Technical Smoke coming out through exhaust

What up guys wanted to see if you guys could help. My daily driver went out and now i've been using my 62 cadillac as a daily driver. I hadn't really drove it in 4 years would just turn it on intermittently. My car does have blow by. lol! I ended up driving it about 150 miles to San Antonio, TX. It worked great had no issues. Now I noticed that I get smoke coming out from exhaust. A friend suggested to replace my fuel and air filter. I also, put almost a 1/4 of seafoam, so not sure if it made the smoke worst or it's also killing all the carbon inside my engine. I kind of regret putting seafoam cause i think the smoke has gotten bad. Some people also suggest changing my plugs. I've been trying to try anything to make it go away. Kind of regret putting seafoam in it. I poured it on Wednesday and still getting that puff of smoke. I also noticed my car never stalled before the Seafoam and now feel like when I am a stop light idling it wants to stall on me.

 

Where did you put the seafoam into?

 

What color is the smoke
Blue, black, white

 

Try this; drain the oil pan, don’t refill according to the manual, instead refill 1-2 quarts low. Drive as usual and see if there is any difference.

The 390 in my 60 Cad had lots of blow by through the filler and the downdraft tube and smoke from the exhaust pipe. I rebuilt it completely. Still had some blow-by and smoking pipe, even after a proper break-in.

After reading some stuff on the LaSalle site, I tried running 2 quarts low, smoke and blow-by disappeared, oil pressure reads as fine. That was two years ago and I drive this thing hard, daily, no problems (until a tree fell on it and squashed it. Solved all the problems in a way)


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What colour?
And does it do it cold, hot, both? At idle under load?

 

Smoke in the exhaust can be from unburned or partially burned fuel, from engine oil, or from water. That's why the questions on the color. Smoke from fuel tends to be black, smoke from oil tends to have a blueish tint to it, and smoke from water is white (steam), although raw unburned fuel is also makes white smoke, but that is more of a problem with old tech diesel engines. Also, when it smokes can tell you a little about the source. Does it just make black smoke when cold? Or blue smoke under load, or after deceleration? White smoke all the time? Those are clues to whats happening. So take some time to isolate the color and the "when" of the smoke and post back here and the guys can help you a lot better.

 

Possible fuel pump diaphragm failure leaking gas into crankcase and diluting oil. Pull dipstick and smell oil and see if it smells like gas.

 

Start saving some money. You just ate all the carbon buildup out from under the rings, which were barely sealing before, and now are not.

 

Almost all the questions have been asked except "Are any of the fluids low or too high?".
Pete
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I have to agree with the Black, blue or white smoke thing.
Excessive blow by means that the rings are not in the best conditon and the air/fuel compressed in the cylinders is slipping by them a bit. That cause considering how much oil you are using for the miles you are driving. A quart every thousand miles isn't a big deal and nothing to worry about in these engines but a quart or more every tank of gas is a big deal.
Black smoke = excess gas going though the engine and that may mean the carb needs rebuilt or at least mean cleaning up the choke plate and the area around it so it works freely and smoothly. If it runs pretty smooth on acceleration and smooth on the road I'd get a can of good spray carb cleaner and clean the choke plate and the choke horn inside so that the plate didn't stick and check the linkage so it works smoothly. I'm not sure if that one has a choke pull off diaphragm on the carb but if it does make sure it works as if it is bad it won't help pull the choke open.

If you are just doing short trips of a mile or two you may have a lot of condensation in the exhaust that is turning to steam. Pretty normal on rigs that don't get driven far enough every time they get fired up especially if you live in town and don't get out on the highway too often. Same reason those old cars owned by the little old ladies who only drove them to Church, the beauty shop and the store once a week always had rusted out exhaust.

You do keep close tabs on fluid levels?
Meaning: checking the oil level
Excess oil consumption without obvious leaks most likely means you are burning it.
Checking the coolant level
Again having to add coolant means it is going somewhere
Checking the trans fluid level
Same as engine, if there are no leaks and the trans has a vacuum modulator on it it may be sucking fluid though a ruptured diaphragm .

Excess

 

worn/cracked valve stem seals from mileage - age - sitting for a long time?

 

The Zebra hunt has commenced

 

into the gas tank about 1/4 or less than 1/2 a bottle

 

i'm going to try this only problem is that i'm burning a lot of oil or i think i have a leak. i ran it for 200 miles and this weekend noticed it went ahead and poured more.

