Jump to content

'49 Exhaust Smoke


49 Dodge Dude

Recommended Posts

Hey, all. I have a '49 Dodge Coronet that I just picked up a few days ago. Noticed on the way home that it smoked (not a lot but continuous.) It was dusk, so I really couldn't tell the color of the smoke, but it did have an oil smell to it. I took out the plugs to examine them - all six had a pretty good covering of black soot, but did not look oily. Any ideas as to where I should be looking for the source?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, all. I have a '49 Dodge Coronet that I just picked up a few days ago. Noticed on the way home that it smoked (not a lot but continuous.) It was dusk, so I really couldn't tell the color of the smoke, but it did have an oil smell to it. I took out the plugs to examine them - all six had a pretty good covering of black soot, but did not look oily. Any ideas as to where I should be looking for the source?

Do you know how long the car has been sitting before you picked it up? The rings could be stuck or worn allowing some oil to pass by. Did it smoke the whole ride home or did it stop after a while? You may want to do a compression test on all cylinders and see what you get. Its an easy job to hone the cylinders and put new rings on if you need to. While you are in there you can replace the rod and main bearings if you have low oil pressure also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You should do a compression test, get a reading of each cylinder both dry and wet (squirt a bit of motor oil down each spark plug hole before attaching the compression gauge). This will give you a better idea of what condition your cylinders are in.

A common failure on these cars is rings cracking due to wear of the lands. This will cause loss of compression and will allow oil past what left of the rings.

A vacuum gauge attached to the engine will alos help diagnose the problem.

Edited by greg g
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you know how long the car has been sitting before you picked it up? The rings could be stuck or worn allowing some oil to pass by. Did it smoke the whole ride home or did it stop after a while? You may want to do a compression test on all cylinders and see what you get. Its an easy job to hone the cylinders and put new rings on if you need to. While you are in there you can replace the rod and main bearings if you have low oil pressure also.

It did smoke the whole way home, and it still smokes. I plan on doing a compression test Sunday, so I'll get an idea what condition they are in. FWIW, the oil gauge stays steady at about 40, so it looks like my oil pressure is pretty decent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if the plugs are covered in black soot (not oily) a too rich condition will cause that, my old engine that burned oil, the plugs were clean as it only burned it when decellerating. but black smoke under power could be over rich fuel, like the choke is stuck partially closed. I can't see that worn valve guides would do it, as they are upside down and oil would run down the stem to the tappits and they don't use valve seals anyway. worn guides casing oil consumption is problem for overhead valve engines, not flatties.

Edited by james49ply
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Terms of Use