rob37nc

okay, I have a stock 92 camaro rs 305 tbi, with open element. I bought it used with 100,000 miles. The original owner was an older gentleman, I have every reason to think it was well maintained. The engine bay was a little dusty but nothing like ones I have seen. I mean no leaks from the top or bottom of engine or trans. The motor had some blue smoke at start up but seemed to clear up after driving. Then I noticed it would smoke at idle in traffic. I checked this wonderful web site for information. Its got to be the valve stem seals right? Well, $405 dollars latter with new seals. Now it`s smoking twice as bad. I know the mechanic and saw were he replaced the driver side on a surprise visit. He was bummed with the results too. The motor just runs and idles too smooth for it to be the rings? I replaced the plugs and wires, distributer, rotor button and installed a stage 1 chip before the seals were replaced. I purged the engine today but it got dark on me outside. I really couldnt tell if or how bad it is still smoking. Im stiil crossing my fingers hoping tomorrow will be a clear day. LOL. I cant stand the smoke! Can anyone help? Sorry so loooong I just wanted to be thorough.

useful_idi0t

have another mechanic check the valve seals, the only other thing i could thin of is over-oiling?

Air_Adam

Not to shoot you down, UI, but I seriously doubt its over oiling. What typically happens when you have leaky valve seals, is that it will shoot a little blue smoke (oil) for a moment, and clear up almost right away. This is because oil leaked past the valve seals while the engine was not running, and what did get into the cylinders is being burned off now that the engine is running. If it constantly smokes at idle, then I'd look somewhere other than valve seals unless they are REALLY bad.

Something I had a problem with a few months back, was a leaking intake manifold gasket. It wasn't bad enough that it visibly smoked, but looking at the spark plugs showed the engine was burning some oil. Turned out that the bottom of the intake gasket on one side of the engine was leaking, and was sucking in oil. I replaced the gaskets, and it cleaned up right away.

If you want to find out if your rings are good, the best thing to do would be a compression test. That will tell you if they are in good shape or not. Worn rings could definitely be the cause of the smoking.

rob37nc

Thanks U.I & Air Adam for your replies. I found the problem with the excessive blue smoke. I came across a thread where the guy was talking about checking the oil galleys.
I pulled the drivers side valve covers, the 2 oil passages were, 1 on the far left corner & the other was the far right corner. I took a small 1\16th inch wire and began picking pieces of hard sludge from the holes clearing the passsage. Once I was sattisfied with that I bent a tight small hook on the end of the wire and began pushing it further in the hole until I pushed through were it seemed to lead to a bigger opening maybee to the crank case. The next day I did the same on the passanger side. These two holes were so packed there was no way the oil could leave the top of the head. My guess was the oil was getting in the top of the head and was just sitting there were ther was no were to go. Just burning up the excesssive oil and blowing it out the exaust. When I changed the plugs when I first got the car all the plugs had normal wear except the back 2 plugs had oil deposits on the passanger side. Anyway, put it all back together and presto, no blue smoke anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I`ve got to look up that thread and thank that guy for the good advice. See ya`ll.

Air_Adam

Good to hear its been fixed, AND unlike most people here, YOU FOUND OUT THE USEFULNESS OF THE BUTTON!!

See guys? The search button works great!!