1979 camaro engine smoking

grcauto

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No cross hatch and the rings will not seal.
 

briangearhead

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Yeah ... sounds like a good reason to pull the motor and install 383 stroker assembly :p
 

billr

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I would be more worried about a cracked piston than rings leaking. The engine could last a long time with burning a little oil because of rings, but a cracked piston could come apart suddenly. Of course I am still waiting to hear what you have for compression and whether you can isolate this to one bank (or cylinder) by pulling plug wires.

Regardless, I urge you to get the EFI all sorted-out with this engine; drive it for quite a while before an engine rebuild/upgrade. No use sacrificing another engine on the Holley altar...

And no, don't let Holley, or their forum, tell you that you need a "perfect" engine to continue getting the tune sorted.
 

billr

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Did you hold the throttle wide-open while cranking for compression? Did you have all the plugs out for each cylinder test? How many compression strokes for each reading? Is the battery and starter in good shape, to provide normal cranking speed (about 200rpm)?

Assuming you used proper technique for taking compression, do it again putting about a teaspoon of engine oil into each cylinder before testing it. If compression is low because of rings, that little bit of oil should temporarily seal them better and show a significant increase in compression.
 

briangearhead

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Yes the throttle was wide open , yes it has a brand new high torque mini starter on it along with a brand new battery, and I didn't stop cranking till the needle stopped moving ... .. and all the plug are out of it ....
 

billr

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What altitude are you at? Do you have any compression readings from before it got "Holleyed up"?

Do the "wet" compression test and post results.
 

briangearhead

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Well I think I'll call this post a wrap .. even before I posted anything I decided if any engine work had to be done as far as piston rings and so on .. and the engine had to come out that I was just going to install a stroker assembly along with a new set of aluminum heads .. .. I believe my next step is to get the EFI totally 100% lined out before I do anything as far as new rotating assembly.. and just totally go through every inch of this engine .. I do appreciate all the advice everyone gives .. it's so nice to be able to bounce ideas off people getting there opinions and things maybe I haven't thought of .. thanks again see ya all on the next postings.
 

billr

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It isn't clear to me that the rings are shot, without knowing what altitude you are at and what the wet compression test shows; even if you only did the wet test on one cylinder. You don't even have to pull all eight plugs, just do dry/wet test on one cylinder so we have a comparison under the same cranking conditions.
 

briangearhead

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SPENCER INDIANA , is where I live bill,
I've already cleaned up all the plugs and put them back in witch are a absolute nightmare on the center plugs ... yes when cleaning the plugs they where oil covered every single one of them.. ... after doing the compression test I realized that there is definitely something wrong , back when I built that engine I did compression test then .. and the engine had 160 lbs per cylinder then ,and I know that because I came across the paper that I wrote it down on .. so regardless there's work to be done on this engine ..
 
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