Smoke coming from manifold side of engine

[cfergu22]

Hello, I noticed some smoke coming off of my engine today. I hadn't seen it smoke before today. The engine had been sitting winterized for about 5 weeks. I'm not sure what it is, hopefully just a gasket or something like that. I took a video of it, maybe someone could shed some light on what I could do to fix it.

Also, it seems like when the engine gets warmed up and running at a high rpm some smoke comes out of the spark plug holes, do you think that's just steam or do I need to tighten the plugs?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlC5aW-mcjM

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlC5aW-mcjM[/YOUTUBE]

[Al Schober]

Looks like you've lost the piece of hose that goes from the valve cover plate to the air intake.
Can't comment on the spark plug smoke. Are the plugs loose? If you've got some coolant leaking, it may go to the spark plug recesses in the head and smoke on startup.

[hanleyclifford]

Looks like a leak in the valve chamber gasket.

[cfergu22]

There is a hose there, I think it's just blocked by the opss. I'll try to get a better picture or video so you can See if it's set up correctly.

If it's the valse chamber gasket, is that pretty easy to replace? Do you think it is necessary to fix it or is it ok to have it leaking a little bit like it is now?

[Administrator]

Another UHS....

Bill

[sastanley]

cferg..that is up to you...leaks may cause other problems.seepage of cooling water into the crankcase, etc..

Any leak should of course be fixed as soon as practical. i wouldn't want to be motoring around with smokey/steamy/leaky engine parts. The winter time is the best time to tackle these things!

[ndutton]

cferg, all good advice.

Dang, this is killing me! Anybody have an idea what I'm thinking?

[lat 64]

Looks like burning paint to me. Was it overheating?

Russ

[cfergu22]

No, It wasn't over heating. The smoke started almost immediately when I fired the engine up.

Burning paint could explain the smoke coming off the spark plug area. That didn't happen until the engine was warm. I've seen loose flaking paint in those divots before. I'll check them out tomorrow and clean around the area.

[Sony2000]

Well you have lots of blow-by after the lay up. Is there new oil in the crankcase that is different from the old? But anyway, try to put the engine on a MMO diet, add the hose from the valve cover to the carb, or add a PVC system. Your piston rings have carboned up. Exhaust coming thru the spark plug hole can be a number of reasons, other than, the plug being loose.

[roadnsky]

...Dang, this is killing me! Anybody have an idea what I'm thinking?

Oh yeah!
Wait until you see what I'm about to post from my weekend of engine
maintenance, clean-up and re-working.
More to come, soon...

[Dave Neptune]

Smokin!

Looks like blow by and could be just a bit possibly spilled and burning off. If the valve cove plate gasket is leaking fix it. If it is the hose plugged (???) then if the gasket is comprimised blowby could escape there and under the fill cap a bit can leak too as well as past the flywheel end as there is no seal on that end of the engine. The hose~slash tube~ should be in place and sitting right on the sparkarrestor kinda like a neanderthal PCV (sorry Neil)set up.
RE the plugs DO NOT tighten more!!! First remove and inspect the seats and the base "ring seal" on the base of the plugs. As the plugs sit down inside a relief it give a place for moisture to gather and steam off. If the plug seals are bad a bit of oil and fuel will work it's way up the threads and burn off. It takes very very little to cause quite a bit of smoke.

Dave Neptune

[ndutton]

The hose~slash tube~ should be in place and sitting right on the sparkarrestor kinda like a neanderthal PCV (sorry Neil)set up.

That's fine, deride - - deride. Once cferg's issue is surrounded (most important) I have the retort that's killing me locked and loaded.

[Jesse Delanoy]

You said the engine had been sitting, winterized. Every year in the spring start-up, I would notice my engine giving off some smoke from the spark plug holes. I attributed this to the burnoff of the MMO used to fog the engine at the end of the prior season. I always poured a fair amount into each spark plug hole during winterizing - usually making it necessary to put in fresh spark plugs in the spring to start up. The smoke would last the first few times I used the engine, and would gradually disappear.

[cfergu22]

Jesse, That's a good point. I did spray MMO in the spark plug holes 6 weeks ago when I first winterized. I wasn't planning on using the boat again until March but we've had some moderate weather so I used it last weekend. I probably won't do the MMO in the spark plug holes again unless I'm sure I won't use the engine for 2 or more months. I takes very minimal time to De Winterize and Re Winterize with Anti Freeze, now that I know that, we'll probably use it more this winter than we had planned. I'll have to see if the Spark plug smoke goes away in the next few times.

Could someone explain what "Blow By" means?

I'm going to go down to the boat in the next few days and check the situation with the burning paint and the hose coming out of the valve cover plate.