I bought this 79 a few weeks ago and have been tinkering on it - new intake gasket, tune up, oil change etc. I knew it may have bigger problems but had hopes that I may be able to get a year out of it before I replaced the engine.

Today I took it out for a short drive. When I started it, I expected it to smoke a bit because it always has the few times that I fired it up. It smoked like crazy at first(more than it ever has). So much that it filled the garage up with smoke. I could hardly see my way out. The smoke went away as the engine burnt it, then it ran fine and no smoke. I took it for a ride of a couple of miles and it ran well. Back in the yard I just let it sit and idle. Purred like a kitten. I revved it up to 3K rpm and it sounded and looked good. When I revved it up to 4K rpm, it smoked really bad for a minute. I did this several times. 3K okay, 4K smoking.

I had some exhaust work to do on it so it is jacked up in the garage. I'm not sure if I should continue with the exhaust, or do I start disconnecting stuff to get ready for removing the engine and doing a rebuild or replacement.

Any thoughts???

 

Oil conrtol o-rings, put up with the smoke or rebuild it. How many miles, what weight of oil, have you Seafomed it yet?

 

Make sure that your oil level is not too high (overfilled). If that's okay, then yeah, the only way to really fix it is to rebuild it and replace the oil control rings.

However, mine also needs to have this done but I have been able to greatly reduce the amount of smoking (by about 95%) by using Lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer. I use about one quart in place of oil and it works great. So if you can't rebuild right now, then this might be an option for you to try out...

 

Mine was doing the same thing, usually after sitting for a little bit. I was a little high on oil but didn't think it was that big of a deal as it would just fill the oil filter... well... last oil change I made sure it wasn't overly filled and it hasn't done it since... it really used to smoke out the whole garage too to where it was like an eary fog...

 

trochoid:

Odometer says 35K miles. I'm pretty sure that's accurate, it's a very clean car.

10w40 for oil, and no, I have not seafoamed it yet. Will that help the oil control o-rings?

 

Lucas Oil Stabilizer would be my 1st choice with the low miles. Upping the oil to 20/50 won't help with your cold temperatures. Unfortunately, low mile engines have spent a lot of time sitting, and hardening. You might try try the Seafoam, if the car was granny driven.

Seafoam clears out carbon, Lucas helps seal the oil control rings.

 

Just make sure you put the Lucas in the oil, and the Seafoam in the gas tank...