I have a slight smoke problem with my 455. Its a 73 block with stage 1 heads and I didn't have the exhaust valve guides cut for umbrella seals.. so I am running nothing on the exhaust side to stop oil from getting to the valve. Here is a little history on the motor however. last season when I first broke the motor in, it tossed a belt and got REAL hot.. like 270 degrees. I put the belt back on and it was fine. Well, the car was also running real rich at the time. Anyway, i ran it the rest of the summer with no major problem except it developed a slight smoking problem while driving around at higher rpm. I took it apart over the winter for a cam change (another fiasco) and it had some small burn spots in the cylinders on the driver side. I honed the cylinders pretty good because they looked like they had gotten hot and were a little too dark for my liking. I used new moly rings and put her back together.... without the seals on the exhaust valves because I was told the guides should be machined in order to use the umbrella seals. So anyway, I get a slight amount of blue smoke on deceleration and I'm wondering if it is the rings letting a little oil by or if it is more likely the valve stems. Its not a huge cloud, but enough where my friends have mentioned it. I have a set of valve seals I'm going to install, but I've got another engine that I want to use aluminum heads on and I'm wondering if I should go that route. Any idea if not having the seals on the exhaust side will cause a little smoke on deceleration?? I also get smoke on startup after the engine is warm and it depends on what angle the car is sitting at when shut off. So I'm definitely doing the seals, but can that cause the smoke while driving also? thanks Bob
