I took my challenger to the track monday for the first time since i bought it a few weeks ago and it is pushing a bit of smoke out of the exhaust on one bank at high rpm. It has good oil pressure and sounds fine, makes pretty good power, unfortunately i haven't got a lot of time to mess with it at the moment, so wondered if there's anything i can stick in there to stop it smoking untill i get time to pull it out. I intend to do a comp test in the next week or so just to verify the problem or not ?
Mick

Need a lot more info, could be an intake leak or other issue(s), need more info

In a word, no.

And a compression test won't tell you what you need to know. I suggest a leak down test.

However, even that wouldn't tell you if you have a valve stem seal leaking.

I thought it was valve stem seals on decel and rings on accel ?
I have three other cars, one i'm in the middle of doing, my Dart is next and the challenger will have to come after that.

Sadly there isn't a miracle solution that will fix leaky rings.

If you don't find an intake gasket leaking then the only thing you can do is rering it ...

I'm not trying to cure it, i'm trying to reduce it, till i get round to fixing it in the winter. If it was intake surely it would be white smoke ?

Well, you didn't tell us what color the smoke is.

If it's dark, it's fuel. But only blowing smoke out of one side doesn't indicate fuel as intake manifolds are either single plane, mostly without divider plates, or dual plane and they are nearly without exception, one side of the carb feeds two on right and two on left.

If it's bluish-gray and smells like oil, it's oil. It could be one broken ring, which is more likely than the rings on only one side going bad. It could also be an intake manifold leak, in which case you should be able to tell which one is leaking by looking at spark plugs. Actually either one of those would foul one spark plug.

If it's pure white it's coolant and you have a head gasket problem. I've had experience with unknowingly running an engine with a warped head for miles , middle of the night, and the burnt antifreeze seized the pistons. While I saved enough money to overhaul the engine, the acid from the burnt antifreeze attacked the cylinder walls and made a myriad of pits, a little over 0.010" deep.

You will get better answers from investigation and logic than you will by shotgunning tests at the engine. In most cases the engine'll tell you the answer.

JohnRR is mostly right, most of the scenarios I've outlined above will not be fixed by a bottle or two of Wynn's Motor Honey.

R.

I didn't see the smoke as it was going down the strip at the time, someone suggested it was oil smoke but that could be a guess and it was only doing it at high rpm, car runs perfect, took it out yesterday but didn't give it any rpm because the place and the weather didn't allow that.
Going back to the track with it in a couple of weeks, then taking my Dart out 3 wks after that if i get the glass doors mounted in time.
Mick

What kind of engine?

440, hyd cam, ported 906 heads, victor int, 850 holley.

What color is the smoke ?

Whether oil gets into the cylinders via the rings , valve seals or intake gasket it's all going to be blue. If you have white smoke that is water and it's coming from a crack in the head, the block, or the head gasket. There is no water in the intake of a big block mopar ... but you know that ...

If it was water, surely it would be smoking all the time, it's only doing it under hard acceleration. I'm not sure what colour as i was running in a bracket but someone i know suggested it was oil smoke.

Are the spark plugs clean? Have you tried Smoke Fix type engine oil additives? Mostly snake oil, but it might reduce oil burning a bit.

You could replace your valve seals with Vitton type.

I have a Jeep CJ 5 with Factory AMC 304 V8. Had the heads rebuilt at a local shop. A year later the engine smoked quite a bit. Initially thought it need a shortblock rebuild. Rolled the dice and replaced the valve stem seals with Vitton type, and ALL the smoking went away. I was amazed.

I used an on-head type valve spring compressor and compressed air with a fitting to hold the valves shut. It was like a magic cure. It is still a clean burning engine now five years later.

Do you have a Pan Evac? Sort of a poor mans crankcase vacuum pump. It can reduce blow-by and improve ring sealing by reducing internal crankcase pressure. It is fairly cheap to do. Just weld a 1/2-inch pipe into the header collector, thread on an exhaust check valve, connect hose from check valve to a breather fitting in the valve cover. I currently have Pan Evacs on my '79 Jeep and my '71 Charger.

