Hi guys,
I'm about to put my 1972 Blazer back on the road after a 5 year hiatus. It still has the original 350 engine in it that has at least 123,000 mile (maybe 223,000 miles). It runs strong, but it used to smoke like H*@L when I would start it up cold. Once it warmed up, no smoke. I when I say smoke, I mean lots of it and for like 5-10 minutes until it was warmed up. It was a white-grey sort of smoke, not really very blue. The natural culprit would be the valve seals, which probably do need to be replaced. But would valve seals cause it to smoke for so long? I was wondering if it may have something to do with the carb (too rich maybe), or low compression in one of my cylinders (haven't done a compression check on it). The oil is not milky or grey, so I don't think there is water in it, and it doesn't smoke forever like it would with a blown head gasket or cracked block. It smoked so bad, my next door neighbour would come out and complain EVERY time I started it up (hence, it being off the road for 5 years).
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Rod

 

does it still smoke a lil bit after it clears out? they color that u describe about the smoke sounds like a blown head gasket or something. just becuz it doesn't have water in ur oil doesn't mean it's not blown or cracked.

 

My LUV (350) did that too. And it turned out to be a blown head gasket, ran it for about 3 days like that and only a tiny bit of milky oil in the engine (never read on the dipstick but was on the retainer for the roller lifters). Thankfully it did no damange other than to my wallet, because I just went ahead and replaced the heads while I was at it.

 

My S10 Tahoe 2.8L 4X4 does something similar.. I replaced my oil guage with an aftermarket, and figured out the while it is smoking, my oil pressure actually runs higher than it should, and I have not water in oil\oil in water. Interesting...

 

I drove it for two years with it smoking every morning (especialy when it was cold and took longer to warm up), and never did I see any water in my oil. I know it is not a head gasket. What I am thiniking it is a valve seals and warn out valve stems (the hole has warn too much and is letting oil through). A valve job might be in order.

Rod

 

Valve seals. Let oil through when cold and not when warm. Replace em..

 

Smoke on start up is normal for valve seals especially if the engine sat for a long time. BEFORE you go to replacing the valve seals remove the valve covers and clean out the oil return holes in the heads so the oil can escape back into the oil pan instead of in the valve cover which will flood the valves.