[boulderrs]

I have a stock rebuilt 289 (engine rebuilt from Vege Engines) with about 2,500 miles. Starting in the last 200 - 300 miles it begun to smoke a fair amount and especially at idle. From what I can tell (and smell), it is definitely burning oil. I have the timing set at 12 degrees advanced and overall, the engine seems to be running pretty well.

Some background:
1. When I pulled off the carb and observed some oil on the top of the intake (under the carb) and some more in the throat of the intake. It appeared that the PCV was allowing oil to pull into the intake. I cleaned out what oil I could reach and to make sure it was no longer pulling oil through the PCV I removed the PCV and put in a valve cover breather and blocked the vacuum hole on the carb spacer. This eliminates any new oil from being pulled in from the PCV but I don't know how long this has been occurring and how much oil is still in the intake.

2. I took out each plug to observe it's condition and found all to have normal wear with the exception of #2 with carbon deposit and # 5 with lite carbon deposit. The plugs generally look pretty good (with the exception of the carbon deposits) and none have any oil deposits.

3. I completed a compression test with all of the plugs removed. Here are the results: #1=145 #2=150 #3=145 #4=145 #5=147 #6=145 #7=145 #8=145 These compression results seem to normal with little variance across the cylinders.


Any other suggestions of what I should look for?

Thanks for your input,
Boulderrs

[john/82'gt]

you might want to check the valve seals they could be split cause it to smoke but still run normal

[boulderrs]

thanks for the suggestion on checking the valve seals. how do I do this? Any links to "how to" directions to do this?

[dutchcarson]

If you take the breather or oil fill cap off with engine running, is any blow-by coming out? If so, its possible the piston rings never seated properly. Also, make sure the oil level is not overfull.

[The Greek]

If the PCV is pushing oil into the carb, there is an abnormal amount of crankcase pressure. This is an indication of ring seating problems or excessive valve guide clearance. Did the heads get reworked? Since the compression is good and the smoking is mostly at idle, excessive valve guide clearance is what I'd be suspicious of.

Pull a valve cover and look for an umbrella shaped rubber piece inside of the valve spring surrounding the base of the valve stem. Check to see if they are firmly seated around the base of the head or if they have ridden up the valve stem.

[davestangman]

do you have aftermarket valve covers on the engine? I have seen many with no bafflle in the valve cover so the pcv valve was sucking up oil splashing off the rockers.Just look in the hole in the valve cover, if you see rocker arms there is no baffle