DocHoliday

Hey guys, been browseing a lot in the past couple months but something on my car has caught my attention recently. For some reason when I am running my car for a while and I get it nice and warm (to the point where the electric fan kicks on) it begins to smoke a little bit. I can see small amounts of smoke come out of the top of the hood and around the sides. Well when this happend the first time I was very concerned. I was at my local gas station filling up (its an outdoor pay gas station) and I see little wisps of smoke coming from the center of my hood, right where it meets the windshield. YIKES! A couple days later after running some errands and getting the car all warm it does it again! So this time I pop the hood to see where it is coming from. I thought it might be coming from the carb. Nope! its coming up from the exhaust manifolds! Pic:



And it only happens after I have been running the car for a while. Any ideas? I will be getting headers for the car fairly soon so hopefully this problem isn't to serious. Thanks a lot guys!

Doc Holiday

PS. Way off topic, but I was wondering where I could get those flexible hose things that are used in my dual snorkel setup. The ones I have are in rough shape. They look clean here, but they have some tears and are old. Thanks!

Pic:



Don't mind the stick holding the hood up, the original things that hold the hood up are shot. Bah.

82 Iron Duke

iTrader: (21)

Bad gasket, no worries.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

I believe one side hose is still available but not the other. However, it will fit either side, the only difference is an antiscuff pad attached to one side.

camaronewbie

It's not original, but Autozone/Advance (and I'm sure most others) sell flexible intake hose (looks like dryer hose, only black).

DocHoliday

But what gasket is it?

Synful

head gasket

or what else it could be is a leaky oil pressure sending unit, whether it be from it being loose or bad, dripping alongside the engine and hitting an exhaust pipe at some point, smoke will come up by the driver's side up by the front winshield, and towards the center as well.

gasket leakage is very very very common on our cars i'm told, but is usually accompanied by some white smoke coming from the exhaust pipe on startup, on a non-cold day.

DocHoliday

He said no worries, but shouldn't I worry and get it fixed? Thats gonna cost me an arm and a leg...man this always happens! Fix something, something else goes. Had the carb fixed, then the linkage goes on the tranny, now a head gasket, whats gonna go next? Oh well, I love this car to much to care!

Synful

well, while its sooo common, most people will tell you "no worries" but if thats what the problem is, then whats happening is oil is leaking into your cylinders and igniting, thus the white smoke on startup. This can lead to problems if left unsupervised for a long time.

if you have minor smoke from the exhaust its nothing you need to go out and fix immediately

BUT, you might not need to worry right yet, because since you said you see smoke after it has warmed up, leads me to believe its not leaking from there, I think its your oil pressure sending unit is bad or too loose, go give it a quick twist and see if it turnable by hand, and if it is then tighten it and clean it up.

also if it is the pressure sending unit, you will see a little bit leaking down the tranny bellhousing and onto the road when its been sitting, and some will burn up on the exhaust pipes when hot and running.

give that a check first, if not, prob head gaskets, and if its those, and you don't have huge plumes of white smoke coming outta your exhaust don't worry quite yet.

infact if you're ever planning on throwing a new built engine in there, id just leave it until you do that, thas what im doing

Synful

oh and also:

won't cost you an arm and a leg, only tons of time removing the heads.

unless of course you decide to get things machined while its all apart, which you might as well do, that'll run you a few hundred

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Check the valve cover gasket first.

DocHoliday

Yeah I have the blue smoke on startup sometimes. And it usually varies as to how much. AKA one day its a lot of smoke, others not a lot of smoke. So sounds like some repairs are coming in the future. And no I don't plan on doing a swap. Way to much money for me right now, and I don't have a DD. Shes my DD. Thanks for the info!