Blue smoke when idling.

[JimNolan]

Guys,
   Need your advice and wisdom. ( I figured I'd get the kissing part over with first ). My 63 is doing something weird. It has a small amount of blue smoke coming out of both tailpipes equally when it's idling. Once it starts out again it's fine and I watched closely during deceleration and there's no blue smoke there either. A little history. This is the engine I put together with the 10.5 cr forged pistons with larger piston clearance with .042 quench. After it sets there's not any smoke either when you first fire it up. I'm running a 160 degree thermostat which might give me some grief but I've run the same thermostats in all my cars and didn't have this problem. Oil consumption couldn't be much because I just did an oil change and I'd used 1 1/2 qts. in over 3000 miles. Where should I start looking. Thanks, Jim P.S. I'm not running a PC Valve, I've just got a tube coming from the intake breather basket ( full of aluminum shavings ) and it goes to the bottom of my air cleaner.

[My427stang]

I'd pull the valve covers and make sure something isn't plugging the returns

If not, I'd guess a valve seal issue or intake gasket leak

[Heo]

im no expert but valve seals often smokes
on start up  i guess intake gasket or big
piston clearance ,to high oil level giving much
oilsplash in the cylinders,big side clearance
on the rods causing the same problem
I would instal pcv and see if the problem
go away with lower crancase preassure

[JimNolan]

Valve Seals are the Teflon like things, forget what they were called but they suppose to be better than Teflon. It's blowing smoke from both sides so I don't think it's an individual cylinder type problem. Probably wrong. PVC valve, I can do that, should have done it to begin with.

[Heo]

maby viton seals .did you use the cat condoms
on the valve tip when you instaled them?
Its easy to damage the seals if the valve lock
groves have Sharpe edges

[My427stang]

Valve Seals are the Teflon like things, forget what they were called but they suppose to be better than Teflon. It's blowing smoke from both sides so I don't think it's an individual cylinder type problem. Probably wrong. PVC valve, I can do that, should have done it to begin with.

Are they white, black or green/blue?

If they are white, odds are that's your issue, they dont last too long.  Too dry at startup and not flexible.

[JimNolan]

Green

[cjshaker]

Typically valve seals will cause smoking during start-up. I would also check for blocked drainbacks or maybe even more likely a leaky intake gasket. Vacuum is highest at idle, but I would think you would see it on deceleration also if that was the case. It would be very hard to see the tailpipe while driving though and the mirror may not show it.

[WConley]

I'm more suspicious of that unusual crankcase ventilation system.  Disconnect the tube and then test the car at idle.  Are you still getting smoke, and is there strong blow-by coming up through the open end of the tube?

If the tube is pushing a lot of oil, there's your answer.  You need a better baffle under that basket to keep oil away from it.  The best solution though is a PCV valve in a rocker cover, then make-up clean air flowing into the block the opposite way through that tube / basket.

If you don't see oil, but there's a lot of misty blow-by flow, I'd say the rings are sticking / not seated properly.  A quart of Rislone added to the oil will go a long way towards un-sticking the rings.  After that I would still add the PCV system.  PCV really helps keep the crankcase clean and it will help the rings seal.

Best of luck!

[JimNolan]

I was driving behind the car for about 100 miles of all kinds of different traffic going to a car show yesterday. So I got to see it in every type of driving configuration. I got to watch it during hard acceleration, deceleration, cruising and idle. I think I'll put a PCV valve in it and see what happens. I don't think it could be anything really bad. It runs too good to have something bad wrong with it. We took it to Carlisle the other week and drove all over PA while we were there using 1/2 qt. oil on the trip.  Jim  PS. I did change oil a week ago and went from 10W-40 to 10W-30. But it's unimaginable that would have anything to do with it. The engine's had about 15,000 miles put on it since I built it.

[JimNolan]

I think I know now. Took the air cleaner off and found a lot of clean oil laying inside the breather. It's pulling it up from the crankcase. I think my air cleaner may be getting dirty since I just started noticing a problem. I don't think the engine has had time or wear to develop very much blow by, I'll change the air cleaner and see what happens. Jim

[BruceS]

Jim, do you have some more pics to post of that nice looking Boxtop?  Thanks, Bruce

[machoneman]

Don't have Fel-Pro's Print-o-Leaks, do you?

See 351W pic on top, 427FE further down:

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-factory-five-roadsters/178867-intake-gasket-leak-what-went-wrong.html

[JimNolan]

Don't have Fel-Pro's Print-o-Leaks, do you?

See 351W pic on top, 427FE further down:

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-factory-five-roadsters/178867-intake-gasket-leak-what-went-wrong.html

No I sure don't. I used fel-pro gaskets but the ones that were plain for the tall port heads and intake. I use high temp perma-gasket around the water jackets AND the intake passages. It's a mess when you tear it down but you never have leaks that way. At least, I've never had a leak. I found that using high temp perma-gasket on the bottom part of my valve covers gaskets stopped those leaks too. I'll pay hell for it if I ever take it apart but until then I have a clean engine and driveway. It's the only way I could stop the valve cover leaks on those edelbrock heads using no oil deflector with the aftermarket rockers. Jim

[hotrodfeguy]

After reading the whole thread this is what I see.
1) Your rings are seated by now.
2) The umbrella type seals tend to ride up the valve and stay there. Thus oil consumption.

If I was to guess that would be it, The umbrella seals on a higher than stock lift and the fact they stay up there allows the oil to navigate to the guide/valve. and then be sucked down the intake guide. I know on my own FE builds I have no issues with leaving the EX seals out/off. But will however run positive seals on the intake. This does have a small puff of smoke of start up but goes away. I would guess you have oil getting sucked down slightly loose valve guides. I keep them tight when rebuilding heads but every shop does them there own way.