'89 C1500 smoking at startup

My '89 C1500 (62,000 original miles) puts out a sizeable cloud of bluish smoke first thing in the morning or if I start it after it's been sitting cold for awhile.

The intake valve seals were replaced 3 mo. ago which made little or no difference.

Any ideas or suggestions?

It's the valve guides. VERY common problem on the small blocks and the 4.3L. My truck does it...most of the older ones do.

Yup, mine are gone, awaiting a new motor.

Valve Guide Will Cause Smoke Ive Also Seen Is Caused By Bad Pcv Valves

its gotta be the valve guides or pcv valves, cant think of any other solution

Yep, I would also say the valve guides are wore out causing oil to leak down into the combustion chamber. So when you first start it up it burns off whatever oil leaked down into them.

How expensive is it to replace em, just out of curiosity?

I've never replaced 'em, but I can't imagine their too expensive. Assuming you can by them by themselves without other stuff to do with the valves. I'm sure you probably can though.

if you are going to do these, you need as valve grinder to get the old guides out, and while you are in there why not get new springs, keepers, and valves, they aren't that expensive. I think Jasper Engines will do a head job for $50.

50 bucks, you serious? is that just labor or what? WHats the type of reliablity?

yeah...labor....my cousin grinds the valve seats out in their factory. He said 50 labor + parts per head, i guess i should have said that.

yea cause now it becomes 400 bucks
i dunno if it'll even help my truck

na probably not 400...I'll find out and let ya know fer sure.

Thanks.

I have an 89 C1500 and it burns oil pretty bad. It leaks on the downpipe right before the gutted cat, and that makes smoke, but whenever I gun it or stay at 70mph on freeway for a while white smoke POURS out of the left exhaust tip...not the right... :screwy: and if I keep at it smoke starts coming out from the hood and the smoke coming out of the exhaust starts turning black. I stop when that happens so I dunno what happens after that. It runs at about 190 degrees wich isn't too hot or anything, so what would the problem be with "Ole' Whitey" (I named it.) :grinno:

Were the Intake Valve Guide seals the only thing replaced? The Exaust Valve Guide seals should have been done too. I had a 305 out of a 79 Monte Carlo w/200,000 miles on it that smoked at start up and if at idle for a traffic light. Fixed it myself for under 50 bucks.

I just replaced my PCV valve and my guide seals and it still smokes when I get on it, and you can't gun it from a stop or idle roll without it konking out really bad. It sounds like it dies completely but slowly revs up after it if you let off the gas. I did a compression test on each cylinder and checked my plugs and everything there is almost perfect. Brand new plugs i put in a while ago, and the compression on every cylinder was VERY close to 100/150 wich is perfect almost. Im going to do a vaccume test, but do you guys have any sugestons on why it would bog so bad, and ONLY from a stop or slow speed? Any help here would be awesome thanks.

I have an 89 C1500 and it burns oil pretty bad. It leaks on the downpipe right before the gutted cat, and that makes smoke, but whenever I gun it or stay at 70mph on freeway for a while white smoke POURS out of the left exhaust tip...not the right... :screwy: and if I keep at it smoke starts coming out from the hood and the smoke coming out of the exhaust starts turning black. I stop when that happens so I dunno what happens after that. It runs at about 190 degrees wich isn't too hot or anything, so what would the problem be with "Ole' Whitey" (I named it.) :grinno:
For one thing you have a oil leak some where could be from the valve covers and for smoke out the left side pull the valve cover off your returns might be pluged up. If not you have a more serious problem valve guides, rings or a simple fix pluged pcv.

I know my left valve cover leaks a little, but only because the sidewalls aren't big enough to hold in a gasket, so im sure the gasket I spent a half hour getting in there makes it leak a bit. It leaked oil before that though. I did the compression test and it came out almost perfect, all the plugs are fine, the entire engine has new gaskets on it everywhere (8 months old) and im trying to find a vacuum test thing thats not $60 at checker which is WAY too much. I was thinking of getting this stuff you put in your oil that shows up at night if you shine a black light on it. Like you put it in with your oil, then drive it a bit, then at night you shine a blacklight over your entire engine and it would shine or whatever where it's leaking. I havn't heard anything of it, but it's worth a try.