Randy Farrell

Hello everyone Happy holidays. I was driving my 81 euro the other day and I happened to look in the mirror and my car was smoking badly. The smoke looked greyish blue and it started to miss fire as well.The car never got hot or anything else. This happened very suddenly and there is a whitish frosting in the tail pipe. I'm not sure about what may have let go maybe head gasket or valve seal? I also have a spare engine from an 82 with l jet is it possible to convert this engine to k jet if it comes to a catastrophic failure.

NoVector

Easy stuff first, how does the oil on your dip stick look? Also, how does your coolant look (level and color)? Do either look like chocolate milk? Normally a blown head gasket will produce a white smoke and the exhaust will have a sweet odor. Blue smoke is usually burning oil, but you have white frosting in your tailpipe, so there's that. Possibly the frosting was just condensation due to your engine/exhaust not being up to normal temp(?)

Randy Farrell

No water in the oil and there was still coolant in the overflow bottle. I will look closer tomorrow I was over it that day and had no time this weekend. Thanks for the reply.

The Forgotten On

Converting an engine to K jet is as easy as swapping the intake on an L-jet equipped engine.

Everything else is already there.

SwayBar

Pull the plugs, they will tell the story. If you find a clean one, its cylinder blew a head gasket.

Randy Farrell

Thanks guys I will report back when I have more information.

Speedtoys

At least you have a spare one!

Randy Farrell

I do but I'm not sure of its condition The guy I got it from said it ran good.

SteveG

RAndy: This could be interesting and beneficial to others. Could you re title the Subject line so people can tell what this thread is about.

Randy Farrell

Sure if I can figure out how to change it. The time I have to work on it is very short right now with such short days. I will report back asap. Thanks guys.

dr bob

After a more careful read of the first post, I think I missed the "blue smoke" the first time through. Blue smoke is almost exclusively caused by excess oil ingestion rather than coolant, so the likelyhood of a head gasket failure as cause is less. Same guidance though - look at the plugs, this time looking for oil contamination. There are numerous threads on crankcase vent issues, and on the engine's propensity for pulling crankcase vapors and liquid into the intake. With the throttle removed, you may be able to look for oil in the belly of the metering unit under the paddle, as a clue where it's coming from. Biggest hint though will be that the engine is burning oil that used to be in the sump; is the oil level OK and has it been using oil? All are clues to the source. Then rings, valve stem seals and the like come into question. The plugs will usually tell you a lot.

GregBBRD

Automatic or manual?

If it's an automatic, pull the hose off of the modulator and see if it is full of ATF....

SwayBar

Dr Bob, I agree with what you said.

However, he did report 'greyish blue' smoke, so it can go either water/oil, or both.

IMO, of course.

Randy Farrell

Thanks for the retitle Bob.The car has not had an issue with coolant or oil although it seems to have been running a little rich and I was planning on dealing with that soon. When this happened it was quite sudden. I was stopped at a red light and looked in the mirror and noticed the smoke and soon after it started missing. I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet but the coolant and oil look normal. I started it up today and still have a misfire but not as much smoke and its more white than blue seems like a mix. The days are short and my time has been working on boat engines that's what pays the bills. Thanks for all input as soon as I can I will pull the plugs and take pics.

Richard S

Might be the warm up regulator. I had one go out on my '79. Car would smoke and miss like crazy for several minutes upon cold start, then all of a sudden be fine once the engine warmed up.

Rich