OneBeast88

The car was running hot, I noticed there was liquid in the passenger floorboard. I did some research and found out I need to replace or bypass the heater core.

The car got up to 230 or so.

Before I bypassed the heater core I put more water in the radiator. The car would not reach normal operating tempature.

I decided to replace the thermostat while I was bypassing the heater core. When I took the thermostat housing off I noticed there was not a thermostat there. I put a 180 degree one I got from Autozone.

I bypassed the heater core by taking the two hoses that go through the firewall and sticking them together with a plastic 3/4 to 5/8 adapter I got from Autozone.

Now when I first start the car up it smokes, just the initial start up. Also when just sitting still and at idle if I rev it up to 3k or more it will blow smoke out. After I do it a couple times it will not do it anymore for a while.

Any idea what this can be or if it is related?

jimdutro

iTrader: (1)

The smoking sounds like valve seal or valve guide wear which could be aggravated by the over-heating. If your engine has high miles, this is not unusual. The original engine in my `88 Iroc only went about 90k and I attribute that to it running so hot for years before I got it.

OneBeast88

Thanks for the reply.

How serious is this? Do I need to rebuild the heads? I plan on building another motor in six months. Will this problem just make my engine burn oil or will it kill it?

If I remove the valve covers is there a visual check I can do to see if this is my problem? Thanks.

jimdutro

iTrader: (1)

No, I would not worry about it if you are building another motor in 6 months. If all it is doing is smoking a little at times, if it is me, I live with it. There is no visual check that you can do that I am aware of for guides or seals, there is nothing really to see. You would have to remove the valve springs to inspect the valve seals and if you went that far you would just replace them. I`ve done it before on a `68 El Camino and it was not hard, it just took time with the heads on. If you are building a new engine, I would make sure the cooling system is in good working order so your new motor never overheats. If it is the guides or seals, your plugs will carbon up faster and may require you clean or replace them more often. As hard as it is to change plugs in these f-bodies having to pull the spark plugs more often would determine whether I pull the heads and rework them. This should not be fatal to your engine and it may burn slightly more oil. If you start having to add oil frequently, along with changing the plugs more often,then you look at reworking the heads. I had a `71 Charger in 1973 with 60k miles and the guides were shot and I had to replace the plugs weekly and I could not see the car smoke. Drive it and check your oil frequently. Search cooling on this site and check out "******* Total Fan Control". I am setting up my `88 Iroc with this system and you may want to do the same or similar before your new motor goes in.