Fire in the hole, smoke in the pipe

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pittsburghracer

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Well the really good news is I finally got my new 408 fired up in my black duster. The bad news is I got smoke, lots of smoke out of the drivers side exhaust. Same damn thing happened 7-8 years ago when I tried using this same Indy intake. I ended up porting my Super Victor and using it instead. That’s not an option this time as these are the Edelbrock heads I moved the pushrod over and opened the intake. Hopefully I head to the shop tomorrow, pull the plugs, and start doing some testing. Man this race season sucks. Man it sure sounds good for the little bit I ran it. Didn’t even get it timed yet.
 
Do you have an idea to what might be wrong with the intake, possible port not sealing ?
 
Do you have an idea to what might be wrong with the intake, possible port not sealing ?

probably but I don’t want to guess just yet. Same bank as before same intake different heads. These heads are highly modified so who knows.
 
John with the Indy intake you should be able to remove the carb and see if it's sucking oil and what cylinder it is. You'll get it figured out.
 
John with the Indy intake you should be able to remove the carb and see if it's sucking oil and what cylinder it is. You'll get it figured out.


Ya she’s opened up pretty good
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One of those scopes with a light for a cell phone would probably help there.

I've bought two Teslong bore scopes from amazon for checking rifle bores. One has a rigid shaft and hooks up to a USB port. The other has a flexible cable and has a wifi unit, it's very handy. The wifi camera was around $70 IIRC.
 
Well the really good news is I finally got my new 408 fired up in my black duster. The bad news is I got smoke, lots of smoke out of the drivers side exhaust. Same damn thing happened 7-8 years ago when I tried using this same Indy intake. I ended up porting my Super Victor and using it instead. That’s not an option this time as these are the Edelbrock heads I moved the pushrod over and opened the intake. Hopefully I head to the shop tomorrow, pull the plugs, and start doing some testing. Man this race season sucks. Man it sure sounds good for the little bit I ran it. Didn’t even get it timed yet.
Wow, bummer. This year has been rough on car hobbies. I have had setbacks too. Keep at it. Hoping this is nothing major for you.
 
Just not feeling it today. I did pull the driverside plugs and as I knew they were wet with oil. It would be so easy about now to turn off the lights and lock the doors. For sure I don’t love racing like I once did or this would have been running months ago.
 
Ya she’s opened up pretty goodView attachment 1715783394

Have u found that sharper runner dividers are a help , or opposite like moist porters say ? Was looking ur intake over a little ,
just curious , I know u have way more porting experiance than I do--------I sharpened mine , but tried to leave them rounded as much as possible / being thinner . ????
-bob
 
Have u found that sharper runner dividers are a help , or opposite like moist porters say ? Was looking ur intake over a little ,
just curious , I know u have way more porting experiance than I do--------I sharpened mine , but tried to leave them rounded as much as possible / being thinner . ????
-bob


Everything I’ve seen or read has said to avoid sharp edges as is screws with things. I always think (airplane wing) when it comes to the dividers. After I thin them I try to go back in an round them as a last procedure.
 
Dam, sorry to hear this John. I’ve been camping so much I haven’t started building my motor yet. It’s like the old saying: The older I get the slower I go. Kim
 
Well this is the worst nightmare I’ve ever worked on. I pulled the intake earlier this week and I checked everything for square. I Mopar buddy of mine came over and gave me another set of eyes. Honestly we couldn’t see anything wrong on the gasket sealing side so I took a long fine file and slowly worked both sides. Port matched another set of Indy intake gaskets and sealed it in place. The next day I installed the carb and hooked everything up and on startup she was billowing smoke again. I ran it several times to make sure it wasn’t leftover oil in the pipes and oil started leaking out of my Hedman header joints. I backed it out of the shop and started cleaning up and taking my lift apart. Plans are now to change both heads and intake ( do a valve job to my old set I ran 9.74 with and a Victor340 I ported earlier this year)
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to see if I can get it done for next weekends three 40,000.00 races. A buddy wants to buy my 600.00 entry if I can’t go and I told him I would see how things are going by Sunday night. Heck it’s almost September so it I don’t make next weekend’s race in done for the year. Plans are to get my fishing boat ready for some Fall fishing. I bought this for myself when I retired in 2010 and have never used it yet. It may be calling my name.
 
John, could you determine where the oil was coming from? Was there oil in the intake ports on the heads?
 
John, could you determine where the oil was coming from? Was there oil in the intake ports on the heads?


That’s about the only thing it could be with the amount of oil I’m getting. I may have nicked the brass tube lining the bolt hole. At this point I can’t risk it so they will go on the shelf for another day.
 
Two comments.

[1] Have you checked for/if plugs for oiling up? Maybe a clue as to which cyl are the culprit.

[2] About 40 yrs ago, I painstakingly brazed up the pushrod indent on a set of 906 BB heads. Idea was grind out the prod pinch, which I was able to do. After about 3m of driving, started blowing smoke. Brazing had cracked. All I had was a pair of smog 452 heads. Did a quick clean up, de-burr of sharp edges & on they went. And guess what? Performance was better everywhere. Lesson learned. Unless airflow requirements are extremely high, the prod pinch is not a restriction & removing it just reduces port velocity. D. Vizard now covers this in his porting books.
 
Pressure test the intake. Over and done. It'll turn up.
 
Busy day. It was 91% humidity when I backed the duster out to finish taking my lift apart and clean the bay. Drove it in and ate lunch, took a 30 minute power nap and started yanking the engine apart. 5 days till next weekends big race
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Just not feeling it today. I did pull the driverside plugs and as I knew they were wet with oil. It would be so easy about now to turn off the lights and lock the doors. For sure I don’t love racing like I once did or this would have been running months ago.
i know the feeling , good luck whatever you decide to do .
 
I will switch these springs over to my old set of Edelbrock heads that I ran 9.74 with so I’ll see how going from flat-top pistons to dome pistons and a 850 carb to an 1000 cfm carb helps out. I think the best 1/8 mile was 6.13 or a 6.15.
 
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