Hummmm....

DC any idea how much vac it is generating? I want to do this myself.

Sorry i didn't reply DC, there's an 8 hr difference between us and i've been busy working today. I've tried nothing yet but i may have the exhaust evac parts in the garage.
Here's a pic of one of the plugs, oil on the threads but dry and biscuit brown everywhere else.
Mick

I put one on my 360. Mine doesn`t generate much vac but it is enough to keep oil from covering the intake and valve covers. It really depends on the exhaust and back pressure on how much vacuum you get. Also it depends on where you install it and the angle of the pipe.

Some interesting options there and a lot of info i didn't know.

I don't know if this would work for a high power engine, or if it would mess with cutting equipment when getting the block machined, but there is a new company selling a product certech gel. It's a ceramic gel that you add to engine oil. The technology has been around for awhile. It fills in and resurfaces metal where there is metal on metal friction. That's what they claim anyways. I have a stock 318 that has bad blowby. Chugs smoke out of valve cover. I'm not investing money in a rebuild, it's nothing special so I thought I'd give this stuff a try. I called the owner and since the company is new he gave me 20% off and will refund another $50 if I video the before and after.

I have no expectations of it actually working but we'll see. I'll post results. They also guarantee damage cost of any were to occur due to product. Haven't seen any complaints yet though.

topic is..... BLOW BY FIX. I ran dirt track series for many years. when we had a lot of laps on an engine and were loosing oil by the rings , we used engine restore in the oil and it did help some. http://www.amazon.com/Restore-00016-8-Cy...600a41.70486092

Gee and here I thought it blowby temp fix?

http://www.restoreusa.com/ Have used this and there was less blow by coming out of the breather than before. Could smell the difference in the car.(yes, it was tired and abused) NOT a rebuild in a can, but it did help.

Burning oil is a shiny black coating on the plug, what you show, on that one plug, is pretty much normal looking.

What do the other 7 show?

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbt...tml#Post1523374 Thought this question sounded famililar.

Looks like everyone has things pretty well covered.

I installed the Moroso Crankcase Evacuation Kit around 2002 on my Charger. It pulls a fair vacuum at idle and improves with increased RPM. I mounted Baffle Plates inside the valve covers beneath the breathers to reduce/eliminate oil loss.

http://www.moroso.com/eb/web/instructions/25900_inst.pdf

Liked the end results so much, I made my own kit from hardware store 1/2-inch pipe, Smog Pump Check Valves, vinyl tubing, breathers and grommets, mounted to the headers, for use on the V8 engine in my CJ5 Jeep.

As suggested, people think about the air/fuel mixture above the piston, but may forget about the air below the piston in the crankcase / cylinder block. That air has to move around in the crankcase and energy is wasted in the process and it adds to crankcase windage.

Someone figured this out many years back, maybe it was a NASCAR engine builder, at least that was what I had heard back in the day, but maybe it was some amateur racer? By connecting a vacuum pump and creating a partial vacuum in the crankcase, horsepower increased.

Bracket racers used to convert Smog Pumps into vacuum pumps for a similar purpose.

In any event, there are benefits to creating a partial vacuum in the crankcase.

I left that out because I knew someone like you would need to reply and add something meaningful. be sure to add the space in blow-by!

Pour in Restore and hope for the best.

Are you running mufflers?

Yes they finish at the axle, it's a street strip car, full interior.Why do you ask ?

Does the probe have to go in the collector, or can it go in the front of the exhaust ?

Here's an idea! why don't you try driving it easy since you only have an issue when you take it to the track?

When you say "probe" are you talking about the "Pan Evac" system or is it some measuring probe?

A Pan-Evac doesn't have a "probe" but what it does have is a 1/2-inch metal pipe, the same as you can buy at a hardware store. The weld-in pipe is threaded on one end (to attach the exhaust check valve) and the other end is cut at a 45-degree angle. It is this cut end that is positioned in the collector such that the exhaust stream passes over this cut end drawing air from the crankcase into the exhaust stream.

