54' vette

[Guest]

I have a question regarding a 54' vette . <P>There is what I assume to be oil spattering out of the tailpipes. Normal? Cause ?

[Guest De Soto Frank]

Tailpipes ? Plural?<P>A '54 'Vette should be a six... did they split the manifold and run dual exhaust?<P>Anyway, a rich fuel mixture can cause black carbon in the tailpipe, and when mixed with the inevitable moisture from a cold engine & exhaust system can produce a black "splatter" that looks like oil; does the car do this only when cold?<P>If the engine is somehow using enough oil to actually blow it out the tail pipe, it should be accompanied by great clouds of dense blue smoke and high oil consumption, registered at the dipstick.<P>How many miles on this engine? Is it the 3-carb Blue-Flame 235 cu. in. six-cyl ?

[Guest]

The engine is the original 3 carb blue flame 6 , with 37,000 original miles and does indeed have 2 tailpipes. It sounds like your assesment is correct about the mixture being to rich , as there is no smoke from the exhaust when the car is running. I will let it run longer to see if spatter clears up when the car warms up. Thanx for your help.

[Guest De Soto Frank]

Elbon,<P>Sounds like it needs a nice long drive; I don't know exactly what the tuning specs are for the high-performance version of the six, but I'm guessing it's tuned to run a little rich at idle, and hits it's peak combustion efficiency @ mid to high-range rpms.<P>When they're just idled in the driveway or garage, they tend to run rich and build up fluffy carbon (soot) in the exhaust pipes, then when the engine is revved, that gook blasts out!<P>Good luck!