Need Engine Guru's Help

Since I have put my headers on it seem that I have been burning some smoke out of the left side of the engine. I 1st thought it make be the new headers & exhaust pipes, but now it's getting worse. It is puffing all of the time. I pulled the plugs and they don't look right. They are the Bosch platinum plugs. I have heard others talk bad about them. I have not pulled a compression check yet, but I will tommorow.

What is the best way to pull a compression check. Plugs in or out. Also please look at the pictures of the plugs & help me fiqure out whats going on. Please remember I have had excessive problems with the ECM & fuel delivery system.

Help:sos:

your pictures are not clear enought to accurately read, but it APPEARS that theres a significant variation in the fuel/air ratio between cylinders and your plug gap distance AVERAGES too large and the plugs APPEAR to be a range too cold
first step, install new plugs and VERIFY the gaps are between .043-.045 , your pictures seem to show an average gap thats larger and variation between plugs

look thru this chart carefully
I think youll aggree , I could get alot more info from crystal clear detailed pictures

http://www.4secondsflat.com/plug_chart.html

Here are some better pictures.

It is difficult to see in the pictures but it sure looks like a bigger than normal gap.

I can't seem to get a great picture. I checked all of the gaps at .045. The Bosch have a very small tip. I picked up some AC Delco today. I will install them after a compression check tommorow.

Is it possible the manifold gasket could be leaking at the 5 & 7 ports?

"Is it possible the manifold gasket could be leaking at the 5 & 7 ports?"



yeah! its POSSIABLE but you will see some traces once the intakes removed if it was due to oil flow in the intake port walls/floor,from the lifter gallery

I would be happy if that's the problem. I have just never heard of that type failure before. But with a Crossfire, anythings possible.

Dirtbuster1 said:

I would be happy if that's the problem. I have just never heard of that type failure before. But with a Crossfire, anythings possible.

Click to expand...

UHHH....don't blame the Xfire for that, not inherently that I know of anyway....

I had the problem some years ago with the first build of this engine in my car now....seems some dufus angle ground the heads and not correcting the intake gasket plane...so of course the intake sucked oil like a muvva and drove me nutz untill I pulled it, and found the obvious....

so had the intake cut .020 off the TOP edge on each side... and changed the angle of the dangle so it cured the problem MAX PIA for min results, every freeking time....

now I have a similar problem cropping up and am wondering on this install...

:fishing::cussing:

Is it possible to try and torque the bolts I can get to see if it will go away?:smash::smash:

you can (TRY) but chances are excellent that won,t cure the problem

Here's the compression numbers. A few weird readings but nothing serious I think. I checked every cylinder 3 times. I checked numbers 5 & 7 (6) times. The passenger side plugs all look good. Please remember that this is a crossfire engine. Each side is fed by a different throttle body. I did not do a wet check yet. It was a pain to get the fittings & hose to some of the plugs.


1. 195 3. 180 5. 180 7. 175
2. 180 4. 165 6. 160 8. 160

Dirtbuster1 said:

Here's the compression numbers. A few weird readings but nothing serious I think. I checked every cylinder 3 times. I checked numbers 5 & 7 (6) times. The passenger side plugs all look good. Please remember that this is a crossfire engine. Each side is fed by a different throttle body. I did not do a wet check yet. It was a pain to get the fittings & hose to some of the plugs.


1. 195 3. 180 5. 180 7. 175
2. 180 4. 165 6. 160 8. 160

Click to expand...

I would say they fine, some guys like closer numbers but in my experiences I have never had an engine closer than that in the numbers....many a car....

that damn intake leaking lower down on these SBCs is a problem, one thing I did like about the old Pontiac engines, they had that lifter valley cover, and the intakes NEVER seemed to ever leak....but the SBC is pickey as a school gal over that crap....

I just read where I should have warmed the engine up. These readings are engine cold throttle closed.

Why is the number 1 cylinder so high. Should I install the new plugs and see what happens, or where should I go from here?

Dirtbuster1 said:

I just read where I should have warmed the engine up. These readings are engine cold throttle closed.

Why is the number 1 cylinder so high. Should I install the new plugs and see what happens, or where should I go from here?

Click to expand...

I look at it as the driver side is less then 10% variation, and the pass side is about 10% so not too bad....I would account for it by the throttle blades being at differant settings as it is a crossfire as I recall....I would have propped open all the tbody's before doing the test, myself....I always have....if I was to do this LT1-TPI setup I would just remove the throttle body....

:smash:

I just put the plugs back in & fired it off. It's still puffing smoke. I did notice that my problem on my AIC motor problem moved to the other side. It's getting to hot to mess with it anymore today, plus it's getting close to race time. Let's get all the opinions possible, & I will call the motor shop tommorow.

Wife said sell the damn thing, & go buy a new one before she goes crazy at me fussing about the damn thing.:shocking: I said why don't I just go buy another one. :beer:

I talked with my engine shop today. They think that my problem is in the intake gasket. They said that my valve seals were the boot type and doubted that they were leaking by. The compression numbers sounded ok for a engine with 500 miles on it. I guess I will pull the intake today and see what I find.

I got the intake pulled today. Removed the gaskets and cleaned them up some to try and see if there was a problem with them. They were the felpro blue gaskets. After looking very close it very hard to tell if they were leaking. The only thing that looked different was on the head intake port on the #7 cylinder. All of the other intake ports appeared to look like fresh metal, compared to #7 having a dark stain where the gasket might not have sealed at the very bottom of the head. Maybe thats what I wanted to see. I cleaned everything up & installed new gaskets after copper coating them. I will hopefully crank it up sometime tommorow. Hopefully this will fix the problem. Knowing my luck it's just beginning.:smash::smash:

I would say thanks for the help, But Bird might tell me to F off.

Thanks anyway!

Cranked the engine this morning after hooking all of the wiring out, & changing the oil. I was shocked how black looking the oil was after around 700 miles. Anyway the smoke might be a little better, or it just needs to burn it self out of the system. I turned the AC on while driving around the block, ant at idle it is rough again. I can see that the AIC motors are not working the same, that might possibly cause the bad idle.

I think I will drive later in the week after I can drive again after my neck injection today. I will update after the driving the car a little more.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Help :banghead::sos:

Hey, you look at the old gaskets?? were the bottom portions wet and dark in color ALL the way through the 1/4 inch width of the gasket surface?? was the bottom of ANY head ports dark/greasy with oil???

if so, there your problem...

I swear if MY mild smoking is taking that intake oil down there, I going to grind about 1/2 INCH off those flanges on top and use about 6 tubes of permatex poly steel shit, and DARE that mofo to leak.....

still think you need do the discussed pipe and mods to the 'slave' tbody and just do with ONE IAC motor and get it over with...PIA I Know....but I dunno what else to say....

:fishing: