Hello, I'm a newbie to this board. I just bought a 1972 Skylark convertible with a 350 2bbl in it and it smokes like a chimney. Pretty sure its valve seals. Has plenty of power. I guess the Buick 350 is a little different than a Chevy. Heard somewhere the Buick has Teflon retainers for the valve seals?? Is this right?? Any thing else I need to know about the Buick 350 you guys could tell me would be greatly appreciated. Also, what are some good websites to check out stuff on? Thanks, Woody.
when valve seals go bad, there usually is no smoke. the small amount of oil is just burned off. my guess would be that u have broken rings, or a cracked piston, or the temper is gone from the rings. here is a true story about rings in a new car. in 1964, my dad ordered in a pontiac parisienne (cdn) 2dr ht, 283v8. a few days after receiving the car, he drove it about 250 miles, on a highway trip. when he returned home, he just happened to check the oil. it was down two quarts. when the engine was dismantled, the mechanic discovered that the ring splits/joints had all been lined up. bye bye oil.
Mine was smoking a bit when I first bought it. Bad transmission vacuum modulator was allowing vacuum to bring tranny fluid into the intake.
smoker First, take out all the spark plugs and run a compression test. That will tell if an engine can be made to run correctly. You need at least 90 lb psi and all cyls to be within 10 lb of each other. Next ck the vac modulator in the trans to make sure it isnt busted and sucking trans fluid into the intake. It will really smoke if it is doing this. See if the drain holes in the heads are stopped up with cold sludge. if the oil cant drain back into the pan and puddles up on top of the heads it can cause smoke. Pull the rocker arm covers off to ck this out.
