VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Mechanical - Engine, Trans, etc 49 216 didn't smole, now it does

When I brought my 49 3600 home a month ago and fired it up, it didn't smoke. After the teething pains of a complete tune up and valve adjustment it's been running great. I've done 2 hot oil changes. The valves were set at .10 and .20 cold after my fist attempt that had them too tight and I haven't readjusted hot. The Rochester is running rich and my plugs have some black soot, but no sign of oil fouling.( by the way, if any one has a main metering jet for a 49 W-1 I could try out my other carb!) It has been putting out some blue smoke while running for a week now. Not just when you start it up, but some blue smoke as it is driving, and the more RPM's the more smoke. It's using about 3/4 qt of oil a day (between 10 and 25 miles of driving). I did put a quart of transmission fluid Slowly down the carb about 2 weeks ago and have soaked the valve guides in transmission fluid/MMO when I did the valve adjustment. I haven't done a compression test yet and I'm not sure that that would tell me why it's smoking, but I can do one. I have a good running 235 that I had originally planned to put in later, so I can always do the swap, but I'm wondering if you guys have any other ideas. I plan on doing a hot valve adjustment and pulling the plugs and soaking the cylinders with transmission fluid mixed with MMO, but thays all I can think of to do. I din't want to O/H the 216 and I really didn't want to do the swap till fall...

I would suspect the oil rings are worn-stuck-lost their tension-or the oil return holes in the rings and pistons are plugged with carbon.A common problem on these _if they have the original rings.My suggestion would be to remove the spark plugs and pour in about two or three ounces of General Motors Top Engine Cleaner.Let sit for 24 hours.There are several other products that could help but this is about the most "powerful".What soaks past the pistons will end up in the oil-not a problem for normal driving as it will burn away-cleaning more in the process.Bad valve seals could cause a little consumption problem but not that bad.When they are bad and leak oil down the guides you will have smoke when first starting engine and after long preiods of idling.Also would have fouled the plugs by now.A double action fuel pump (with vacuum booster for wipers) could also suck oil from the crankcase.

If you have a vacumn booster fuel pump I would follow up on the suggestion to check the vacum pump diaphram. If there is oil in there when you open it up that would be the reason for a sudden change in oil consumption.

I vote for the rings "having issues."

Tried to get by without rebuilding my '53 216, which had set for a long time. Similarly, when I finally had everything right, and started running it for a while (after time enough for everything to clean itself up and burn out the old accumulations and gunk), the rings started letting oil by. Had to open it up and do the rings, then it was fine again.

Update. I re-checked each plug and found all but 2 & 5 were nice and tan, 2 & 5 were very dark I put 6-8 oz of MMO/Tranny fluid in each cylinder, spun by hand a couple of time, let sit, repeat 1 more time, let soak for 24 hrs. I got to thinking that it does smoke, but the rate it's using oil it would lay down a smoke screen(which it is not). After a little more thought I realized that when I just putt to work (5 MI), it doesn't hardly use any, but if I get up on the highway thats when it uses a lot. It doesn't leave any big puddles either. I then noticed that the rear motor mounts were covered in fresh oil. I had replaced the valve cover gasket when I adjusted the valves. Pulled the valve cover and sure enough the gasket was twisted. I had glued it to the cover with gasket shellac. I cleaned up and glued the gasket to the block this time. Went ahead and pulled the push rod cover and cleaned it up. Oil leak is stopped. It still smokes some, but not as bad and it is not using huge quanties of oil now.
I adjusted the stearing box this weekend, boy what a difference that makes. I had cleaned and adjusted the back brakes . Yesterday I was low on fluid. Both back wheel cylinders were leaking. I'm going to try to put a kit in them, they don't have any visible pits. The brake shoes were covered in brake fluid. Can I clean the shoes up with brake cleaner or maybe laquer thinner? They only had fluid on them for a day and it looks like they are only about 1/3 worn. Some one in the past has removed all the emergency brake linkage in the drums. I've got the cables freed up now. Any one have the pieces??

I had the same situation with my '53 bel air sedan and the shoes are ok now, I had to put new wheel cylinders in, About $30 each from NAPA. The main thing is to lightly hone the wheel cylinder and clean,clean, coat with new DOT 3 fluid and use FRESH kits, ( I use new bleeder valves also) just never use old stock kits, the rubber or whatever they made out of, gets hard and inflexiable.

Try National Chevy Association, here is a link to their online catalog, you will need to call they have some used parts but you must call:

http://nationalchevyassoc.com/

Too bad you aren't going to make:

The Lone Star Region's 29th annual swap meet
in Grand Prairie Texas' Trader's Village!
RAIN OR SHINE!!!!

(There is usually a Bendix retiree that sells brake parts there)