car smokeing i think is valve seals no sure tho

[91heavychevyryder]

iv'e been driving my car for about two months after i put a nother motor in it. it smokes when i crank it up and when i pull off. if i continue to drive the car would it damage the motor and could i go back and forth to work (about a mile or mile and a half drive) please let me not what i should do

[silicon212]

How much oil does it use?

Valve seals usually cause a puff of smoke when you start the engine after it has been sitting a while, and this is common on the SB Chevy with age on it. If this is all it is, no big deal. If it also smokes when you're coasting or decelerating, that indicates worn guides and is a little more serious in that you will have increased oil consumption - more than the tablespoon of oil every thousand miles that old guide seals use. Seriously worn guides can cause the valves to improperly seat, leading to a burned valve/seat and a cylinder with reduced compression.

If it's smoking when you accelerate, that's usually an indication of seriously worn piston rings, broken piston rings, a broken piston or scored cylinder walls. Has the engine been overheated? If there's liquid oil in the tailpipe, park it until you figure out why. My first V8 car was a 1972 Impala and its previous owner decided he changed the oil in it too often, having done the deed only once in the 75,000 miles he put on the car. Needless to say, the engine was junk and it used a gallon of gas in about 17 miles, but a gallon of oil (yes, a gallon!) in 12 miles! Yes, I was going to gas stations to get old oil to throw in it (hey it was free in 1987 and the engine was beyond toast to begin with!). Oh, the memories - I got the engine to 2500 RPM and held it there one night in the parking lot of the Arby's I worked at the time, and proceeded to smokescreen the entire corner of the intersection of 15th ave and Camelback Rd. I think I might have put a quart of oil through the tailpipe in the 30 seconds I ran it like that! But, I digress. I was rather youthful then, still learning about what makes these work and nowadays, I would never do that. Of course, these days if I did, the Environazi Police would get me.

[91heavychevyryder]

so it is more than likely something more serious than the valve seals? id does puff some when i crank it but when i stop at a light a steady flow of smoke comes out the tail pipes and sometimes when im driving the some comes out the tail pipes but that is sometimes

[PeteA216]

Sounds like you're driving a two stroke. But valve seals won't give you a steady flow of blue smoke. Just as Silicon said above, if it's bad enough to give you constant smoke at idle and during acceleration it's probably something more severe such as horrible worn valve guides, bad rings, or even damage to one of more of the pistons or cylinder walls.

[silicon212]

Now there is one more thing that I just remembered - in 1997, I pulled the intake on my engine (the one in the car now) for whatever reason - I think it was to clean it or something, can't remember, but when I put it back together, one of the intake gaskets was misaligned just enough for there to be a vacuum leak into the lifter valley. This drew in oil and mimicked a broken piston in its voracity. R&Ring the intake cured the smoker. Have you pulled your intake lately? Have you checked the torque on the intake bolts?

Pull the lid off your air cleaner and inspect the inside of the air cleaner near the PCV filter. Is there a pool of oil? If so, this indicates worn piston rings. The oil is put there from excessive blow-by blasting through the filter tube. It's normal to see some vapor when you pull the oil cap from an engine that's been running, but it shouldn't blast from that filter tube while the engine is running.

[bobss396]

Look to see if any oil is coming out of the oil cap, a sure sign of blow by from work, broken rings. Wipe down the valve cover and keep an eye on it.

I don't trust a small block Chevy that doesn't smoke a little now and then. Like the others say, valve guide wear (or broken valve stem seals) go with a little oil smoke upon start ups. Anything else, look deeper.

Keep an eye on the oil, check it once a week. Cars will go a long time as oil belchers as long as they don't foul the plugs or fail the emissions test. I've had incredible smog machines that passed the test with a fresh set of plugs in them.

You can always do a dry compression check. See what the readings are, then on the low cylinder(s), squirt about a 1/2 ounce of oil in the spark plug hole and check it again. If the reading comes up as higher, you have ring issues.

Bob