The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1953 Chevy 3100 - Restoring the Basketcase

THat is a lot of smoke so pulling a lot of oil from somewhere. Does the engine have a PCV system in place? If so did something get disconnected or connected differently that would result in the crankcase being tied into the intake system? Given that it was not smoking originally (if I recall correctly) it is probably something simple rather than the engine being worn out.

I agree with Otto about a leakdown test but with that much oil being sucked into the cylinders spark plug condition will help sort out if its one or all of the cylinders.

I just looked at one of your earlier posts and see that #5 plug was wet with oil. Start with that one with all of your tests.

I'll do those tests. #5 cylinder was soaked with oil when I looked. Frankly, it seemed like an abnormal amount of oil, meaning a lot! The engine is not using a PCV system, it still has the road draft tube. I had thought about driving it, again, and trying some hard pulls on the small hill by my house. Is this a bad idea? I won't have an opportunity until Sunday, so there's time to talk me down from the ledge.....

Not going to hurt anything. The damage is already done. If it's a broken oil ring or worn valve guides, you aren't going to break the rings any worse or wear out the valve guides more than they are by driving up a hill.

It sounds like the engine will need a rebuild or replacement. The engine has always been the unknown, given its junkyard provenance. Sadly, I don't have the funds for either option. This adventure has always been on a shoestring budget. Bummer! I'll have to make a post in the items wanted page here and see if a serviceable engine is out there.

Or just keep driving it as-is and clean the spark plugs more often. No law against driving a vehicle that burns oil.

My buddy in high school got a ticket for “air pollution” for his 57 Chevy smoking too much!

Driving it some will not create any more problems than you already have.

I suggest pulling the plugs again and see how they compare to each other and your memory from previous observations. If #5 is oil fouled again and the rest look okay doing a leak down test may help determine if the problem is with the piston rings (valve guide issues will not be obvious).

I do not recall if you have previously determined the origin of the engine (year and any rebuild information). The engine I pulled from mine had a rebuild tag that identified the rebuild information such as bearing sizes etc. as well as its origin being from a car (do not recall the year off hand).

Here's a quick data dump on the engine: it came from the junkyard (pic attached of it the way that I found it). The engine was sitting in a 1961 Chevy Impala. The serial number supports that model year of car. It is a car engine with hydraulic lifters. I do not know if the engine was the original engine for that car or if it was a replacement. There was no rebuild tag attached to it, nor did I notice any remnants of a tag. I have not been inside the engine in any way, so I really have no idea if it has been rebuilt, hacked or modified in any way. It's a mystery, unfortunately.

I will start with a compression test of each cylinder. While I do that, I'll take a pic of each plug. My thought is that if the compression numbers seem roughly equal (they did the original time that I did the test a couple of years ago), then I'm thinking it is valve guide or seal related, instead of ring related. Is that a valid way to think?

After that, I'll regroup and go from there. I'll plan to continue to drive it in the neighborhood, unless something shows up in the compression test. In a less emotional way than my last post, let me say that I have no problem doing (learning) engine work. My issue is strictly financial. I just don't have the money to do any machine shop work. If it turns out that there is some work that I could do, without the need to send it off to a machine shop, then I'd be amenable to that. As it stands right now, I have no confidence that the engine won't strand me on the side of the road.... It really stinks that I've come this far and still can't drive it out in town.

A compression test is okay but a leakdown test is more informative. A comparison of the current compression numbers to your historical readings can be informative or at least help identify if something has changed.

The group will be able to help identify the original information about your engine with the numbers you should be able to find (some cast in and some stamped) but you will prbably get more response if you start a thread in the engine sub-forum with your information and a request to help identify the engine.

If the only problem that you have is smoking I doubt that the engine will strand you.

Spark plug pics in order #1 - #6. Both #5 and #6 were saturated in oil. #1 - #4 had that tan color to them and appeared to be burning off the carbon from running too rich.

My compression gauge needs a new hose...so that didn't get done yet.

Well, you already know the problem is with 5 and 6 cylinders. No need for a compression test. Perform the leakdown test on 5 and 6 to see if the piston rings are the culprit.

I'll try to get it done tomorrow.

Hey Everybody,

Leak down test completed. Results (assuming that I did everything correctly) are pretty clear. First, the setup: I removed all 6 plugs, disconnected the coil wire and installed the fixture that I had previously made per HRL's instructions (thank you, again, HRL). I only bothered with cylinders 5 and 6, since they had the abnormal looking plugs. I rotated the engine by both rotating the fan/water pump and bumping the starter. I aimed for having the pushrod ends of the rockers as even as possible and verified that there was no pressure on the rods. I assumed that with no pressure on the rods, the valve springs on the other end were exerting maximum force on the valves and they should have been closed. It was the only way that I could figure to have the valves closed for this test. If I was wring, someone please let me know. So, I started with #5. Got it to where I thought the valves were closed, threaded in the fixture to the spark plug hole, attached the air hose with 90 psi and nearly messed my britches when the air came shooting out the spark plug hole for #3 cylinder and right at me! Um, yeah, I had no idea that was even a possibility! After collecting myself, I did it again. Same result, minus being startled. Weird. So, off to #6. Here is the video of the #6 test. I'll let the video speak for itself. Now, having a large amount of self doubt, I rotated the engine to see if I would get different results. #5 still shot air out of a spark plug hole, however, the cylinder changed from #3 to a different cylinder (I don't remember which one....). #6 provided the same result as the video, a strong flow out of the exhaust pipe. I rotated the engine a third time. Same results. So, I have repeatable results. Of course, if my test setup is wrong, then I've just repeated the error and the results are invalid. I have an opinion on what part(s) are not working correctly/are damaged. To me, the head is damaged and/or malfunctioning or both. I would like some opinions of the test setup, the logic for the setup, the results and my conclusions, please.