Working on a 440 that was built quite a while ago gets run every summer and put away in the winter. It gets started every other month or so and run for a little while. The Car got put away for a couple of months. Fired it up wasn't running right and blowing a lot of smoke out of the exhaust. Number 6 spark plug turned out to have quite a bit of oil on it. What to check first?

Like I said when the car got put away there were no signs of the car burning oil. and now it did not seem to clear up when ran for a maybe 2-3 minutes.

Thanks, Cody

Probably one of the intake manifold bolts or the intake gasket itself. If the bolts don't have sealer on them, intake vacuum will suck oil past the threads. If you pull the intake manifold and check the ports for oil, it will be pretty obvious if this is your issue. If it's not, you'll probably be pulling a head anyway. Usually a worn valve seal/guide will give a poof of oil smoke on start-up and clean up after that.

could be the intake bolt or gasket. If it is the valve seal you can change it while the heads are on. If you pull the intake you'll be able to see if the oil is coming from there.

What they said. I have the same issue on my 440. I have been dragging my feet at pulling the intake because I keep telling myself to just wait until I get a six-pack setup and do it once.

clean the plug and drive it for a while. The heat might seal up the intake... or you could pull the 2 bolts around 6 and use some sealer and give it a go.

What is a good sealer to use?

don't use too much, squeeze a dab on then run it up the bolt. Wipe any excess off. It the bolt comes out dripping w/ oil that might be your problem.

The bolts that hold the intake to the heads do not go into the intake runners, ports, combustion chamber, or any intake vacuum source. They go into the open area in the head near the push rod passages. Heck if the threads for the intake bolts strip you can actually put a lock nut on the inside of the head passage to tighten the intake down. Oil creeping up the bolt threads ends up pooling in the valley pan under the intake, not burning in the cylinder and creating exhaust smoke. Could likely be cracked/broken valves stem seals allowing oil to seep down the guide and pooling on the valve causing smoke on start up. .

I am leaning towards a valve seal but it smokes a lot and didnt seem to clean up at all. The motor has never smoked before so it seems hard to believe that it is suddenly from the intake bolts not having sealer but I will let you know what I find. Thanks for giving me a place to start.

Cody

R&R the valley pan & use some sealer lightly/evenly around both sides of the 8 valley pan port openings

Are you running the composite gaskets on either side of the valley pan? I know of some that just use the tin pan with some sealer and it's possible that it's leaking to the #6 intake port. May want to invest in an intake gasket set and the valley pan. That way you can check the port and also reseal the intake.

yea its just the tin bathtub gasket. They seem to be fine on other motors. Tomorrow I should have time to inspect some of the valve seals.

Cody