Thread: Follow up Recent FE390 Rebuild. Constant smoking . Intake gasket or valve seals

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Hello friends. Sorry to bother you folks again but I'm trying to determine what direction to take. I honestly think that I have more going on here than my rings needing to seat. To sum it up I have about 200 miles put on my rebuilt FE390 in my 68 Fairlane 500 Fastback. The car started smoking blue smoke after about 30 miles was put on it. It happens several minutes after you first start it up and continues until you turn it off. I have about 200 miles on it now and am thinking that the intake gaskets are failing. I'm am burning oil because after driving about 40 miles it is slightly less on my dip stick. No there are no leaks. I have an older Weiand aluminum intake and regular cast iron heads. I called Felpro and they suggested a set of intake gaskets specifically designed for aluminum intakes which I ordered and installed when I first put this motor back together.. Can't remember the number. Some folks think these are crap so I was wondering what you guys think are the best intake gaskets for this set up. My heads were serviced before they were installed and the person who did them made the comment that the seals appeared to be in good shape. I would think that the car would smoke as soon as it is started if the seals are bad but wanted to know if there is any real way of knowing so that I'm not doing things using guess work or is that the only way to go? I did use the gaskets included with the set that run along the back and front of the intake which might have been a bad idea. Is there a good gasket set for this motor with an aluminum intake? The engine seems quite powerful otherwise and the random compression tests I did gave me roughly 150 psi when it was cold. This motor was set up for racing about 20 years ago and has solid lifters, high performance springs and cam. I am still getting some blow by and when I run it for a while I'm noticing a slight oily film on top of my driver's side valve cover that probably originated from the valve cover breather. Any help would sure be appreciated. I was told maybe clogged or blocked oil drain holes. Even though everyone stops what they're doing when this car rumbles by and the rocking of the cam at idle is fantastic, it sure is embarrassing to have the blue smoke coming out around you when you're sitting at a stop light.. Not all of the time but a good bit of the time.

Originally Posted by stotzbotz

My heads were serviced before they were installed and the person who did them made the comment that the seals appeared to be in good shape.
This motor was set up for racing about 20 years ago and has solid lifters, high performance springs and cam. I am still getting some blow by and when I run it for a while I'm noticing an oily film on top of my driver's side valve cover that probably originated from the valve cover breather..

Define "the heads were serviced". The person who serviced them didn't replace the seals??

Pull the plugs, see which one(s) are oily / sooty / black.. or, If you can pull the headers or manifolds - see which side has an oily look / carbon buildup. it should confirm which cylinders are allowing oil into the combustion chamber. As far as a good gasket, only 1 name worth anything in my book, Felpro.

I'd just pull the heads and have the stems inspected and replace all the seals with new, this'll also give you a chance to inspect the intake gaskets you seem to fret over.

According to the receipt from the shop the heads were vatted, surfaced and the valve seals were replaced. 2 exhaust valves were also replaced.

Internal (underside) intake manifold vacuum leaks can usually be verified by sealing the valve cover breather port (tape) on one valve cover and feeling for vacuum at the other valve cover port (usually where the PCV is located), lightly place finger over the open hole while the motor is idling. Any pull or vacuum felt is usually from the leak on the underside of the manifold.

Remember that there were severe issues of valve guide wear back in FE days and also the old rubber seals get brittle with age and break up into small pieces and block the oil returns plus the oil pump pickup screen. Those seals at first were pretty good but valve guide wear was an issue with all brands/makes of cars up until 10-15 years ago-used to buy valve guides by boxes of 100 and had to have 5 different sizes plus thousands of dollars tooling to machine head, install guide and finish size.

Take the valve covers off and see if there are black rubber pieces lying around or if you have the white Teflon type seal held on by a steel spring band.

Smoke could come from lwakie intake guides into cylinder(plugs should show a little oil residue-----or the exhausts will let oil in that will cause smoke but nothing will show on compression or leakdown test procedure.

Denny-----I wasn't disputing you on anything-just adding a couple comments

I would definitely do compression and leakdown test along with all the other basic old time true mechanic type tests--

What??? No place to hook up my scanner??????? I don't know where to turn!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

what??? No place to hook up my scanner??????? I don't know where to turn!!!!!!!!

SCANNER? We don't need no stinkin' scanner!!!!
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_5XvBYfxU_dM/TK...jpg?imgmax=800

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