Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

My '54 327 motor smoked like crazy after being started for the first time in almost 20 years. It still smokes a little bit, but gets better every time I drive it. You may have a stuck ring that will free up with some driving. Also you can replace a quart of oil with a quart of ATF and drive it for couple hundred miles and see if the detergents in the ATF helps to free anything up. I took the quicker route and replaced 3 quarts of oil with ATF, and ran it through about 15 warmup cycles while parked (no driving) over the course of about a week. The oil came out jet black, and that really helped to clean out a lot of crud.

Also Jim sent me a couple cans of Motorcraft Carb cleaner that you spray down the throat of the carb with the motor running and that cleaned a ton of carbon and crap out of the top end of the motor. The car will smoke worse right after using as all the stuff that breaks free is getting burned out through the exhaust. Then it will go away.

The motor was smoking from the tail pipe, and also would pour smoke out of the road draft tube when rev'd. Now it just smokes a little from the tail pipe on acceleration, and almost nothing from the road draft tube.

Anyway that is what worked for me, and I believe is also what Jim used to cure the "Crop Dusting" on his 356. Follow advice at your own risk.

I was able to upload a video of what I'm working with in regards to the smoking. The exhaust looks pretty good but you can definately hear lifters. Hopefully with this information it will also help to see if it is excessive or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9I3XGCTYzYA