly a 1/2" thick and real gummy. Good time to do some cleaning. Same for the valley under the intake. Did the valves and buttoned it up. No Smoke and runs like a champ, no valve noise. Thats my experience, yours may differ. The compression test is good advice, do that first and save time. Good luck.
 
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