mysterious smoke

[Guest hot rod trash]

Well I took some advice and set the point gap at .020 and plugs at .028. Car seems to start up better now than it did. Heres's my problem , the car smoked a little before but only when you did around 55-60 mph on highway. Now it is like a locomotive. All the time. It appears to be a white color smoke rather than a blue. I know this could probly be a head gasket. It seems to run without a miss and it doesnt overheat. Is there anything I may be overlooking???

[Norm's Coupe]

Check the exhaust pipe after the car has warmed up. If you still see water coming out the tailpipe it could be a blown head gasket. Stick your finger in the water, then smell it. If it's just water there won't be any smell, indicating it probably is a blown head gasket. If the liquid smells like gas your car is running rich. Readjust the carb, or timing to solve the problem if it's gas.

[Jerry Roberts]

The coolant level in your radiator will go down if that is water coming out of your tailpipe . Sometimes after the system is warm , you might see bubbles comming up in the radiator if the head gasket is bad . Harbor Freight compression guages are not too expensive . White smoke usually indicates water .

[bob westphal]

Just a heads up - Every MoPar flat six I have seen always has a few drops of water coming out the tail pipe upon start up. Of course this is in damp NW Washington. Don't get excited if you see this.

Point gap directly effects timing. That's why the old MoPar manuals recommend setting the timing staticly.