I am blowing the imfamous white smoke on start up, I'm not sure if it's the radiator fluid or valve springs. I have a couple of questions.

info on motor 1985 355 TPI w/ cam/1.6rr out of an 85 vette w/ 24 lb injectors

1. If I decide to rebuild the top end, what are all the parts I would need, gaskets, valve seals.. etc?

2. How much does a shop generally charge to rebuild the top end on a car?

3. Is there a place where I can get the torque specs for rebuilding the top end on all the bolts, order they go in etc?

4. Can I rebuild the top end without air compression?

5. anything else I need to know?


Thanks,
Matthew

 

The puff of smoke at startup has nothing to do with the radiator, or the valve springs, at least not directly. THe part that causes it is the valve guides. As they come from the factory, there is no seal, for all practical purposes. The "seal" the factory puts on is only good for the first few thousand miles; and putting new ones of the same thing on won't fix the problem.

1. To fix the problem at hand (the puff of smoke at startup) you need a set of valve cover gaskets and a set of valve guide seals. But you're certain to break a bunch of brittle vacuum lines, discover your PCV valve is a blob of crud, etc.; so be prepared to make a few trips to the store.

2. Too much. Do it yourself. You can buy a complete set of hand tools, and the valve spring compressor, for less than what you'll have to pay. Shops charge by the hour not by the job, and it's lots of hours.

3. To do the job at hand, there's nothing that needs that sort of attention.

4. Yes. You can bring a piston to TDC at the firing postion (not the instance of TDC where the exhaust stroke is ending and the intake is beginning), and stuff the cyl full of ¼" nylon rope. It actually works better and easier than air.

5. What seals to get. Get the "positive seal" type, which has a little metal band around it; not the O-rings (don't bother with them at all, they're a waste of time) and not the "umbrella" type. It's a good time to throw away the factory trash valve springs and retainer arrangement, and put a decent set of valve springs on it, and maybe some non-rubber rocker arms.

 

Thanks RB83L69

By radiator fluid I was speaking of the intake gasket letting fluid into the combustion chamber, but since my intake fluid level seems to be staying in a good spot I'm just going to shoot for the valve seals. I appreciate your info and I'll give the nylon rope thing a try. But I have a question, how do you know you've brought the piston to TDC?

Thanks again, this site is such an awesome wealth of knowledge it's unbeleivable!:hail:

 

Timing mark. Find #1 firing using compresion, by putting a piece of tubing or something in the spark plug hole, bump the starter, and listen for compression, and then locate the engine on the timing mark by turning by hand; then turn the crank exactly 90° by hand, that's #8; then another exact 90°, that's #4; etc. through the firing order.

 

Is that right next to the blinker fluid? And should I change it the same time I change the muffler bearing? :sillylol:

 

lol, I didn't even notice I typed that... You know I meant radiator fluid level jerkoff

 

nah i think that's right next to the floormat gasket. and dont do nething untill you get the striped paint you're going to need.

 

Were you joking about the floormat gasket? Those really did come standard on earlier camaros.





How many miles are on this engine, matthew? Have you ever seen smoke coming out other than startup? The reason I ask is because I would get smoke on startup of my last engine, but then it started puffing all the time. It turned out that my rings were bad, but my valve seals were fine. I get zero smoke with a new block and the same heads.

 

Rezinn
The bottom half was rebuilt about 70k ago, the top half hasn't ever been though. And that has about 170k on it. So I'm pretty sure it's the valve seals. Nothing comming out while driving around, but it is drinking up the oil.

I am going to change them for now. then if I can hold off till I get settled in chicago I may just go for some kind of upgrade, not sure if I'll just do heads and intake on this car of go with a whole new setup like an LS1 swap or something. I am helping my buddy drop his LS1 in his 92 this weekend hopefully. (Assuming his motor mouts come in and he doesn't get froggy on me and do it before Saturday. If I don't help him I am going to try to get this done...