VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 1928 DoodleBug- White Smoke and Sparks

Hi there, just catching up on a few old threads and have already learned a lot about the ”˜28 chevys. I appreciate everyone who has shared their knowledge. We recently pulled my dads 28 doodlebug from his shed after sitting for 30 years. I pulled the oil pan, cleaned up the pick up basket, replaced the pan, pulled the head, re-surfaced the valves and replaced one exhaust valve and rocker. After some TLC, points and adjustment we got spark. Today it fired up and it sounds great. The clutch is incredibly smooth and it seems that all forward and the reverse gear works great. Engine Temps seem to be good and we have good circulation of water and oil. At idle it holds at about 10psi. After adjusting the valves I drove it down my hill to get the mail. At the bottom of the hill it started smoking pretty bad. The White smoke continued as I drove it back up the hill to my house. I also notices some sparks coming from the exhaust. Hoping someone can provide some insight on the potential cause. To me it kind of smelled like a mouse nest and I hope its not oil slipping into a cylinder. Dipstick is clear and no signs of water in the oil pan. I’ll try firing it up again tomorrow. I plan to pull the plugs after the baby is sleep. Thanks for reading.

White smoke isn't oil. Sounds like something made its home in your muffler and is burning off if you see sparks coming from your exhaust pipe.

Thanks for the quick response! Really what I was hoping but ran out of day light. I’ll pull the muffler tonight. Is it bad to run these engines without a muffler? The connection isn’t tight and there are a few rust holes so its basically just running with the manifold after the carb breather anyway.

Hope this is not the case, but burning anti-freeze will cause white smoke. And it definitely does NOT smell like a fresh pecan pie!

Jon.

I pulled the muffler last night and found that there is a ton of acorns, rust and junk inside. I had it running for about half an hour this morning and there were no signs of white smoke. I then had it running a few minutes here and there throughout the day after installing the fuel tank and making new gaskets for the carb. The water level seems to staying but I know I should expect some loss due to steam/ expansion. Maybe I didn’t have it running long enough. If water is getting by, would it happen all the time? Or only at certain temps? Hoping to find time to run a compression test this week. Thanks.