Is it a good idea or bad idea to do the following things?

1. sand the surface rust off the rear axle

2. paint the rear axle, or undercoat it

3. sand surface rust off and paint/powdercoat anti-sway bars


asking on number three to make sure bushings will still fit right

 

I can't see it being a problem.

 

Go for it.

 

Get yourself some quality undercoating.

 

no reason anything will get hurt, id just get it clean and undercoat it, wouldnt worry about perfection...

 

i completely cleaned my rear antisway bar down to shiney metal and painted it black, bushings still fit fine

 

Cool,

Thanks for the reassurance.

As for the axle- before undercoating, should I get all rust off? Or does it matter?

I also want to change the cover- mine has a couple small dents in it, and I am sure the fluid could use changed.


here is another good idea-bad idea:

1. Driving with a slooow leak from back of valve cover?

I get white smoke on start-up, could valve cover be the problem or does my smoke come from deeper inside the engine?

Thanks

 

White smoke is associated with water, which would indicate a serious internal engine failure.

If your smoke however, is more blue then white, it's likely oil smoke. Since you say it's just on startup and almost every older SBC has startup oil smoke to some degree from leaky valve seals, I'll bet this is whats happening to yours.


The slow leak on the valve cover... its not really going to hurt anything, however it will eventually get worse. It's also not that hard or expensive to fix, either.