To much smoke

I have a 27 Chrysler Finer 70, 219 6 Cyl, that sat for 20+ years it is running and sounds great. When under load is smokes excessively. I am thinking stuck rings? is there any way to isolate this and is there anything I can use to try to clean it out and regain power without a complete overhaul overhaul?

Thanks, JGG

Welcome, I assume it is a flathead and sits straight up in chassis. Buy a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil, remove spark plugs, measure an equal amount , 2-3 tablespoons in each cylinder, rotate engine slowly by hand for 1-2 revolutions and let it sit for at least one week. Add another dose 1-2 tablespoons, spirn it over (plugs still out) with starter for 20-30 seconds. Lay an old towel or rags over plug holes to catch any that tries to blow out. Install plugs and pour the rest of the bottle into the crankcase thru the filler. Fire it up. It will smoke until it burns out the manifold. Let it run awhile idling or drive it. If this doesn't work, repeat OR overhaul it. Sorry, only suggestion I have. GOOD LUCK, TexasJohn55 PS: I also assumed you did an oil change and drained tank of stale gas and refilled. A vacuum check of intake manifold may be useful also to determine engine health.

Thanks for the Marvel oil tip. I will follow your advice and give it a try. You are correct, 6 cyl in line Flathead. I have changed all the fluids. Have not done a vacuum or compression check yet.

Thanks again, John

Marvel Mystery Oil is great stuff. Just let the car idle and/or drive it for a long time. The rings will loosen up if that is the cause. Don't worry about using too much of the stuff, it won't do any harm. Putting some inside the gas tank will help too.

I used to care for a 1949 Hudson Commodore 8 that the owner would let sit for long periods of time. Whenever he got it out four cylinders would have low compression. About the third time around, roughly 3- 2 year storage periods we determined that those were the cylinders sitting at the bottom of the stroke during storage, the tightest fit in the bore. After a prescription of driving 200 miles, he brought it back and everything was normal.

Splashing hot oil around the inside of an engine cures a lot of problems. My goal is to drive each car 15 miles a week. It makes them run well, they have to be reliable, and it takes away the tendency to defer maintenance.

Bernie

Marvel Mystery Oil helped. After several applications and letting it set in between, my compression has come up and all 6 plugs are burning clean. A lot more power and less smoke. I agree with you Bernie, but I don't like driving my old card in the snow and salt of WI so they set in storage for 5-6 months here. This one sat for 22 years before I got it.

Thanks for all the advice on this. I really helped.

John

Nothing wrong with letting a car sit for five to six months, providing it's stored in a cool, even cold garage, as heat exacerbates all chemical reactions, like rust. Storing cars in a heated garage is just dumb. A cool garage but with an engine block heater is smarter, assuming it really gets that cold where you live.

A Chevron engineer told us gasoline (all brands are like aspirin) will last a year easily without Stabil (which we use, anyway) providing it doesn't suffer temperatures above 80 degrees. Have heard marine Stabil even better, but have seen no engineering data, corroboration.

As long as i've been in this hobby, it never fails to amaze us how many people still start their engines, run them a few minutes, or even block open the accelerator and fast idle them 15 minutes, or drive them 15 miles and then park them for weeks, months--

a sure recipe for sludge, varnish and carbonic acid, the latter eating rings, bearings.

Never, ever start your engine unless you'll drive a sustained 20 miles highway, long enough to equalize temperature of block, head(s), manifold(s). An old mechanic's test was to place your hand on the bottom of the oil pan. If too hot to keep there a few seconds, you got the engine hot enough to prevent sludge, etc.

A friend's (non-Classic) '54 Testarossa sat seven months between vintage races with no ill effect ever.

He and i have www.masterlube.net devices for full oil pressure before starting our dormant engines. McDonnell-Douglas, Continental, and the SAE all agree that 80-90%

of all engine wear is during those first few moments of dry start operation, which is any time your engine's sat inoperable more than a week.

Sorry, but there are no "miracle" cheapo elixirs that "clinge" to your engine's wear surfaces to protect them, breathless advertising aside.

Silicone brake fluid.

Soft water (never distilled which is ion-hungry, leaches minerals like solder in your radiator) and a good quality rust and corrosion inhibitor like No-Rosion's are ALL you need. Avoid antifreeze like the plague unless your car will ever be exposed to two sustained nights of a hard freeze (30 or below), or has air conditioning,

which requires 15% antifreeze even in LA or Alburquerque in August to prevent the heater core freezing with AC on, not an issue with any Classics other than a handful of '40-on Packards, '41-on Cadillacs.

The Nethercutt Collection does just fine driving each car only once every six months.

The above info primarily for those with other interests outside the hobby, or who live in overpopulated hells like LA, the Bay Area, NYC, Atlanta which now sprawl seven counties,

Chicago, Houston, Dallas where the nearly nonstop traffic takes the joy out of pleasure jaunts.

Bounce your car up and down vigorously every month or two to keep the shock seals moist.

Nice car, if a non-Classic. Am s t i l l waiting to hear why the Auburn 8s are CCCA Classics, but not the non-Imperial Chrysler 8s of the same years, which have hydraulic brakes, good lines, and everything else going for them as the Auburn. Posed this question last year, never a level reply.

Meanwhile, the above gentlemen otherwise tendered sound advice, and Marvel Mystery Oil's wonderful stuff, its downhome snake oil name notwithstanding. An ancient aero/auto mechanic/machinist pilot friend who still owns the blown '37 Cord Phaeton he bought new as a lad in '42 then worked for Pan Am at Alameda, said the Pan Am chief of maintenance swore by the stuff, ordered it in 55-gallon drums. Consider installing www.ampcolubes.com

on your auld Chrysler, a good device for any L-head engine. Fill the reservoir with Marvel.

It's period correct for our cars, if you're worried about some twit with a clipboard.

I've just heard recently that one way to eliminate excessive smoking from an engine (not mechanically, but chemically) is to switch to synthetic motor oil. Apparently synthetic oil doesn't "burn", i.e. smoke.

But a stuck ring is still a stuck ring.....

Dave, That is a shoddy used car dealers trick and it works. You will no longer be able to see the smoke, however it will still be burning the replacement synthetic oil. Keep a check on your dipstick! --Bob

The reference that I had was for a very early car that had to be driven a couple of times without offending anyone too much, and then it would see very, very, limited use....but understand that a used car dealer could use the same trick...what were the old tricks, banana peels in the oil pan and sawdust in the differential?

Seems I've heard of both....