I think my motor broke! Smoking 440 motor

[The_Handier_Man1]

From: jbrt1989  (Original Message)
Sent: 12/15/2003 3:35 PM

Hey all, I think I've got major problems.  Was driving the ol 76 winnie Cheiftain around town just to get it out and let it stretch it's legs for a little bit. It's been awhile since we've had her out, a couple months for sure.  While driving down a small highway at around 55 mph, I noticed the rig was shuddering.  It felt the way a motor does when it's missing slightly.  Next thing I noted was it was smoking horribly! I looked like a big fat mosquito fogger running down the road!  When I stopped to sort of check things out smoke started coming up from the front as well.   When I pulled the cover, smoke was puffing up from the carb in time with the motor. 

Now I'm no mechanic here, as many of you know, but on intitial diagnosis, I'm betting a valve has given up for a better life in that great internal combustion engine in the sky. 

I was able to get it home.  No unusual noises that I could tell coming from the motor, but,that 440 is a very noisy motor anyway with that big ol fan humming away.  Any small noises I'd have not likely heard.   Power did seem a bit diminished too.

Any tips, advice, etc. would be helpful here.  Again, remember, I'm no mechanic here.  Telling me anything that would require me to tear down that motor to any great extent would be the same as telling me to take her out, get my gun, and put her outta her misery.   I'm in no spot at all right now to pay too much for repairs, but, I don't have a problem letting it sit around for awhile to save up the money so long as it's worth doing.  We've put so much sweat, tears, money, cussing, ..well, you get the idea.  I'd hate to have to lose our Winnie here.

Thanks

Jeff



From: Colin
Sent: 12/15/2003 7:40 PM

You can run the engine a short while with the valve covers off to check the operation of the valves. Just be carefull to set out rags so the oil doesn't get all over. I copied a description of a "Blow-By" test that one of the other members posted some time ago, but I have not done it myself and I hope one of the more experienced members will post a description of the test for you.

Colin



From: denison
Sent: 12/15/2003 7:50 PM

The good news is that if it had been a bad rotating part, I am fairly sure you would have easily heard that racket.
Some close descriptions will help our diagnosing. Wish there was a good way for you to tell us the extent of that cloud of smoke behind you. If you can answer any of the following it would help narrow the guessing.
* Do you know if was running on all 8 cylinders when you started out? And do you know whether it was or was not smoking already?
* The smoke you saw behind you, was it coming from the tailpipe, or coming off of the engine, like would happen if oil was running down onto the manifold. If the smoke was from the tail-pipe, was it bluish or whiteish?
* When you said smoke was coming from the front, I presume you mean from the engine area. Was that with the air cleaner in place, and what color was it?
* Could you see anyplace the oil was coming from?
* When you stopped to see what was the matter, did the engine stay running with your foot off the gas?
* You said smoke was puffing up from the carb in time with the motor - so I guess you had the air cleaner lid off? Was this at an idle? Could you tell if the smoke was all from the carburetor, or was it from the outside of the engine also?
* Did it continue to smoke when you were returning home, and was it from the tail pipe, the engine area, or the carburetor inlet?
* Look at the oil on your dipstick - is there any fudgy caramel effect, which would mean coolant in your oil, and is the level normal, or lower, or higher?
* Look at the coolant in the radiator - is it at the right level, and does it have a foamy scum floating on the surface?
Either one of these could indicate a bad head gasket, or just a bad gasket between the intake manifold and the heads.
* Check your tranny fluid - with the engine stopped it should be a couple of inches above the fill line at least.
* You could remove the plugs and see their color. I know this is really hard for the ones on the drivers side. If one of them is black and oily, thats a fouled plug, and is your suspect cylinder, so keep track of which one it is.
* Was your water temperature normal?
* Was your oil pressure normal? Im sure you were able to calmly remember to look at all the gauges!
* Could the smoke have been power steering fluid that blew onto the manifold. Or could it be an electric wire that got down onto the manifold. This would not make much smoke, nor for very long. I dont want to discount that you might have had two problems.
If it was an intake or exhaust valve sticking slightly open, I would not expect there to be any smoke except coming out the tailpipe. If there was an exhaust valve that was not opening, I would not expect there to be smoke in the engine compartment until you took the lid off the air cleaner. If you had an ignition wire fall off a plug onto the manifold I would not expect any smoke to be puffing from the carburetor.
* Will it still start up, and how close to normal is it starting?
Had you ever done a compression test on it yet? Let us know as much as you can about it.
If you could send me your email address I could send a longer guess - list. My email address shows up if you click on my name at the top of this post. denison



From: LJ-TJ
Sent: 12/16/2003 1:33 AM

Was the smoke white? I had a similar experiance with my pickup.It was a crack in the head and it was burning the anti-freeze.



From: jbrt1989
Sent: 12/16/2003 8:24 AM

wow, great tips and hints on how to figure this one out.

Denison, yep, I did notice the guages, years of trucking experience paid off there.  Nothing wrong from that end.

LJ-TJ and Denison you two may have nailed I hope. LJ-TJ,  Yup, smoke's white and Denison, yep there's some foamy sludge looking stuff floating around in the radiator. 

The oil on the dipstick looks fine to me, dark, but, it's been right at about 3000 miles since I changed it. 

Haven't gotten around to checking the plugs.  Tranny fluid looks as it always does.  Burnt, but level.  (gotta check into that tranny one of these days too)

That's about as far as I got last night checking all of your things you mentioned.  Hopefully I'll get some time later today.

If it's a head gasket, or even the heads, I can probably shanghi a buddy to help me fix that.  I'm hoping we're on the right track here and it's not internal engine like the pistons, rings or something like that.

Thanks again all.
jeff