1971 suburban 4x4 resurection help needed,smoke from valve cover.

[robdoggydog]

just getting this burb going after 8 years of sitting, it has the 292 straight 6 . the problem im having is it wont idle if the pcv valve is hooked up. there is a good steady amount of smoke that comes out of the valve cover when running. what does smoke coming from the valve cover mean? i adjusted the valves 1/2 turn past the 0 lash point.

[vectorit]

Welcome!, and a neighbor to boot - I am South of you in the Temecula area.

Have you made sure that the PCV is clean, and free of any obstructions? The PCV valve should have a rattle to it when shaken, if not buy a new one or use carb cleaner to clean it up.

Does the motor have high mileage? or was it rebuilt before stored? Why did you adjust the valves?

Worst case scenario:
Your blow by could be that you have excessive wear on the piston rings, or because it was sitting for so long that one may have frozen to the piston(s).

If you haven't done so already, I would pop all of the spark plugs and spray a lot of penetrating oil into each hole and let sit for a while (a day or two).

Then after the oil has had a day or two to sit, turn the motor over with out the plugs to push out the oil to avoid damage. I myself would repeat this for another day or so, and spin the motor with out the plugs again.

Hopefully you can get the rings to loosen up, so that they can get a better seal on the cylinder walls.

If the motor is fresh, than the rings have yet to seat completely.
Or, it could be that the cylinder prep/rings/piston combination is wrong?

Just a few thoughts...

[robdoggydog]

i adjusted the valves because the PO did absolutly no maintenance, when i pulled the valve cover to replace the valve cover gasket there was about a inch of sludge over everything! so i cleaned it up real good ,adjusted the valves since all were so loose i could wiggle them all easy. i had it running before i looked under the valve cover (should have checked there first)so after all this i replaced the pcv valve and almost everything else under the hood . changed oil and oil pump etc..then added some marvel mystery oil to hopefully clean and loosen up any remaining sludge. im about to pull the cover again to readjust the valves to 3/4 turn since the valves are not seating tight enough im hoping this is the cause of the smoking from the valve cover but could also be the sludge since there is some sludge in the cover again by the oil cap.... any help is appreciated , thanks!

[bullington]

Have you hooked a vacuum gauge up to it yet? I would start there and get a baseline before you do anymore work on it.

[robdoggydog]

nice reply! thanks for taking the time to post that

[vikingthor]

Old school, vacuum gauge, man that is re-freshing to see. Brings a tear to my one good eye.
vik

[salvo]

I got a little misty eyed myself.
Hope I can print that chart, great post.