So I have a beautiful '69 230 sedan - New Beige in color - with 218,000 miles on an inline 6-cylinder engine. The engine was rebuilt 80,000 miles ago and has performed reasonably well for me since buying the car from the original owner two years ago.

My mechanic told me this morning that the New Beige beauty will need a $2,800.00 valve job, because it's "smoking terribly".

The catch: the car wasn't smoking terribly (just a little bit) before this past weekend when I carefully cleaned the engine compartment, including the hose connecting breather and valve cover. But, curiously, the L-shaped hose was filled at one end with a paste-like substance restricting air/fluid flow from valves to breather.

Question: Could the paste-like substance, tannish in color, that I cleaned from the valve cover/breather hose, have been a stop-gap measure used by said mechanic to conceal the extent of valve wear by restricting the accumulation and burn of oil?

Incidentally, the mechanic who looked at the car today has been the car's primary mechanic for many years. His San Rafael shop serviced the car for the previous original owner. I returned to the shop for regular maintenance. A collusion, perhaps, between the two [mechanic and previous owner] in order to sell the car to me, a beginner where automobile collecting and maintenance is concerned?

Any leads on a more affordable valve job in the Bay Area? Any thoughtful response to this post is appreciated. Thanks for reading.

You should be the judge of how much smoke is "terrible", not the mechanic.
The stuff in the hose is normal. It's an emulsion of oil and condensation, and its' removal should not affect engine smoking. If any thing, removing the stuff should lower crankcase pressure and reduce smoking.
If the car runs well and the engine smoke is acceptable, you do not need a valve job. If the car smokes more than is acceptable, it may take more than a valve job to fix it.

Sounds more like a valveguide problem.
That should'nt cost nearly as much.

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2007 C 230 Sport.

How much oil is it using? And, yes the valve guides should be a place to check.
Ed

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Ed
1960 220 SE Coupe (Ponton)
1999 E320 Wagon
2007 E350

Other possibilities for engine smoke, NOT requiring a valve job -
1.If automatic - a bad transmission vacuum modulator allowing tranny fluid to be sucked into the intake manifold.
2.Brake master cylinder leak over time can fill the vacuum booster with brake fluid, which is then sucked into the intake manifold.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Don't forget bad head gasket/etc, what color is the smoke? Is it definitely oil? Do you have any nasty colored "mayonnaise" inside your radiator/oil filler cap? What was the consistency of this paste? Check your coolant. Does it happen after closed-throttle decelleration down a hill or all the time? Does it happen at idle? If it is plumes of white smoke rising it's your head gasket. If it is blueish and lingers lower around the tailpipe it's oil.

An M180 engine should not burn oil (obviously no engine *should* except for a 2-stroke) but a little bit due to bad valve guides/seals is acceptable. If that's the case you might just have to change spark plugs more often. As an example, the M180 in my finny uses no oil to burning or leaks and the oil stays nice and clean for a very long time. It has never been apart in 40 years and has 110k on it, the previous owner seems to have been quite lax in changing the oil as well. Meaning, they didn't really do it. They did, however, bring it in for maintenance regularly so it's probably had regular valve adjustments.

A slight amount of blow-by is normal out of that valve cover breather, that's how it's supposed to be. It should be thin wisps of smoke when disconnected. Very large amounts of thick blow-by is a bad sign.

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1967 230S automatic
Boston, MA

The problem I am having is the sudden eruption of the problem. Valve guides and rubbers wear out slowly unless a valve guide has come loose in the head all of a sudden. Check all your spark plugs to see if one is oiled up. It is normal for the valve train to wear but not to produce a lot of smoke suddenly if it was okay a week ago. I would tend to look elsewhere first.

Yeah, sudden smoking plus "tannish paste-like" stuff in the breather is what made me think head gasket right away. I owned an Alfa once, ask me how I know ;-)

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1967 230S automatic
Boston, MA

Remove the oil filler cap. If you have that same light brown, chocolate milk kinda stuff, that's a mix of oil and water. Remove it with a cloth and try again after a few miles of driving. If it returns you definitely have too much water in the oil and that means either a head gasket, the head itself or a crack in the block.

80,000 miles since the last major work on the motor could easily be the right time for the gasket to go south.

If the car is truely worth fixing (lovely body and all that), you might want to consider another rebuild. But then again, you might also want to put in a used motor at a fraction of that price.

-CTH

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- cth350@gmail.com
http://www.111lakeside.com/

218k miles, rebuilt at 138k miles.....

Typically the inline 6 needs cyl head and valve work at 140k, no mystery there, probly included new timing chain. Doubt the "rebuild" covered pistons and bearings.

Here's the rub - planing of cyl heads is once in lifetime repair. Do it again and compression tolerances will be exceeded *maybe* lasting another 15-20k miles before blowing the bottom end. I would NOT rework the cyl head again!

Instead of shelling out $2800 there, oughta be lookin for complete good used engine transplant at/near the same price. Car is 110 finbody correct? If so, then what you must find out is compatiability of m130 6cyl 250 or early 280 engine from 108's and 114's more easily found on used engine market than the m180.

And have you done compression test? Also do oil change immediately and stir dirty oil with stick lookin for water in bottom of oil drain pan.