White smoke, needs choke when hot

bluesmokebloke

New member
Hi all, hopefully this is a simple one for the gurus to troubleshoot. I'm no mechanic, and am thoroughly stumped.

A little background: I have a '65 200ci in my '63 Falcon, with an Offy tripower intake and 3 Webers. The middle carb has a choke, the outers do not and those are set to kick in around 1/2 throttle.

I was having major plug oil fouling issues last year - all plugs would completely foul after 20 miles or so, and the motor was consuming a ton of oil as you'd expect. The compression numbers were good, and the valve guides had no discernible play. I replaced the valve seals, but that did not fix the fouling issue. After scratching my head for a while, I noticed a head gasket breach, and - aha! - milkiness in the oil. I figured a blown head gasket could well be the culprit.

So I finally got around to changing it out. The motor now seems to run well at startup but with a bit of white smoke out the exhaust. After getting up to temp, the white smoke increases considerably and dies unless I run full choke. I'm not using choke to start, but it needs full choke when hot.

I've put on about 40 miles on since replacing the head gasket. They plugs are a bit dark (too rich?) but not oil fouled (yet). I did shade tree check for vacuum leaks by aiming propane around the carb bases and general area. I didn't find any leaks. The C4 vacuum modulator shifts OK, hot or cold.

Any thoughts? Anything I should try? Please let me know if more info is needed. Thanks in advance for the help...

Paige in CT
 
w/the good (150lbs?) compression I'm wonderin if the water still needs 'burned off'"?
Choke gives more fuel (less air).
 
Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I'm getting 150 from all cylinders. It seems like steam to me too. I'm going to try retorquing the head today.
 
U would think by 40 mi it would burn off. Did U do any machining while head wuz off?
Did U change the oil/filter @ that time? Did H2O enter the tranny?

Don't go over spec on head tq to bolts/studs. Follow the "out frm center" proceedure on tq w/a tq wrench (85 lbs I think).
 
Do you by chance have the heater hoses hooked up and water flowing through your intake spacer? I'm hoping you do and that it is leaking into the intake manifold. If not, I'm worried you have a badly warped (or worse cracked) head or block.
 
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