Pretty sure it's an oil leak 64 230 inline

[crowdaddy]

I checked the oil level on my smoking engine, and it has gone down slightly, and I see an oil drip, possibly from the back of the engine just beyond the pcv and valve cover. But it drips from just beyond the oil plug as it travels. I don't think its the transmission, as the oil looks clean, the color of oil. It also smokes from this area as it must hit the manifolds and exhaust.

I've made arrangements for having it rebuilt. Two weeks out and then wait for it. eeesh.!

[63burban4x4]

I bought a Nova convertible one time with a 230. It had been sitting a long while. Got it running, ran great. Within a couple of days it became useful as a mosquito fogger....I mean you could not drive behind it and see anything. Turned out the valve seals had dried out and literally disintegrated. Made up an old spark plug with an air chuck fitting, and one by one, blew up the cylinders to hold the valves up. Removed the keepers, replaced the o=ring seals, also added an umbrella type over the valve stem. Took an afternoon, cost about 85 cents ('course, that was 1970) Viola, no more smoke. Drove it 5 or 6 more years.

[crowdaddy]

63 burban4x4, I don't get how you made a spark plug into an air hose blower. And didn't you have to remove the valve cover?( I've never done that) and what shows when you remove the valve cover? And wouldn't you, (sorry for common sounding questions) drain oil first to see the valves? This is beyond my skill level I'm afraid, to hold the valves up with air. But it got me to thinking about all the additives I put in the tank, the number of years it sat turning into varnish. I'm thinking about rinsing everything again, engine, gas tank, radiator. I may use a 10w40 after flushing this time of much higher quality. Also a little seafoam in the engine before dumping the oil. What do you think of my plan? It does look like a fogger, maybe I should drive it around before a picnic.

[TJ's Chevy]

He meant using the spark plug hole in the head as a place to screw in a compressor knob to put compressed air in...No..you don't need to drain the oil to pull the valve cover nor the spark plugs...You can remove the entire head from the block with the oil still in the pan...Its very common for the inline 6 to leak oil from the rear of the valve cover...I've replaced my valve cover gasket 4 times and it still seeps a little...not enough to smoke...In order to keep it sealed it needs some type of sealer as well...same as the oil pan gasket. Valve cover gasket are available from Napa...And make sure they give you the Felpro Gasket...also be sure to buy some silicone. Dumping some sea foam in the fuel is not a bad idea...I'd run some Marvel Mystery Oil in the engine oil..know that your oil pressure will drop majorly while running it, but that's normal...because it thins the oil...run that stuff...take it fer a drive..then change your oil and run the sea foam in the fuel. Inline 6's run best on Straight 30 or 40 oil.

[Sharps40]

No offense but sounds like you are confounded by a lack of knowledge on these engines and hence an inability to analyze.

Before popping for an overhaul, find a good mechanic and analyze and tune the engine. If the compression is still good, it may only be that you need some new seals (top and bottom) and gasket and a tune to have many thousands of reliable miles ahead.

$100 or so spent on analysis and tune could wind up saveing you quite a bit of time, money and heartach.

In the meantime, I'd suggest ebay for inexpensive copies of Motors, Chiltons and Haynes manuals and commence studying.

[63burban4x4]

Have you been able to check your compression? You may not need a complete rebuild. Massive blue smoke from the exhaust can be major or minor. Could have broken an oil ring on a piston, or cracked a piston itself, or could be as simple as valve seals.
If your valve seals are shot, which is entirely possible, they can be changed without removing the head.

the valve springs you see when you remove the valve cover basically keep the valves up and closed against the valve seat, until the pushrods push the rocker arm, each in turn compressing the valve spring and pushing the valve open. you can remove the keepers from the valve stem, and the springs, to get to the rubber o-ring valve seals on the stem, but you need to keep the valves from dropping down into the cylinder when you remove the keepers and spring. By putting air into the cylinder, it will keep the valves up tight against the valve seat. I imagine you can buy a similar tool...I was just a broke student, and cheap. Broke the ceramic off an old spark plug, braised on an air fitting, to hook an air hose on. On that Nova, several of the o-ring seals had cracked and fallen off, allowing a large amount of oil to follow the valve guide down into the cylinder, resulting in massive amounts of blue smoke and actually fouling the plugs. The motor still had OK compression, because the valves were seating fine when closed. The oil entered the cylinder when the valve opened. It was quite an easy fix, really. Just make sure not to lose any of the little keepers down into the oil galleys! I think I plugged the holes with little pieces of cloth to be sure.

[crowdaddy]

Mccauley, Sharps, and Burban, I'm looking at your suggestions and thinking I can do some of them, and no I'm not offended about being unable to figure out what's happening. I can't even get the engine removed until jul 1. Test for compression, a guage recommendation? Or any decent one? Tune, I can get a mechanic over here possibly, but thinking I can hold the valves shut with air and not having them fall into where they shouldn't.

I'll open the cover friday, look in, get a felpro and some seal, but I just drained some gas from the line a while ago and started her. I mean, it waits to warm up a little, then pours a fog of blue today, so I don't think it's the fuel or it would do it immediately? I got a new filter and some valvoline 10w40. I found a license plate bulb and replaced it. I can study. I'll switch to 40w valvoline. Pick up some marvel mystery oil. Thanks for helping me alter my plans. I'll keep posted.

[63burban4x4]

You might want to check over in the engine forum, lots of guys over there who really know their way around these things. I'm only saying that I remember being able to stop one of those 230's from a bad smoking problem, with a very simple fix. Good luck, hope you get her straightened out.

[crowdaddy]

burban, I'll check with them too, to see how they work, I'm staying on schedule for a rebuild, but I want to try some things too. I'll get it worked out, in the meantime hope all your projects are moving along well!