'63 Still Smoking

[Joel T.]

Re: '63 Still Smoking/Suggestion

Dave,

I gotta tell you that what you are describing is what I thought I had... Before the last head pull I looked down the #6 intake runner and saw a black streak right at the lower bend of the port which started about 1" in from the mating surface and followed the contour of the runner down to the chamber.. Cleaning the black off I saw what I thought was a crack. Pulled the head and sent it to the shop. They fluxed it and pressure tested it and said "ain't nothin wrong here"... but did find that the head mating surface had a slight "bow" in it along the lower edge of the intake ports. Took .010" off to true up the surface and sent me the head back.

Another point... this puppy smokes basically at idle... billows of the stuff. I checked the oil last night and again this AM; down 1/2 qt. The motor now has 144 miles on it. Not knowing what the story is with all the tear downs I filled the oil back up to capacity and will watch it closely. If it does not rain I will try and put 50 miles or so on her tonight...

I don't know this Pandora person but she is working overtime on this motor!!!

Regards,

Joel

[Michael M.]

Re: '63 Still Smoking

Joe, I think it was mentioned elsewhere in the thread, but was it verified that the intake was mating properly with the cylinder heads? If the block is decked or the heads are machined it can slightly change the angle between the heads and hence require machining of the intake manifold to match the angle. Under the pressure produced in the engine there could be some oil being sucked into the #6 intake that might not be detectable. An inspection of the intake manifold gasket might help diagnose/eliminate this possible issue.

[Joel T.]

Re: '63 Still Smoking

Michael;

What you are describing is basically what we thought the problem was from the outset. The machine shop which did the work, did the whole job so to speak, block, heads and intake, so I have to assume that they checked. I've had the intake manifold off probably 5 times already trying different approaches; using silicone front and back to get the manifold to sit lower, etc. I even went out and picked up another manifold off eBay and tried that with the same result. When I pull them apart. I can see where I get a very good seal on the left side but the right, particularly along the lower edges of the intake ports is iffy. This last go around I pulled the head and sent it back to the shop for a third time.. This time they found that the lower edge of the mating surface was "bowed" meaning that the lower edge of the intake ports were recessed a bit. The shop trued up the mating surface by taking .010" off. I put the whole thing back together with the same result. At this point I am not sure what the situation is... I'm going to checka few things before I pull it apart again....