i have a 305 tpi 1985 trans am. it has 120k miles on it. when it idles the exhuast has all kinds of smoke and its steady white smoke. the oil in the dipstick is just black it dosnt have any contamantits and the valve covors defianlty leak. heres the delama. when i start it it sputters hard. like gettin very close to stall i rev it only the smallest bit and it goes down to a smooth idle. after it gets watrmed up it will start to smoke from the side of each engine(valve covors) when u rev it the white exhuast smoke stops and when it goes back to idle it will go back to its steady white smoke from the exhuast i just bought this havent tried anything im just trying to daiagnos. throw me some ideas

 

tttt

 

head gaskets deffinately
white smoke: water/anitfreeze
blue smoke: oil
black smoke: to rich


fix your valve covers as soon as possible, you dont want a fire but its almost for sure your head gasket thats bad unless you have a cracked head, take your radiator cap off and see if it bubbles, and the sputtering is probably the water that gets into the cylinder that cant properly burn away

 

okay so if i change my head gasket should i just get new heads and headers? ill probably snap the headers bolts off any ways. lol and i didnt wanna bother changing the valve covors untill i knew if i was goona end up taking my heads off or not its my project car so all it does is sit while i wait to come up with more spare cash should i just take the upper half of the engine apart and redo it all?

 

also~! i forgot to mention. either the oil pressure gauge dont work or i have no oil pressure. not sure. any ways to find out for sure?

 

1) heads and headers would be a wise choice.

2) your gauge is probably broken, but it would make sence to me that if you unscrewed the oil pressure sensor and started the motor, you would find out if you have oil pressure or not.

 

How much oil does this car use between 3500 mile oil changes? Also what do your plugs look like IE: oil fowled, clean, spotted, ect. ect.? As far as checking oil pressure if your lifters aren't clacking badly then you’re ok on oil pressure seeing as you must be driving this car allot. To be on the safe side buy a manual gauge and put on it and see. As far as headers I wait till you see what is all wrong the engine. If you do find you need new head gaskets I'd get the heads reworked while you have them off. If you have bubbles coming up in your radiator you will need to pull them as was stated above but another way is to look and see if you have milky looking oil or a little on the top of your dip stick as well. Look and see how much blow by the engine has both with the pvc valve on an off. A plugged pvc valve will cause good valve cover gaskets to fail much less old ones. Has this engine been run hot? If so how bad and how many times as this warps heads, blows gaskets, scores cylinder walls. Once you find out all this you can better determine what you need to do next. Let us know what you find out.

 

i actaully have never driven the car. so im not sure about how much oil it takes i just recenlty bought it as my project car and im studying into this engine and what im goona need to do to it the anti freeze is bright green like its suppost to be but the radatior does buddle. i did the pcv rattle test and it rattles so i think that checks out im not sure if the hose is clogged though i should check that out. and that is a little tiny bit of vALVE TICKING near the back of the engine. like it sounds like maybe one or two valve guides may be worn. if i ake the heads off i planned on just gettin new ones and having them ported with headers so i can delete the smog pump. what do you think? thanks for the info btw(:

 

also i have never checked the plugs what should i be looking for to show me sighns of a blow head gasket or cracked head.