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Blue smoke, shaking engine, oily plugs...help!!

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Nightmare2013 View Drop Down
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Joined: Jan/29/2013
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    Posted: Apr/25/2013 at 10:38pm
I have an '83 Wagoneer with the 360in it. Got a huge recent problem! I took off this morning and all was great, just got my carb tuned up good and it was a beautiful day.
I stopped at a light, everything seemed dandy until I took off. Mind the fact I am deaf, and didn't hear anything. But taking off, my car was shaking like I was driving over grates! It smoothed out past 40mph. Came to the next light and just about choked on the fumes, blue smoke pouring out of the tailpipe. I said screw this, turned around and went home.
Once it cooled down I checked everything accessible. Oil was dark but fine, no oil in the water. Had some oil around the driver side manifold, so pulled the plugs and they were all oily. Manifold and plugs on other side are fine. I checked all around and could only find the seeped oil around that manifold, and not around the valve cover gasket. I haven't pulled the valve cover yet but will soon.
Has anyone experienced this before? My biggest concern is that I learned today that it's been rebuilt and is already .060 over, so no boring for this old block, and I'm scraping to hear that it's just the head or gasket!
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purplehornet View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote purplehornet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/25/2013 at 11:43pm
Check your intake manifold bolts and see if they are loose.

73 Hornet X hatchback
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RegattaBlueAMX View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RegattaBlueAMX Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/26/2013 at 5:27am
Check compression on the affected cylinders. You may have cracked the piston ring lands. My 390 had several pistons with broken ring lands and the engine ran surprisingly well. Hope this isn't the case with your engine..

Gil
   
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budryzer View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote budryzer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/26/2013 at 7:13am
The first thing I would check is to ensure the oil is draining back down off of the heads. It could be that as you were driving, the oil was lubricating the rockers but not returning to the pan because of clogged or restricted returns. They are at the front and rear of the head. The oil woul then get pushed through the valve seals and show up on all four plugs:)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FuzzFace2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/26/2013 at 8:46pm
Everything said so far are all good things to check. You said the motor has been rebult what intake is on it? if not stock do you know if the baffel was installed on it and using the stock pan gasket?
Could be pulling oil thru the PCV but most of the time it only oils 1 plug but yes do check the bolts as it could pull oil from the valley and get all valves wets.
Dave ----
TSM = Technical Service Manual

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Nightmare2013 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightmare2013 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/27/2013 at 12:17am
Alright yanked the valve cover tonight. Started getting dark so I could only check my front oil passage which seemed clean. My valve cover was held in place by some black goop, like silicone sealant! But everything looked pretty decent, aside from my rockers and springs being covered in oil. I'll do a more thorough search tomorrow after work but overall things looked good.
It was rebuilt but still retains the stock intake manifold. The only real modification was a comp 260h cam, from what the original builder tells me.
I'll try to see if I can find something more tomorrow. Thanks for the help! Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping ny rings are still good.
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Nightmare2013 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightmare2013 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/27/2013 at 12:21am
Sorry, I did check the pcv and it was still looking fine. Will check the intake bolts tomorrow.
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uncljohn View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote uncljohn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/27/2013 at 8:18am
The idea of checking compression at this point in time makes good sense.
Well I suspect not being able to hear what is going on is making it hard to understand what took place but the last two times (yes twice) my 390 did that I had indeed broken pistons.  What had taken place was detonation (something normally being able to be heard. Also called pinging) had caused damage to the pistons and the ring lands had broken.  This of course caused two things to take place. A loss of compression there for a shaking situation as at low rpm the engine was badly miss-firing and blow-by.  To the point where pressure generated in the crank case caused by the broken and/or damaged pistons trying to fire thus due to holes in them, pressurizing the crank case.  This cause oil fumes to blow up the filler tube on the front of the engine and then back through the oil cap and it tube that connects to the factory air cleaned and then into the factory air cleaner filling it with oil.
If you no longer have the factory air cleaner and it's tube the oil would still blow back up that way but once it got to the breather at the top of the oil fill tube, the oil would concense and run down to the top of the engine filling the intake manifold area with oil.
As to the engine?
Well, I can say when all was said and done that I had one good piston left.  The other 7 were junk. Before I took it apart due to wishful thinking I had assumed I had only damaged 1 piston not 7 and the damage was minor so I had ordered and received an OEM piston that would fit my engine.  Upon discovering I needed 7 not one AND both heads had been damaged badly by broken piston parts AND the cylinders had been scored by the same broken parts and in addition the oil pan was full of broken piston parts (are you following the story here?) I ended up rebuilding the engine and while I had the heads re-machined for use I ended up replacing them with open chamber heads to drop the compression down to something that was manageable with 91 octane fuel.  And never broke another piston.
As to the one I bought and could no longer use? A few years later I sold it to a person in Florida who needed one OEM piston and could not find any one that made them any longer.
I guess that is no longer true, they are made now but of questionable quality.
An oh, by the way I have a pair of 360's on an engine stand.  One a builder and one I probably will use in my Next Hornet restoration.
The builder can be yours fairly easily if you want.


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Nightmare2013 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightmare2013 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/27/2013 at 9:19pm
Uncljohn, I'll keep that offer in mind. I'll ask the wife tomorrow night when she returns and see if she's okay with it. She knows I love my jeep so we'll see!
The oil cap and filter actually look great, save for some black soot which is new. Same thing though, shaking at low rpm. My oil looks pretty decent though. Haven't ran a compression check as I'm not sure how to.
Gonna get my power steering pump in place in the Tahoe than look a little deeper into the jeep. Might drop the oil pan and pull the heads tomorrow, if we ever get some dang sun around here.
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Nightmare2013 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightmare2013 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/27/2013 at 9:31pm
Forgot to add, I've always had a slight, intermittent misfire, but once this situation happened it stopped, strangely enough!
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