Dan H.

One of the many winter projects is plugs and wires, never imagined that all that sheilding would make this complicated!

Anywho, All the plugs were clean except one. Cylinder #2 had a lot of funk on in. There are two pics showing the gunk. Then I removed the clumpiness. I think that its good news that its not magnetic, nothing would stick to my bolt/nut/socket retriever.

Any ideas what caused this? Any reason for concern? What should I be doing next if I see this?

Car is a 71 LT-1.







Should these be a more of a mocha color? These seem a little white.

zwede

You're burning oil. The middle 2 on the top are also bad, just not to the point of the worst one. The rest are also showing sign of lack of oil control (threads should not have oil on them).

Dan H.

I do get some random puffs of oil smoke. What is the likely source?

Car has 49k miles but has been in storage for 10 years....

7T1vette

Probably valve seals...worse on that crudded up plug than on the others. Or, if you actually blow oil under acceleration, you could have a bad ring on that piston. Valve seals can be changed on the car without removing the heads. If you are a decent mechanic, you can DIY; or you can find a competent engine repair shop to do the job. It's not a "big deal" and shouldn't be that expensive to get valve seals replaced.

bpassmore

If your compression is good the best guess is valve seals.. cheap and easy.

Dan H.

thank you guys!

anips

another way to check is with a vac. gauage, follow the instuctions with the guage, or a leak down test, fill the cyl with air listen for air leakage at the exh. pipe for exh valves, carb air horn for int. valves, pop the oil cap listen at the valve cover for rings, with a used motor you going to get some leakage, put a pressure guage with a ck. or shut off valve on the pressure hose from the compressor.....maybe a bad pvc valve.

anips

[QUOTE=anips;1579864369]another way to check is with a vac. gauage, follow the instuctions with the guage, it will give you a better picture of your motor condiction or a leak down test, fill the cyl with air listen for air leakage at the exh. pipe for exh valves, carb air horn for int. valves, pop the oil cap listen at the valve cover for rings, with a used motor you going to get some leakage, put a pressure guage with a ck. or shut off valve on the pressure hose from the compressor, the stock o-ring valve seals are useless if your guides have some wear, might the consider using the umbrella type that fit over the guide.......bad pvc valve..........sorry people, about the double post.

Phil Zell

I am with 7T1Vette on this one, Bet you won't find a seal on that cylinder ?

billla

Not all that much work to do a compression/leak-down test on that cylinder, as there could be many causes. Why guess when you can do good mechanic work and know?

Dan H.

I'm with you billa. I'm a firm believer in doing whatever I can myself, its the best way to learn. I have to go out and pick up a compression tester, I've always just used my fathers.

The car sat for 10 years, and I've only driven it 500 miles since its been out. Are the valve seals something that can dry up or become brittle sitting for that amount of time?

zwede

Yes.

But that doesn't mean your piston rings are still sealing. Replace the valve seals first. Cheap & easy. Then monitor the plugs and see what they do. If they keep oil fouling the investigation continues... maybe a leaking intake manifold seal or the engine is tired and needs a rebuild (oil leaking past piston rings).

Dan H.

UPDATE

Tested compression this weekend and found that I have 150 - 160 pounds in my gunked up cylinder. I checked another random cylinder just to have a control to compare to and it was the same.

So after my winter projects are done, I'll be replacing the valve seals. I needed to replace the valve cover gaskets as well.

Thank you for your help!