Read this after i posted. Yea the bowl is there. That sounds like a good plan. Really hope this clears the air leak noise and the pinging
So todays progress. I made a nice cork gasket for that air leaking from under the choke. Started it up and the engine was much quieter and no air leaking out of their. The pinging was also GONE! No more pinging/tapping, so i guess it was just that coil rattling around in that bowl or the bowl moving around. however the white smoke.....was still there.. So the directions that came with the vacuum gauge were for a more modern engine...so me being a novice couldnt follow what the hell it was saying. So i plugged the distributor vacuum port and hooked my gauge up to the carb. It read 0 again. But it was a little more sensitive. I could get it to 15 but that was as high rpms. How do i do it and what should it be at? I pulled the #1 spark plug just to check it out. Had oil on the threads and the end contact thing that you gap looked like it was kinda burntish. What is weird is that on the (ceramic) white part of the spark plug had rust lookin stuff on it. But the wires and plugs are new. Is that normal or bad or what? Didnt get a chance to do a compression test though Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Having another "i give up" moment right now...
The manifold vacuum port is the larger of the front two ports on the qjet. White smoke... do you have to top off your coolant occasionally? Is there one plug that looks different than the rest?
If the ceramic insulation is reddish, that is normal. Sometimes the insulation turns red as a result of the additives in the gas your using. As far as the vaccuum gauge, connect it to a port that has vacuum at idle (manifold vacuum) The capped off vacuum port on the passenger front face of your carb ought to do. If not, pull the vacuum modulator hose off the manifold and use that. If its a stock engine in a relatively good state of tune, you should see about 19" of vacuum. The reading should be steadly and not fluctuate. When you snap the throttle, the gauge should quickly go to almost zero then to past the idle reading for a couple seconds. You can adjust the mixture screws on the carb using the gauge. Adjust the screws to the highest vacuum reading.
oh ok. well it has been decreasing, but havent actually had to top it off yet. I havent pulled all the plugs. I will do that tomorrow Doesnt seem like it could be rings or valves or something i didnt mess with during my cam swap. How could that be?
Ok thanks. I pray that i see some kinda relative reading tomorrow when i do it. My thoughts of the cause of white smoke are: 1.)bad rings? 2.)bad valves? both of which i didnt mess with 3.)the intake not sealed properly around the exhaust ports. I didnt brush tack :spank: sucking oil into the combustion chamber thats all i got right now, but the vacuum test should tell if its the intake or not. I also have a compression tester now, what is the best way to use it? Get engine to normal temp, remove all plugs, disconnect starter, WOT, put gauge in then crank for a few rotations. Sound right?
White smoke = head gasket or transmission fluid getting into the intakve via a bad modulator. Blue smoke = oil
I'm still not convinced it's coolant burning. With any recent manifold removal it can take up to a week (5-7 heat cycles) for the cooling system to burp all the air out of the system, which is why it looks like it's "going away." Checking for a blown head gasket is easy. Check each spark plug on the smoking side, look for one that is excessively clean or wet and check the compression. If it is really low, then there's your head gasket. BUT, I don't think I've ever seen a 350 on this board using composite head gaskets that has ever blown. These are not BBBs.:bla: You need to look at all the spark plugs on each cylinder of the smoking bank and post a picture. Does the car run well on the street?
Is the blue NOTICABLY blue? lol Im pretty sure its white though. The modulator goes from the side of the tranny up to the back of the intake where it screws in right?
Well...the thing is, the side that the smoke comes out of changes. Depending on an adjustment i make, it does one side more or both evenly. But i think that was cause the vac leaks which i fixed today as far as i know. It was then smoking white out of each side of the exhaust evenly. Increased smoke with increased throttle. So i doubt its both head gaskets, if that means checking them all since both sides are smoking. But what do you mean? Like my test drives are just so-so. moderate power, a little hesitation and tons of smoke pouring out when i give it more gas
Does it noticeably smoke at idle? If so, then post a good digital picture. I think your intake is leaking oil into the runner, but that's just my educated guess. I would move head gaskets down to the bottom of the list of potential problems, your symptoms just don't point toward that.
So today, first thing i did was vacuum test it. It read about 13 and the needle wasn't still, moving up and down between 12 and 14. So its leaking somewhere. Gotta be the intake. The top gasket inside the carb was soaked with gasoline (flooding?) like i could sqeeze it and get liquid gas. The gasket was soaked all around. So i decided to check the float. Started unscrewing the front grommet and didnt disconnect the fuel line...:spank: needless to say i twisted it and now i need a new one becuz it started leaking gas. Took fuel line out, then main grommet on carb. Stuck my screwdriver in through the top and that should have been enough weight to push the float down. But nothin was movin. So i used a little force and it got "unstuck" and gas started coming out. Then the screwdriver could push the float down freely after "breaking it loose". So the float was stuck causing flooding in the bowl, is that right??? So my last attempt to fix this smoke is to re-seal the intake using brush tack or copper whatever. Cuz if i was losing vacuum and everything was plugged or connected then that only left the intake which would mean its sucking in oil causing the smoke. Thats what im going with right now. Got the intake off AGAIN! (but much faster i must add!) No time for pics tonight. Need sleep!!
its always a good idea to fix one thing at a time, then test. That way you know what change fixed the problem. Or in certain cases, what made it worse.
yea i did. made a metal plate that fit perfectly. put some gasket under it and bolted it down :TU: ive been slackin on pictures
