2.8 smoking worse after new gaskets help!

[Mjfrawg]

Got a 1984 B2 with a 2.8 an 4 speed. Has duraspark conversion runs great but was smoking on startup and gear changes, so i tore it down and put new valve stem seals, head gaskets, intake gasket, etc. Still runs great plenty of power but smokes worse and bout all the time. Does not loose water and none on oil any ideas short of starting over.

 

[drsvox]

what color is the smoke? most often: blue = burning oil, thick white = coolant, black = too much fuel.

about replacing the stem seals: when you took the heads off, did you replace one seal at a time (spring & keepers off, old seal off, new seal on, spring & keepers on)? It's very important to keep each valve where it came from. If you didn't, and put #1 intake on #2 or #3 (same deal w/ exhaust valves) it will give you problems. also, the stem seals need to be pushed down so they "snap" in place...if not seated properly, oil can leak down into the chambers.

sounds like you had oil leaking into the chambers anyway, as you said it smoked on startup.

last (and has nothing to do with the smoking), did you use new head bolts? you might be able to get away with reusing the old ones, but new bolts stretch when torqued and old bolts won't torque properly (which will lead to problems down the road).

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I've heard that doing head gaskets without doing the rings can lead to excessive blowby, and probably burning oil that gets past the rings.

Richard

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Try smaller jets in the carb mine would bello smoke pulling a hill and when I put in the #42 jets gave it better top end power as well. Did you cap off the EGR hole? Once you install the smaller jets confirm the base timing is at 10 degrees then adjust the slow jets for the highest RPMs or vacuum pressure. Then give it a good decarb bring it up to temp and at high idle pour half a can of seafoam in the carb and quickly shut it down. Wait half an hour and the start it and run it around 3000 rpms until the smoke show stops. Make sure the windows in the house are closed it can make quite a cloud if the wind not blowing.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Also did you do a wet float adjustment? you want the fuel in the float bowl to be 3/4 inch from the center of the fuel to the top of the bowl. Just pull the top off and put a straigt edge acroos the carb and measure to the center the fuel creeps up the sides. You can run the engine with the top off of the carb just keep a fire extinguisher handy. I just disconnect the coil wire and pull some fuel out of the carb with a basting needle just dont let the little lady know Pull the float and bend it don not use finger pressure on the float to adjust it. Then just crank on it a second of two wait for the fuel to stop.

 

[Mjfrawg]

The smoke is blue and i did use old bolts, also put a new fuel pump a manual one on it bout a week before i tore into it and seemed to smoke worse after new pump.

 

[drsvox]

You're burning oil, probably from a few different places, and now I'm thinking you could be mixing oil into the fuel at the pump...

 

[Angie]

what color is the smoke? "most often: blue = burning oil, thick white = coolant, black = too much fuel."

there is one more that should be thought of too... (not pertaining to this discussion, but keep in mind) that white smoke is produced from burning automatic trans fluid.

the vacuum line that comes from the intake to the trans modulator can suck up trans fluid if the rubber in the modulator snaps. (don't ask me how i know about this)

cheers

 

[Angie]

"now I'm thinking you could be mixing oil into the fuel at the pump... "

how could this be possible when the pump just rides on a cam to make the pump work? unless there is a hole in the pump itself, then the pump wouldn't be able to pressurize the lines.

As for using old bolts a second time, i wouldn't worry about it too much as long as you properly used the torque wrench and went down in sequence and in the proper intervals.

DRS the real problem with head bolts is that when they are placed into the block without checking that the holes aren't clear of oil. use rolled up paper towels to check to make sure the holes are dry. if oil is in there it can give a false reading with too much pressure and not torquing properly.

placing new gaskets shouldn't cause oil to be getting past the rings if it didn't before, up side down gaskets maybe, but probably not.

i see this is older post without any follow ups.... what happened?

most likely this is what happened, as DRS said,
" It's very important to keep each valve where it came from. If you didn't, and put #1 intake on #2 or #3 (same deal w/ exhaust valves) it will give you problems. also, the stem seals need to be pushed down so they "snap" in place"