440 woes

-
Drache

Drache

1971 Dodge Dart Swinger
Joined
May 10, 2011
Messages
1,895
Reaction score
128
Location
Williams Lake, BC, Canada
Ok so I'm going to post info concerning problems with my 440. The car is currently in my cousin's shop. I'll update this with info as if comes to me, so if it's not posted here, I don't know the particulars.

1) Started the car this spring. Right hand side was blowing a little blue and the exhaust had a very light popping noise, you almost couldnt hear it but could feel the popping if you put your hand down to the exhaust. Driver's side was completely fine.

2) 3 weeks later I started the car and drove it the 80km (49 miles). Engine seemed to be running fine and drove what seemed to me perfectly. When I got home, I looked and the car didn't appear to be blowing blue.

3) Took the car to my cousins to be checked over and told him all of this. Called me up saying they have some problems.

4) They explained that they pulled the #6 plug and found that it, and the piston, had oil coating them. Also my exhaust tip for the side had a coat of oil on it.

5) They have to put my car on hold for a few days before they can do a compression test on that cylinder due to someone who actually pays full price for work needing a crate motor installed.

So lets here some horror guesses at what the problem could be while I wait to hear the verdict. :banghead:
 
Rings, valve guides, valve stem seals. Do a compression test. firsr dry and if you see a offending cylinder, More then 5 percent difference, lower then the rest, do a wet test. If compression comes up with wet test then rings seem to be in order, if not then it tend to look like the valves are shot. MT
 
Cracked or bad spark plug.
Broken or damaged oil rings from sitting.
 
Drache said:
Ok so I'm going to post info concerning problems with my 440. The car is currently in my cousin's shop. I'll update this with info as if comes to me, so if it's not posted here, I don't know the particulars.

1) Started the car this spring. Right hand side was blowing a little blue and the exhaust had a very light popping noise, you almost couldnt hear it but could feel the popping if you put your hand down to the exhaust. Driver's side was completely fine.

2) 3 weeks later I started the car and drove it the 80km (49 miles). Engine seemed to be running fine and drove what seemed to me perfectly. When I got home, I looked and the car didn't appear to be blowing blue.

3) Took the car to my cousins to be checked over and told him all of this. Called me up saying they have some problems.

4) They explained that they pulled the #6 plug and found that it, and the piston, had oil coating them. Also my exhaust tip for the side had a coat of oil on it.

5) They have to put my car on hold for a few days before they can do a compression test on that cylinder due to someone who actually pays full price for work needing a crate motor installed.

So lets here some horror guesses at what the problem could be while I wait to hear the verdict. :banghead:
Click to expand...

What's been done,to the engine? Could be anything from improper crankcase ventilation issue( Yes, I have seen it happen...) to an intake manifold/gasket leak(bolts loose?...)., to a broken ring. I would look ,at simple & inexpensive items first.
 
The popping may be a bad exhaust valve. It may not pop anymore if it is in the #6 hole, which probably isn't firing. How it could run great with an oil soaked plug is a mystery.
 
Best approach is do a leak down on it, then pull the head with the oily plug. I always like looking at it.
 
magnumdart said:
How it could run great with an oil soaked plug is a mystery.
Click to expand...

Well here is my guess to what is going on.

Slowly leaks oil into the cylinder over time, I drove it to town which burned off any oil that built up while it was sitting at the ranch, so wasn't really smoking after the 49 mile drive.

Drove it to my cousin's shop where it sat for a week before they could look at it. This allowed oil to drip slowly back into the cylinder. After a week they opened it up and low and behold, there was oil built up.
 
Ok so got an update so far. My mechanic simply said that the "pushrod went up through the rocker" and that was causing my problem. So far everything else seems fine.
 
Drache said:
Ok so got an update so far. My mechanic simply said that the "pushrod went up through the rocker" and that was causing my problem. So far everything else seems fine.
Click to expand...

LOL, that would do it.
Glad it wasn't anything serious.
 
Just to throw something in.....440s dont have very good oil drain back in the heads and the way they oil the rockers....theres alot of oil up in the heads.
 
Well...keep us up to date. I'm a little skeptical. With the rocker damaged, maybe even the push rod also, not only should it have run pretty lousy, you should have heard it.
 
Does something look wrong here?

Pz7mJ5g.jpg


Car was running almost the same before and after this happened. No loss of oil pressure. All the other pushrods and rockers were inspected, all fine. The pushrod was still straight although a new one was ordered with the replacement rocker. Rest of the engine checked out as well. Should have the Dart back up and running barring any unforeseen circumstances by this weekend.

I will be upgrading to a different set up in the near future. Just trying to get the car going for this year's car show circuit.
 
If that broken rocker is in the 6 hole then that would explain why the exhaust popping stopped. I have no idea why it would have a lot of oil in it though. Under the right circumstances I could see it sucking a little oil if the intake rocker was broke.

How it could run so well...still a mystery.

If you just put it back together and it starts to pop again, I think I would have it shut down instantly. If I was to use the I hope it's OK method I think I would use the old push rod. Then if anything happened you wouldn't have to buy a new one.
 
I don't see how this contributed to oil in the cylinder. Can anyone explain? MT
 
Just maybe that pushrod went through the arm, only moments before or right at shut-down?

Theres only two or three major ways for oil to get into the #6 chamber, and only one of them, or possibly two, will put oil on top of the piston with the engine not running.If oil is coming out of the tailpipe,and the other 7 holes are dry, there may be a lot more to this story.Im staying tuned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top