Firing-up a car that's been sitting for a few years

[t walgamuth]

Disassemble, clean and polish, lube and reassemble.

Good luck.

[meltedpanda]

Id soak it and see what happens ,should be fairly free movement . Soak in wd 40, keroseene , or use some PB blaster . I think it will get back to normal unless the shafts are bent or plastics cracked

[DanSel]

Well, it got everything back together today. Reconnected the battery and it started right up. Runs steady and smooth with no smoke out of the tailpipe. After a couple minutes I got a lot of smoke around where the exhaust manifold meets the block. There is a lot of old caked on oil and grit all over. I assume some of that just needs to burn off.

Also at about the same time that starts to happen I get blue smoke out of the tailpipe. Might this be from old caked oil heating up and getting burned off or might I have a bigger issue? When I first start it from cold it runs nice and clean with no smoke. The underhood smoke and tailpipe smoke start pretty much at the exact same time. At this point I shut the car down since it becomes obnoxious.

I have a couple cans of Gumout engine cleaner laying around from another old car I used to have. I'm just concerned using it high up on the engine here since this about where the spark plugs are located. Should I just disconnect the wires and keep them up high, hit the engine with the cleaner, let it do its thing, rinse off and let dry before reconnecting? I can't imagine anything would get hurt in that scenario.

[ctaylor738]

You could well have leaky valve cover gaskets allowing oil to run down on to the exhaust. If you clean the area between the exhaust manifold and the head, you should be able to see if it's leaking.

The smoke out of the exhaust is most likely worn valve seals and/or guides which is probably not what you wanted to hear.

[mercmad6.3]

What you experiencing is simply the PB blaster you squirted into the bores ,and it has in turn washed down into the exhaust where it has heated up with the exhaust and is now burning out. A Smokey engine starts smokey and stays smokey . A oily exhaust starts clean and smokes once the heat gets into it. All normal.
These are great car to drive and it sounds like you are on the right track to getting it roadworthy.

[Tomguy]

I second mercmad's evaluation, as my 4.5 did the same when first waking up from its dormancy. 15 minutes of idling was about enough to get the heavy stuff off, and then 5 minutes going up a steep hill I used to live on got rid of the rest.

[ctaylor738]

Well, my experience with "satters" has been the opposite. The engine warms up, the oil thins, gets past the seals and guides into the cylinders and hot exhaust manifolds, burns and goes out the tailpipe. The Blaster IMO would burn off in the first few seconds.

Hope I'm wrong, though.

[DanSel]

I moved the car into my side yard yesterday and did my first round of cleaning off all the gunk. Not an easy task the way that engine is shoe-horned in there. Looks like I may have active leaking from the valve cover gaskets. Going to do a second round soon, but this time wipe it down bone dry before I start up again.

This time I let it run until it was up to operating temp. The blue smoke from the tailpipe did seem to lesson while it was idling. I need to get the engine smoke resolved before I can go drive it and see if goes away completely. I gave it a few revs once it was warm and it sounds healthy and throaty.

I will say there is a lot of noise coming from the back of the engine with the air filter assembly off. Sounds like the area of the fuel distributor - it's a high pitched whining sound. Is that thing really that noisy? I have nothing to use as comparison on this car so I don't know.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. I'll continue to post updates as I have time to work on the car.

[mercmad6.3]

No fuel distributor makes a sound. Check for an air leak or is it just the air fro the cold start air bypass hissing in the inlet?

[Mike D]

Errr, Ron means, No HEALTHY fuel distributor makes a sound. A badly gunked up distributor CAN make an annoying, nasally whine.

Check for vacuum leaks first.

[DanSel]

Replaced the valve cover gaskets today. They were in okay condition visually, but quite hard especially along the bottom side where they would have been leaking. I did notice before I removed them that the bolts seemed quite loose so I'm wondering if that was part of the issue. I may still have a slight leak on the left side rear. I might just need to tighten the cover more. I haven't been able to find information on how much the bolts should be torqued. My torque wrench has a minimum of 10 ft lbs and even at that much the gasket started to deform on the bottom flat portion between the bolts. Backing off a bit got the gasket even, but I'd like to have the bolts torqued properly. Couldn't find the info in my repair manual. I did find someone online tonight saying it was 9 nm.

At any rate, no more blue smoke from the tailpipe after it had warmed up. Still smoke from under hood, but not as much as before. I think most of it is residual burning off. Like I said, still a lot from the left rear of the engine though. Regardless, I did drive it for a couple minutes around the neighborhood. Overall, pretty good. Steering might need some work.

Anyway, getting closer. Just need to fully eradicate the under hood smoke and then I can find the root of the loudness from the top rear of the engine.

[mercmad6.3]

on the V8's the left rear is where the oil gauge line connects. Check with a flashlite down there and see if you can make out where your leak is. it will be there or your new cam cover gasket isn't sitting right in the cover. there isn't much else to cause a leak there. On the big V8's the 6.3 and 6.9 M100 engines,the head gaskets start to leak with age and oil comes out the back of the heads in slight dribble . that drips on the exhaust and causes smoke too.

[meltedpanda]

about 7 foot pounds, pretty minimal