Truck running again, question on white smoke

[Heinz55]

After much heartache, experience gained, frustration and tools acquired Mabel starts again.

First engine rebuild ever, not to bad (had help from a sax jazz player, neither of us had ever seen inside an engine before). Just gotta fine tune timing and carb, alignment, and soon relocate gas tank. oil 50 psi, which is better than 10 which is the reason I rebuilt it.

Engine is smoking a bit, and by that I mean it seems to be oil on the headers and exhaust burning off (like a charcoal grill when you heat it up). I do not think I have an exhaust leak, since I have good exhaust at tailpipe and no white smoke I could see.

One question though. How much smoke (if any) will I see from all the oil and assembly lube used during rebuild (I was quite liberal given it was the first time and I wanted to avoid any rubbing during start up)?

Thanks in advance, this site has been a wealth of knowledge from the start

[OrrieG]

Yes you will get that hot engine burn off smell and even a little smoke as the excess oil, paint, etc. heats up and disipates off the out side. When you start up the engine for the first time you might get a little puff of oil smoke from any assembly lube in the combustion chamber, valves or intake. Other assembly lube will mix with the oil. Until the rings seat you may get a little blow by. If you are getting a lot of white "smoke" shut it off and check the oil for water (will be a milky color) or radiator for oil because you might have a defective head or intake gasket seal. When I first start one up and all appears to be good I let it run for about 15-20 minutes varing the rpm from 1K to 2200. If you put in a new cam you want to keep it at a 2000 rpm min for at least 15 minutes according to the cam companies. Starting and running for short intervals is very hard on breaking in an engine. When its drivable take it easy for the first 500 miles, varing the rpm. Change the oil and then start having fun!

[Heinz55]

White smoke figured out, just small valve cover leak on passenger side that allowed oil to drip onto headers. Exhaust seems to be clean of any smoke (white, black, or Flocke). Started breaking in engine again (reused cam and lifters) and she was running fine for the first 12 minutes or so. Wife was keeping eye on engine temp with infrared thermometer (temp gage not working, next thing to track down) when all of a sudden she yells at me to turn it off. Expecting the worst, I shut her down and looked into the bay. I had forgot to attach the overflow container and hose to radiator, so it spat coolant everywhere resulting in much steam, excitement, but no damage

After a quick trip to Autozone ( and had to help the staff find the parts I need, if they cannot look it up in the computer most of them are useless) I am set to try this again tonight. It always seems the NC heat and humidity levels are proportional to the amount of work you need to perform in the middle of the day.

Updates tonight after I get her running for real.

[OrrieG]

Glad to hear it is external and not internal.

[Fred T]

If you keep the coolant level 1-2" below the top of the radiator you won't blow coolant out when it's running unless it gets too hot. That's about the length of your index finger from the knuckle out. If everything is working right the radiator will blow off the excess and stay at the correct level on it's own. But most people aren't lucky enough to have everything working right.