Got a real low mile s about 250 miles on a new crate 390 Ford motor I just installed in my 61 Galaxie. Runs out ok but does seems to pull back a little but it is dumping white smoke out especially coming down a hill and off the accelerator. Smokes out both tail pipes white smoke. I did a compression test .Cylinders run 120 lbs to 137 lbs. I plan on doing a leak down test but with fairly consistent compression .I don’t know if I have a problem bad enough to do a as leak down .But the smoking is not good .Any ideas? Motor is out of warranty as it took me too long to get the car done far enough to start to notice this problem before the warranty ran out .Would I be correct to say I have antifreeze getting into a cylinder?Any ideas.Should I do a leak down to see if I get bubbles in the radiator? That should pinpoint head gasket correct?
Does the vehicle have coolant lose issues? If it does, it could indicate a head gasket problem. My father had a '63 Galaxie with an FX automatic transmission, that had a vacuum driven modulator on the side of the transmission that was defective. The engine was pulling transmission fluid into the the intake, causing white smoke out the exhaust.
White smoke..hmm how's the oil look?..milky? Water/coolant in the oil is my guess. Why, is the question..incorrect head gaskets?, did the head bolts get re-torqued after start up/cool down sequence?
I have a manual trans .so no modulator valve .Yes I believe I am losing coolant . Just wanting to figure where and or why Thanks so far for the help.
I had white smoke on an OT car years ago...pulled out the plugs, one was really clean....sure enough, that's the one that was sucking coolant in through a failed intake gasket.
Doesn’t really smell but I never got right into the tailpipe lots of condensation on the pavement after running for awhile plus I am picking up moisture on the LH breather bottom side when taken out and getting blow by there too. Any ideas here?
I've been known to stick my finger in the tailpipe and touch it to my tongue, antifreeze tastes sweet too
If you’re losing coolant, do what Jim said in post 6. It’s been years since I pulled the intake on an FE, but if there was ever one I could screw up setting it in place, an FE was it. Including the rebuilder. A blown head gasket makes a lot of smoke, but only on that side (if the exhaust is separate). Followed by water in the oil, in my experience. The other thing is, how long has it been sitting? You can pick a lot of moisture up sitting, and 250 miles isn’t much. Depending on what’s used, I can remember when it took 500 miles to seat the rings.
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If it's an automatic, I'm going with modulator. If it's bad it sucks tranny fluid right in the carb or intake. JMO. Lippy
Take the plugs out & pressure test cooling system ... if it holds pressure, leave it pumped up overnight. Next morning, spin it over. Don't stand in front of any plug holes.
There is a kit to check for exhaust gas in the coolant. There is a bulb and vial with a liquid that turns color in the presence of exhaust gas. You get the engine warm and use the bulb to draw a sample of the air in the radiator above the coolant. If I remember right it turns yellow if exhaust gas is present. NAPA should have the kit. The other option is a cylinder leakage test if the leak is bad enough.
The rocker shafts can be installed upside down and this will cause a FE motor to smoke. But it would be oil smoke not AF smoke.
Ok, here is what I am learning here and more information .Runs strong with a small pull back after warming up. White smoke out both pipes,slightly heavier on LH side but both quite a lot. Exhaust has an H pipe so I take it white smoke could transfer from side to side even if only one sides head gasket is bad....loosing coolant...compression is pretty consistant, pressure wise. No bad cylinder, Aluminum intake ,still large but not heavy . I used a stud method to drop in place., so bulk was not an issue .Should I try a leak down test next or just pretty much figure this a head gasket situation ?
An un-baffled valve cover can allow oil up into the PCV port and into the carb/intake. Something to check.
Another head gasket checking method I've not tried, but it came from a very competent mechanic. You need a radiator pressure tester to do this. Fill the radiator to the brim and attach the radiator pressure tester. You want the radiator completely full so there is no air in the system to compress. Pump the tester to 1 to 3 psi, disable the ignition and crank the engine over. If you have a head gasket leak you will see the needle on the tester bump up as the offending cylinder comes to TDC. You can zero in on the problem cylinder by removing spark plugs one at a time. Thanks to Roy Gage for this information.
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I'd re-torque the heads before anything else (I've seen no mention of this so I am going to assume it was never done).
Radiator pressure test first. You can pay the deposit on one at Autozone or O'Reilly's and use it and then take it back and not be out the 80.00 if you don't have access to one. I've done that as I don't have one and sometimes it is a couple of years between times when I need one.
I always ran the engine to break the cam in then let it sit overnight so it would be stone cold, then do the re-torque.
Just did the radiator (cooling system) pressure check COLD and no loss of pressure at all from anywhere .Pressure on the guage I set at 7#......It held perfect . Left on for about 10 minutes. Also retorqued the intake and head bolts COLD although they never actually retorqued at all. They were still at the recommended torque?
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