Smoking from engine bay sbc in 87 cutlass

[bryguy39]

Can anyone give me an idea what to look for, the smoke comes from the drivers side of the motor, it has headers, i noticed it leaks transmission fluid but where from? and would that make the car smoke? any help would be appreciated. i cant see anything leaking.

Bryan

 

[khan0165]

check your oil dipstick. Oil might be squirting out from the tube and onto the headers. Or the base of the tube. This may be caused frome excessive crank case pressure. Check your valve cover breathers or PCV valves, and see if things are clogged. If the crank case pressure is not pulled from there, it will try to vent thu the dipstick tube and squirt oil out...

 

[bryguy39]

i dont have any real vac lines hooked up, i need a picture of how vaccume lines go on a sbc swap, the breathers on the valve covers are there,should i take them off?

 

[-83MONTESS-]

x2 on the breathers! I also had a really bad oil leak from the rear of the valve cover and it would smoke when the oil got close enough the the header.

 

[CHRIS.O]

Common places for leaking oil that may burn off something hot are, back of the intake and valve covers. Is it blow by? Is it coming out of a breather?

 

[bryguy39]

no its not coming from the breather, it seems like its smoking alot from bottom of motor, like i said the transmission leaks where i dont know, could that be soaking the headers? what if the transmission was over filled where would it leak from?

 

[khan0165]

a transmission leak would occur farther back, so you'd notice the smoke under the driver door... Check the shifter linkage and the speedo bullet (where the speedometer cable hooks onto the transmission). Where that cable screws on, they have a tendancy to leak, specially on TH350 3spd transmissions.

You could have an engine leak at the back of the oil pan, rear main seal, but I doubt that's hitting the headers and smoking.

What does the smoke smell like? Does it smell like burning oil? Or does it smell like unburned fuel? Do you have full length headers? Shorties? Does the exaust go under the motor into a Ypipe at the passenger side?

 

[bryguy39]

thats funny you say that i am running a th350 full lenth headers,and y's off further back on the car. also the speedo dont work,do i need a different cable then the one from the cutlass? i think that is where the leak is coming from. is like a white smoke. its just like a hot smell. i know the oil filter is close to the header but its not touching it. im baffled.

 

[khan0165]

I used to have a TH350... where the speedo cable screws on, always loosens up and leaks oil. Open that up, pull out the little plastic speedo gear and check if it's good. Check the end of the cable, see if the needle is straight and check for damage. If it's all good, push some sealant on the threads and screw it back on tight. If not, try getting a gear or cable.

If you have a Y pipe, you have a crossover pipe... you might have oil dripping on the crossover pipe from the following places...
rear main seal (back of oil pan), transmission (sounds like your speedo cable), oil filter, or back of valve covers...

Start the car, get it up to temperature, then rev it a few times to get the oil pressure up... then check for the leak from the engine. If it's not from the engine, go for a short drive, get it up for 30 or 40mph, then stop and check the speedo cable at the transmission... see if any oil dripping out. Check the trans oil pan also.

did you check the dipstick tube?

 

[khan0165]

this should give you an idea...