no power and smoking

Ok heres my problem. I have an 83 elcamino that was swapped from a 305 to a 350. It has an edlebrock intake manifold and a mild cam. The engine was rebuilt then installed. Currently there is a white smoke coming from the car, typical at WOT, take off, and start up. At the same time the car feels very underpowered. I cant even do a burnout anymore unless its wet. There is a tapping noise when running, im guessing valves, on the right side. Also after inspecting the manifold there is someting (gas, oil, etc) leaking from the intake manifold as deposits are found around its edge. The car feels like it has more power when its cold, but once its nice and hold it SLOW!! Granted i have a posi rear, but if i floor it and power brake it nothing happens. Couple weeks ago my donut gasket went, and soon after the tapping noise began. Next week i will be installing a whole new exhaust. PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSEEEE HELP!!!!!!!!!!! I want to enter burnout contest next weekend, but cant with no power hahaha.

I would take off the intake and put new gaskets on and make sure its sealed. I guessing you are getting oil into the heads from the oil galley and are burning the oil with the air and fuel coming in from the carb, that might be causing the smoking. If thats happening this would cause the plugs to foul and cause bad performance. I come to this conclusion because you said the intake has some deposits leaking from it. Try some new intake gaskets and a set of new plugs and see what happens. good luck

could the plugs make it skip? I just installed new plugs and wires recently. I went and checked my vacuum lines and did some arranging as to what i thought would be correct, thinking my power loss could be my vacuum lines. The thing is with the power....when i floor it, especially in gear one or two, it misses. Like its trying then it chokes. So im thinking that maybe i need new plugs but why so soon? If youd like i can take pics of the vac lines look and u guys can tell me if they look correct. 2morrow i will check the plugs.

you need to check your comp. first. get that out of the way. if all the cylinders are ok them go on to something else. :HMMM:

If the plugs are fouled it can cause misfire, and if your pulling oil into the cylinders it will foul them pretty fast. As for your vacuum leak, you are looking at your vacuum lines but you said the intake is leaqking and has deposits, that would tell me that is where your vacuum leak is. Try to retorque your intake bolts and let us know what happens, they might have come loose. Sometimes it is the simple things that drive us all crazy.

Hmmm I thought white smoke=water.

But I could be wrong.

Ok after seeing the deposits on the intake im really starting to believe thats my problem. Im gonna tighten the bolts up 2morrow morning. If the bolts are loose wouldnt they have to be pretty loose to get a leak? Just curious, im sorry for all the questions im leaving imports and this is my first american ride.

One more thing. Like i said the engine was rebuilt the only problem area i had was the exhasut. The sensor on the exhaust manifold fell out leaving an open hole on the manifold so im thinking this my be causing problems as well. I was also told that it needed new donut gaskets. I will be getting a whole new exhaust this fri :) . Should i go ahead and get headers as well for the opening now in im exhaust manifold?

Looks like they are answering most of your questions now but yeah when you get exhaust if you have the money then get headers while your at it. Best thing to do if you have money and want more power is get a good Edelbrock or some kind of carb, new intake manifold, headers and exhaust. That will help with more power. But on your problem side I think you need to check everything that the recent people posted first before anyone can tell you anymore.

aight kool. Well its morning ill be on my car in a few min. i got all the stuff u said, cept for headers and carb. looks like im almost set

just checked my plugs, they look good. black at the tips of course-lol but in good shape :( All the bolts on the intake manifold seem to be tight as well.......sigh :(

Sounds like a vacuum leak to me, pull the intake. Running lean from a leak will do in the plugs quick, change them too. The same thing that causes the vacuum leak will let coolant seep in too, so change the oil. Aluminum manifolds must be torqued down in the proper rotational pattern or you're practically guaranteeing leaks. Also retorque a couple times after running.

white smoke is related to burning water and antifreeze. if your valve guides are bad you will only get smoke after you let off the gas pedal. did you take off the egr system on your 83 350 if so this can cause high combustion temps causing preignition and bad air fuel mixture

