<VV> Smoking engine

[Mark Durham]

Robert, if there is a small cloud of blue smoke on startup, blue smoke
indicating it is oil, Corvairs may do that more because they are air cooled
and have larger clearances than a water cooled engine. Its usually rings.

My 62 has the original engine at 68K miles and it does that if the car sits
more than three or four days, and I attribute it to oil seeping by the rings
in a couple of cylinders that do not have that great of compression. While 4
are at 145/150 cold, two are at 125/130, but pop up to 150 with a bit of oil
squirted into the cylinder when doing compression checks. My spark plug
color range is good and no cylinder is showing excessive oil use, so I'm
going to continue to drive it.

It takes up to 2000 miles to fully seat the rings in a new engine. If you
have babied it the 700 miles during this time, and even if you have not, I
would suggest with the engine warmed up you do some power runs, from a start
to almost full rpm at full throttle in each gear, accept fourth of course.
Do five or six. If you've got an auto, you can still do that, but its harder
to do. What breaks in the rings is the use of power. Take it out on the
freeway and drive it awhile at the higher power settings and rpm's. Put a
couple hundred miles on it, go have lunch somewhere.

If you are running full synthetic oil, I would suggest you drain that and
put a regular oil with ZDDP in it for break-in. We want less slick oil for
breakin, but want the slick oil later for longevity. :):)

Mark Durham

On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 2:56 PM, Robert Paul <barnaby at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hi folks just want to get a quick opinion.  Just took my Corvair out for
> drive on a sunny day.  I am still breaking in a re-built engine ( about
> 700miles)  The right side has had a little smoke from time to time on a cold
> start, I put that down to running a little rich.  The engine runs quiet and
> very smooth.  I head a loud cough and I saw a large cloud of blue smoke
> behine me.  The engine made no more sound, still runs smooth and good
> eceleration but it is blowing smoke out the right side.  Is it rings? Valve?
>  Any guess?  Thanks a bunch.  Robert Paul
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