Lots of oil in my Head!

[pawkettle]

Looking for some advice please. Our 29 pickup has burned a little oil since we got it a year ago. The plugs did have some oil on them, but it would run pretty well. Even after adjusting the timing and carbureator I never could retard it to a loping idle like our 31 tudor, without stalling it. This spring I replaced the clutch,pressure plate,rebuilt the transmission, new u-joint, new driveshaft, put in a new 3:54 ring and pinion and rebuilt the carburaetor and new muffler and 4 new tires. Last week I took it for a test run. The engine fired right up first try,
still could not idle very slowly. The intake and exhaust manifolds appear to be in good shape, no warpage or cracks. After driving several miles I returned home. The truck ran great, no overheating and the transmission/differential sounded better than ever. After a few hours of setting I headed back out and everything again was running well. At about 5 miles, the engine started sputtering and trying to stall but made it back home. No overheating(160F) and the banjo seemed fine, warm but not hot. After letting it sit for a while it would not start. Turned over just fine. Checked the wiring , looked good. tried to time it over and over,could not get it in time. Pulled the plugs and they were dripping with oil. cleaned them up and tried again, nothing. the plugs were coated in oil again just from turning the engine over. So is this a valve or ring problem or something else?

[gustafson]

compression test.....rings are shot

[pawkettle]

Originally Posted by gustafson

compression test.....rings are shot

Thanks, I will try that !

[George Miller]

Do you have fire to the plugs. You need to check that first.

[gustafson]

Good idea, gaps should be .035

[Keith True]

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Yes,check the fire first.What you are thinking is oil will most likely be gas that mixed with the carbon in the cylinders and made a black gooey mess.

[1crosscut]

You've done what looks to be quite a bit of maintenance and repairs by the listing in your first post. However I don't see anything about doing any maintenance to the ignition system. The distributor in particular.
Timing the Model A engine can be a bit of a challenge to do the first few times but gets easier. Search timing a model a on youtube and you'll find some help there. Also the parts suppliers have what is called a NuRex wrench for setting timing. Dead simple and easy to use.
Before starting to set the timing be sure that the arm sticking out of the back of the distributor moves fully from side to side of the opening before starting to time the engine. If it does not do that let us know and we can help with getting that adjusted.
With a properly set up distributor you will have a good blue spark that jumps about 1/2" from the coil wire to one of the head studs.
I agree with Keith that you are seeing more of an unburnt fuel than oil on your plugs. Probably not getting spark and things are getting flooded out.
Do a compression test. To a point it's okay to have lower compression but having uneven compression is not what you want to see. If you don't already own a compression gauge you can get them pretty reasonable at you local auto supply or off the internet. You will need to get an adapter to fit the bigger plug opening on the A's.

[J Franklin]

What color smoke comes out the tailpipe?

[Benson]

This is written for a stock Zenith carburetor.


Improper use of the choke will flood the engine with unburned gasoline.

The manual choke on this engine does not work the same as one on a 40s to 80s engine.

Choke should not be closed more than ONE SECOND at a time while turning engine over.

Any more than ONE SECOND will flood engine.

GAV should be open 1/4 turn at all times when starting or driving.

If engine starts and dies then open the gas adjustment valve one additional turn and retry the choke procedure.

Note that choke only works while engine is turning. There is no accelerator pump so pumping gas pedal has no effect.

Idling and very short repeated trips will foul plugs. Engine needs half hour running at 40 mph or so to warm engine and clean carbon off the plugs.


If temperature is below 60 or so with cold engine, you may need to choke and or use GAV to start.

Some engines may need a little choke EVEN with warm engine.

As engine warms reduce amount of GAV used down to 1/4 turn.

[Benson]

Spark plug heat range makes a difference for driving conditions and if plugs foul out.

[Corley]

The oil could be a separate problem from the no start, or it could all be related. If your plugs get fowled to a certain point, normal wiping down and poking around the electrode might not "clean" them. They might have developed carbon trails through that oily mess, and are effectively shorted out. Try a spark plug media blasting cleaner, or better yet, swap them out to be sure. On the other hand, they might not be the issue at all, you could just have an ignition problem like perhaps a point issue, condenser problem, or weak coil, or even a loose wire. Normal ignition trouble shooting will need to be performed. Of course diagnosing from afar means it could also be a fuel issue. We can only do an educated SWAG without being on site.

You said you could not time it? That needs further explaination. There should be no reason you can't time it for any reason other than a major mechanical fault, which is unlikely.

As to the oil issue, a dry then wet compression test should help you isolate between rings and valves, but it sounds like you are probably ready for a rebuild, or at a minimum, an overhaul. What is the difference? A rebuild will put everything back to as-new condition, whereas an overhaul will just do the minimum to get it running correctly (rings, valves, adjust bearings). I recommend the former over the latter. If you are mechanicly inclined, you can do the removal, disassembly, cleanup yourself but you probably need to farm out the machining work and portions of the assembly. Pick the best shop you can afford, because you want it to be right, then it will last you a lifetime.

[Dodge]

Throw in a new condenser, it can cause those problems also. The new condensers don’t last like the old ones did.

[Dodge]

Throw in a new condenser, it can cause those problems also. The new condensers don’t last like the old ones did.

[J Franklin]

Originally Posted by Dodge

Throw in a new condenser, it can cause those problems also. The new condensers don’t last like the old ones did.

How does a condenser cause oil problems?

[Keith True]

I think what Dodge is getting at is that a bad condenser might be causing HIS problem,not really an oil problem.Raw gas going into a hot engine,melting the carbon and other combustion by-products into what looks like oil.Before anything else I would tune it up.make sure that juice is passing everywhere it is supposed to,through the coil,switch,points,etc.Then make sure the points are actually working,6 volts at the arm when open,0 when closed.I find it hard to believe that an engine that smoked and burned a little oil suddenly went from running to a bad engine in a few miles.It sounds like fuel or electrical from the way he describes it.I wouldn't be tearing into anything just yet.Wires have to be checked,not looked at.

[J Franklin]

Carbon and raw gas should be ruled out.If it is oil it will look and be oily, fact. I believe in proving or ruling out one thing at a time.

[pawkettle]

Here we go! I was only getting a very weak white spark from the coil wire at cranking. The upper plate in the distributor was shorted out. Fixed that and now we have a nice big blue spark arcing. It took me most of the day to get that far. Nearly all the ignition and terminal wiring was wrong according to Wes Andrews book. I can't believe it ever ran at all. Notice the sloth holding the wrench to the left, that's me. I'll move to trying to time it tomorrow. Thanks for all the advice!