Raindem
Veteran Member
OK, finally got a chance to do some more work. Here's an update.
Changed oil & filter. This is the first oil change since the rebuild. The old oil was thick and black, but otherwise free of debris or metal shavings. Cut open the oil filter and all I found was a little gritty sludge in the paper. So the engine is not disinigrating.
Cleaned & regapped the plugs. Same condition as previously noted (most had wet oil on the threads and a dry black coating on the electrode). I'm thinking of going to a hotter plug.
Retorqued the intake manifold.
Leaned out the carburetor. I know it's running rich and I didn't want any rich condition black/gray smoke obfuscating the diagnosis.
Started her up and waited for it to come up to temp (remember, it never smokes when cold). While waiting I noticed that #7 plug wire was arcing to ground right at the boot. Upon inspection I saw that there was a small tear in the boot, probably from taking the wires on & off a hundred times. Checked out the rest of the wires and 4 of them had similar damage to the boot and wire #4 was also visibly arcing to ground. So I made a temp repair with silicone and electrical tape. New wires on the shopping list. BTW, those wires ARE new. They're expensive Bosch wires and I'm a little disasspointed in how quickly they failed.
Started it back up and checked the timing. Still at 8 degrees where I initially set it.
Took a vac reading. When the engine was cold the Vac was steady at 16. When it warmed up the needle floated between 15 & 16. That's low. Does it make a difference that I'm at 5,000 ft. elevation?
Once it warmed up I got the blue smoke again. But it's not nearly as bad as it was on the 1st day. It's not bellowing smoke now. It's lightly puffing it out. But it's still there and it's definately blue.
I'm going to put a couple hundred more highway miles on it to see if that changes anything. After which I'll re-do the compression test. And of course pick up a new set of wires.
Changed oil & filter. This is the first oil change since the rebuild. The old oil was thick and black, but otherwise free of debris or metal shavings. Cut open the oil filter and all I found was a little gritty sludge in the paper. So the engine is not disinigrating.
Cleaned & regapped the plugs. Same condition as previously noted (most had wet oil on the threads and a dry black coating on the electrode). I'm thinking of going to a hotter plug.
Retorqued the intake manifold.
Leaned out the carburetor. I know it's running rich and I didn't want any rich condition black/gray smoke obfuscating the diagnosis.
Started her up and waited for it to come up to temp (remember, it never smokes when cold). While waiting I noticed that #7 plug wire was arcing to ground right at the boot. Upon inspection I saw that there was a small tear in the boot, probably from taking the wires on & off a hundred times. Checked out the rest of the wires and 4 of them had similar damage to the boot and wire #4 was also visibly arcing to ground. So I made a temp repair with silicone and electrical tape. New wires on the shopping list. BTW, those wires ARE new. They're expensive Bosch wires and I'm a little disasspointed in how quickly they failed.
Started it back up and checked the timing. Still at 8 degrees where I initially set it.
Took a vac reading. When the engine was cold the Vac was steady at 16. When it warmed up the needle floated between 15 & 16. That's low. Does it make a difference that I'm at 5,000 ft. elevation?
Once it warmed up I got the blue smoke again. But it's not nearly as bad as it was on the 1st day. It's not bellowing smoke now. It's lightly puffing it out. But it's still there and it's definately blue.
I'm going to put a couple hundred more highway miles on it to see if that changes anything. After which I'll re-do the compression test. And of course pick up a new set of wires.
