Hi my 91 camaro is thowing smoke when i start the car, my dad is thinking its because it does not have a muffler could that be the problem. Or what could it be .
Any help i would appreciate it thank you.
Rodolfo

 

A puff of smoke at start-up is typical of bad valve stem seals.

 

my 91 305 did that from the day i bought it new. always puffed a little dark grey but never had a problem with the engine. never burned oil or anything else.

 

Is the valve stem seal expensive to repair or is it easy also could it be because it has no muffler or that dont have nothing to do with that because it smells like gas inseat of oil

 

valve seals.

 

Around how much would a shop charge me to change them

 

alldata gives a repair time of 6-7 hours.

 

the seals are cheap, $10 -$50 for 8 or 16 (depending on the brand and quality). Most people put em on the "intake" valve stems because it prevents the engine oil from leaking into the combustion chamber. If the seals are bad, as the engine cools off, the engine, valve stems, valve seals, pushrods and cylinder heads begin to shrink slightly. when this occurs, the seal is then compromized. oil then leaks into the cylinder via intake valve stem to intake valve. Once the car is started, the collected oil that leaked into the cylinder begins to burn off which will give you the puff of smoke. Other than that, if you got the right tools (valve spring compressor), you can change them out yourself. but then you'll have to take your car to a mechanic so that he can adjust your valve lash. You can also do this by yourself but youll have to adjust it with the engine running and this will cause a huge mess because the oil will squirt everywhere, if you dont have the right tools. if you do it yourself, youll have to buy these little plates that mount on the rockers . They deflect the engine oil that squirts out of the push rods. Does this answer your question? If your confused, let me know.

 

i took it to a mechanice and told me it could be that is running rich rich because when i step on it it also throws smoke

 

If you can replace valve stem seals, you can set valve lash. Just my opinion. Setting lash is the easy part.



To the OP, a big puff of oily smoke (smell it, you can tell if it's oil or gas) at startup is pretty normal for SBC's, teh valve stem seals are notorious for going bad.

But this isn't something that's gonna blow up your motor. If you can deal with the smoke and adding a little bit of oil to it every once in a while, it's not really a big deal.

 

Its because it also does it at idle and when i step on it too and leaves smoke like if i burned out could it be that its running rich or what could i could do to diagnose it.

 

After the initial puff of smoke on start up, what color is the smoke?

Black or blue?

 

it is blue and gets my eyes so watery

 

I was hoping you would say black.

Black=too much fuel/not enough spark

Blue=oil

White=coolant

It sounds like it is time to do a compression test and leak down test. That will help tell you what is going on in your engine.

 

How do i do a compression test

 

Mitas can do a compression check and have them check your water system as well. Its free

 

It stopped when i started using it daily and started again when i didn't use it

 

Its because in time there is enough oil seeping down the valve stem due to bad valve seals.

 

You're lucky. Valve seals are the "cheap and easy" fix.

 

But i thought with the valve stem its only on the start up mine stays smoking

 

You got really bad seals. Replace them, it's really easy unless you drop a valve.

 

how do you change them or would it be less hassle to just install the 350 i have from a iroc

 

If you got a 350 then you will spend more money because you will need a different computer from a 350 TPI system. Let me see in my Haynes manual to verify whether or not the seals can be removed with the heads on the block. I got a general idea but I dont want to give you any bad info. Let me read the manual while Im on my lunch break tommorrow on Friday OK. In the mean time, sounds like you got the bad idle fixed. Well does it have the bad idle?

 

OK, i want to put the 350 but not with the tpi because i know i don't have the right ecm that i would need to make it run on my car so i was thinking of just putting my tbi intake on it

 

Do you got a TBI ECM because you'll still need it for the TBI system?

 

Yea i am going to use the one that i have on my car just get a custom chip for it but i was hoping that it wasn't something big because i wanna save up to put a better cam on the engine

 

Sucks when you get this great idea in your brain but when you try to apply it, compatibility becomes an issue, and even worst, money becomes a bigger issue.

 

Yea and i am trying to get this done by June i still got to paint it