 

What up guys sorry for the late reply just got back from work. I appreciate everyone's reply.
I wanted to say that the smoke is White. I do have all levels up to par. My temp gage always marks at 1/4 mark so it hasn't gotten heated as of yet. I am curious tho as to what Old Geezer had to say. I did notice my manual fuel pump the top part looks like it's leaking, BUT i can't really tell. I did notice one of the screws i had to tighten it up about almost snug just enough to tighten up all screws on it. I do see some sort of liquit on top of it, but again not sure if it's from all the condensation that's next to the oil filler and the cap dripping into it. I am going to take the dip stick out and see if it smells like GAS. Also, when i pull the dip stick the oil is really CLEAN as in not black or dark brown. I'm surprised. Also, behind my muffler u can hear that one lifter is loose or maybe a spark plug. Today I put my ear on the passenger side and can hear if it's some spark plug making a noise or maybe it's part of my exhaust. Can't really tell.

 

When I first bought the car in 2011, looks like the car had been sitting since 1997 or 98 i think the owner died. Then, the car was sold to the guy that ended up selling it to me. I don't think he ever did anything to it, the car was in really bad shape, but i took the initiative to try and be patient fix it. I rebuilt the transmission, fixed a lot of kinks on it. One time i cleaned the manifold and had a rat's nest. Lol! When I moved from California to Texas, I kept it at my mom's house for almost 4 years and only turned on intermittently. Finally, my daily driver gave out this year, so without having any car had to pick up the Cadi and brought it back to life and my brother helped me out to fix a couple of things before I drove it around 158miles north and suprisingly it made it. Now that I have it hear in San Antonio, I did hit the bottom of the car the first day so I'm wondering if I hit something and something loosened up because now I'm getting fumes go into the cabin once in a while something that never happened on my trip. Went the other day to check for exhaust leaks and they told me I didn't have any, BUT i am going to morrow to another shop to get a second opinion. So I really want to fix this blowby, exhaust leak and the smoke coming out of my exhaust. Other than that the car does ride pretty good it's just the fumes that I cant control.

 

I've only run it through the intake to clean things out. Did you try that?

 

If you have white smoke coming out of the exhaust, check your radiator to see if it's low on water. White smoke is water turning to steam in the cylinders. You most probably have a bad head gasket.

 

I'm gonna try that tomorrow morning see if there's water in there.

 

how would i do that? pour some on top of the carb perhaps?

 

That's what I have done, trickle it in the carb back off when starting to stall...just keep the rev's up.

But then again, I don't think it will solve your issue.

Have you looked at your plugs? Maybe have one or two nice and clean?

 

That's the one thing i haven't done change my plugs or wires. One cause it's hard to get them at any local parts store, but for sure i can order them cheap from rockautoparts.com wondering if i shud just change them to see what happens. I can hear on the passenger side tuf tuf tuf tuf tuf sound very slight when a plug is not connected all the way. Hmmm.... or not sure if it's the exhaust leak.

 

I would retrofit a PCV. that will help with the blowby. What your smelling is likely blow by. Change the oil & filters. change the fuel pump. Start it up after dark and look to see if you have spark leaking from plug wires.

 

Look into doing this, helps quite a bit.

Pull your plugs and read them, a squeaky clean plug will indicate a head gasket or coolant issue.

The “tuft, tuft,tuft” your heating could be a misfire, try pulling one plug wire at a time while the engine is running and see if you find one that does NOT make a difference on the way the engine runs, will / should point you in a direction.

Hook up a vacuum gauge and see what vacuum readings you get at idle and 2000 rpm.


White smoke is generally water/coolant getting burned or a lean condition

How is the fuel system? Tank clean, lines new, filters new pump delivinring correct pressure?

 

Black=fuel. White=water/antifreeze. Antifreeze has an "almond" smell too. Blue=oil. Does it have good compression? You said it uses oil. How much vacuum does it pull at idle? Lots of potentially really bad things, not very many you can "fix" with a can of Seafoam.

 

read the instructions printed on the can
perhaps a youtube video

 

If you decide to try and run it a quart or two low on oil, make sure you can see some on the dipstick, otherwise you may run out of oil and not know it. Also, if you can easily light the oil on the dipstick with a lighter, you probably have a bad fuel pump that is allowing gas into your oil. When that happens though, you will usually see an oil gain instead of a loss. A compression test will tell you a lot.

 

Really hard to diagnose from the OP,s description. Some thing else I have encountered in the past. he could have a pushrod off or a flat lobe on the exhaust valve. a flat lobe or missing pushrod on the exhaust will allow the cyl to fill and the exhaust stroke to force the fuel and air past the rings diluting the oil and creating excessive blow by. and of course its got a misfire.

 

@s55mercury66... Good thinking with the lighter at the pulled dipstick!

I've always smelled the dipstick, could ascertain fuel smell...I used to smoke...One time at my shop, pulled my Zippo, lit a Ford dipstick...my 'audience' was amused. LOL
I have to say, it's been 'standard practice' since then as a viable test. (science)

 

One more item to add to the hunt... you may have a pile of sludge under your valve covers, that doesn't let the oil drain back properly, and is being sucked into the combustion chambers past the intake valves. For you, that would be awesome, because you could clean it out and be cool for the price of valve cover gaskets.