engine and drivetrain Engine smoke

[nbristow01]

OK, let me get this straight.....no smoke when running, if I punch it i get a tiny bit of grayish smoke(i think I run a bit rich)let off the gas then repunch I get a blue puff. From what i read that will be from the valve seals??

The car has 75k miles and sat for the last 15 years never started until i got it.

Di I need to address this issue immediatley? Is there a performance loss?

When i do get it fixed does the head have to come off or can it be done on the car?

[ArdenK]

Hi,

I'm not sure what the gray smoke is, rich should be black, coolant & water is white, the blue is oil. I'm sure there is a performance hit but it's probably minimal. You should check your plugs for fouling from the oil. To fix the head it has to come off. If it was my car I'm get a head and rebuild it, then swap the heads to minimize down time.

It took me almost 3 days to change a head gasket. It was the first time I changed one, Jim G came over to help with torquing the head back on, everything else I did myself.

hth

[nbristow01]

Thanks man, I have a spare good E12 head and I think that is what i may do next year

[Napes]

Don't know how much you've run it since it sat for so long, but, if it were me, I'd take it on a 50-75 mile drive and drive it as fast as I thought I could get away with. Burn some of the crap out of the engine, then proceed to diagnosis. This is assuming you've changed all fluids and filters, and drained the gas tank before replacing with fresh gas.

Bob Napier

[Guest Anonymous]

Drive it a bit and see how it goes before you tear into the engine. Try some MoS oil additive sometimes it works wonders.

[Arshloch]

True, its been seating for too long. The valve seals are probably dry as a prune.

grey smoke is the overly rich mixture, not the oil burning. It needs a good tune up, timing set correctly, and some "Italian tune up" if you know what I mean. That just might do the trick. Nothing out of the ordinary for an old car.