Well first off i would like to thank you all for all of your help. Looks like i found my problem. This morning i was searching the forums again and found someone who had loss of power and skipping above 3k rpm. That is the exact problem i have. To fix his problem he got rid of his secondaries. Well me knowing nothing bout carbs did a google search. Found out what secondaries were and then headed to my car. I dont know specific names so bare with me. I took off the breather and started the car, after giving it some gas i noticed that none of the ports were opening or closing. The ports closest to the radiator are forever wide open, and the ones closest to the distibutor are forever closed. Suppose its time for a new carb :(

ok well i just ran my car with the secondaries open, bc they are not opening at full throttle, i still had the same problem. Im guessing its something with the carb though bc it obviously isnt working properly at all. What other problem could it be wit the carb?

Vaccume advance? Maybe? My truck wouldn't idle right and it was skipping, etc and was my vac advance from the carb. I pulled it off and plugged the hose up and nothing changed and no vaccume.

I don't know enough to give you an answer that is 100% correct, I am still learning so don't go by what I just said thinking it's right. I am reading and keeping up with this post because I wanna see what your problem is, I am real curious as to why this is happening.

Ok looks like i have found the specific problem. Here is what happened.



So i took my breather off and began to rev the engine. At a slow constant increase it was fine. But when i quicky gave it a lot of gas it made this like popping sound, and looked like air came out of the carb when it made that noise. I took it out for a drive, and once again slow steady increase in throttle and for the most part it was fine. But when i tried to stomp on it, it started to miss again making that popping noise. The noise is no doubt coming from the card. Please help asap.

I think you're confusing the choke plate and the air valve with the throttle plates. If the front ones are wide open the engine is screaming in neutral. The hardest thing in the world is a diagnosis without seeing the engine, take it to a mechanic.

If your running the quadrajet I think the secondairies are controlled by engine vacuum, you might not be making enough vacuum to open them. Try to open them with your finger just to make sure they are not just stuck. Get a shop manual and check all the vacuum lines are hooked up properly. You also might just take some carb cleaner and spray it down real good and make sure everything is clean. You could also check the choke and make sure it is operating properly, if its stuck that could be your problem.

Well now that i know its a problem with the carb i really dont care too much to fix it. But all of your advice is welcome and i will give it a shot. I will be getting an edlebrock performer carb friday which should solve my problems. Unless one of you can give me an idea that cures it-lol. Luckily im only 19 few bills to pay, more mod money-lol

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Originally posted by fstrfvo
If your running the quadrajet I think the secondairies are controlled by engine vacuum, you might not be making enough vacuum to open them. Try to open them with your finger just to make sure they are not just stuck. Get a shop manual and check all the vacuum lines are hooked up properly. You also might just take some carb cleaner and spray it down real good and make sure everything is clean. You could also check the choke and make sure it is operating properly, if its stuck that could be your problem.

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BTW i opened them by hand and gave it gas and it still had the same problem

If your getting a carb anyways then change it and see if it helps. What size carb are you getting? This is a 350 right? If so then go with a 650 cfm and get Edelbrocks Performer Series intake manifold with that carb and headers all at the same time with the exhaust too. It will help with performance and maybe help gas milage, especially if it's running like crap now then it definetely will. I dont mean no 5 mile to the gallon but you know what I mean.

yea well i adjusted the pull off and that made it run worse. It runs better now at high rpm but worse at low rpm-lol. As for as wat im gonna do is im gonna try to adjust it again and see if i can get it perfect. But now its even running hot. So if that doesnt work then ill be getting a carb this weekend and exhaust and headers this week, for now i hope it works.

I have an 83 malibu with the same problem you are having, it had the original quadrajet on it, and it had no power, it would backfire, misfire, all kinds of problems. I changed it out for an edelbrock 500 cfm with mechanical secondaries, instead of the vacuum secondaries, I jetted it up, put smaller metering rods (for more fuel flow). and It will burn out so incredibly now. If you floor it, it will burn out for about half a second before it shifts into second gear, but it keeps burning out, I have pegged my speedometer at 85mph while sitting still burning out!!!!! My 350 is really hot!