It works much like an old fashioned perfume vaporizer, air passing over the end of a tube draws perfume into the airstream.

As for required positioning of the pipe, from testing and experimentation the optimum placement is in the collector. If you weld the pipe in farther downstream, the effectiveness is reduced.

If it is some other "probe" you are speaking of, please excuse my explanation.

If you are running an evac type system and mufflers you'll have a back pressure problem. Evac systems are designed for an open system. You may have too much crankcase pressure which is pushing up through your rings. Try unhooking the evac and run some filters and see what happens.

DC
I meant the steel tube, i'd rather it went just behind the collector at the front of the exhaust and out the side facing forward at 45 degrees. That way i dont have to pull the headers out. Do you run your headers open at the track or corked up ?
Dart4forte
I actually have caps near the front like a max wedge exhaust, although i ran it corked up the other week.

I generally leave the mufflers ON and always on the street for the Charger, and mufflers always on the Jeep CJ5.

The Moroso Instructions are fairly explicit about placement of the pipe.

DRAG RACE APPLICATION
1. Remove valve covers and drill a 1-1/8” hole in each cover. On all Moroso “Stamped” Valve Covers, the holes provided will work perfectly. When determining hole location for all other covers, try to find a flat surface that is not directly over a rocker arm oil hole.
NOTE: Separators must be installed in a position at right angles to the top of the valve covers to function effectively. See Fig (1)
2. Before installing rubber grommets, remember to cut the bottom ”seal area” off to allow the separator to work. Lubricate the inner surface of the grommet with a touch of oil or grease and twist in the separator. The fit should be tight to help hold crankcase vacuum.
3. Drill a 7/8” hole in the right and left collector directly behind the transition area shown in figure (2). Check valve installs on the top of the collector.
4. Place check valve probe at the proper depth and angle per drawing and weld all the way around for a complete seal.
5. Use a 5/8” high heat or high pressure hose to complete installation. See Fig (3)

I suppose you could experiment with trying to mount the Pipe as near the flange as possible and with a short collector it might work, but then again, it may not be very effective as compared to having the Pipe at the merge-point where all the header tubes meet in the collector.

I know it was a fair amount of work to remove and drill holes in almost New headers, but though I had similar thoughts about mounting the pan Evac pipe in the exhaust pipe instead, from all I read, I didn't think that would be sufficiently effective. Since this isn't a true vacuum pump, I figured I needed the best pipe placement possible and mounting it in the collector was the only recommended placement. I didn't want to go to all that trouble and have it not work.

Mr Gasket Pan Evac Installatin Instructions

The drawing in the instructions indicates correct placement of the pipe.

The moroso instructions show the pipe on the top of the collector, i will weld it like your pic because i can do that with the headers on.
Do you run pcv's as well ?

Yes, I use PCV connected to the carburetor base as well as the Pan Evac (both).

When choosing where to mount the Pipe in the Header Collector, keep in mind that the Check-Valve and a Hose need to be connected to the pipe end. If the Pipe points toward the ground you might have ground clearance problems. If you mount the pipe on top you may have chassis clearance problems. Before you remove the headers, look at choosing the best mounting location.

Generally speaking, to have a good straight hose connection it is good to mount it on top of the collector or offset top to the right or left for good hose routing.

I'm thinking of connecting at a 45 degree angle on the side towards the sill of the car, that way i can fit it in situ.
What's your feelings on the argument re not using evac on a street car.
Thanks for all your help as well DC.

Both of the vehicles which I have crankcase evacuation kits on, are almost entirely street-driven, with mufflers, (albeit Dynomax which are essentially glass-pack free flowing) and both draw substantial vacuum, even at Idle.

Though not as effective as a mechanical vacuum pump, they still reduce internal crankcase pressure. It doesn't hurt and surely helps.

Perhaps you can find someone nearby that has a kit installed. When you remove a breather (engine running) you can feel the vacuum.