1961 Smoke and oil light on

M

My61bird

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Jan 6, 2023
Thunderbird Year
1961
I have a 1961 Thunderbird that had been parked since 1974 I brought home last year and changed the oil, plugs wires & plugs and installed a new gas tank, fuel pump and just finished rebuilding the carburetor as it wasn't getting gas and now that I got it started the oil light came on and there is white smoke coming from the oil cap along with a slight misfire I can hear and wondering what you all through?;As a friend suggested I just let it run for a while since it's been sitting for close to 50 years but before I do that I'd like to know what's going on if possible. Thanks for any help
 
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BEFORE I would have started the engine I would have pulled the sparkplugs, squirted a lot of Marvel Mystery Oil in each cylinder. The next day turn the engine by hand refill again with MMOil, let set another day. Install a wet line oil pressure gauge. Spin the engine w/starter to get oil out. Install plugs.Start engine. There's about a 95% chance that the valve guide seals are hard and brittle. I would rebuild the engine, but that's me.
 
I had same issue on a 62 Tbird what I did was the same I removed the plugs and put marvel mystery oil in cylinders let stay for a week then I crank over and started the oil pressure can up but started smoking . I replaced the valve seals car starting running well but a long drive it started tapping after hot I ended up pulling intakes and found the passages between the lifters was clogged I cleans out car ran fine after that . May be put some redline in oil and run for about 15 min then drain and put grease oil and drive see what happens . I agree with other person rebuild eng
 
Yeah thanks, sorry I forget to mention that when I changed the oil and filter I had added some marvels mystery oil and turned it by hand before cranking it and wonder now if changing the oil again might help? And as far as rebuilding the engine unfortunately that would be out of my budget.
 
My61bird said:
Yeah thanks, sorry I forget to mention that when I changed the oil and filter I had added some marvels mystery oil and turned it by hand before cranking it and wonder now if changing the oil again might help? And as far as rebuilding the engine unfortunately that would be out of my budget.
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Stuck rings is my suspicion, If it doesn't improve as above a rebuild may be in order. There is a process to awaken an improperly stored engine. Barn finds never just fire up after years of sitting. While you oil light is on is not a good sign. Possibly frozen oil pump. Don't run it again until an engine shop can diagnose. Sorry for the bad news just know you will need a budget. No hobby is free.
Unfortunately it needs to be properly inspected and probably pulled to do it right. The show Garage Squad has had this issue many times.
 
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The white smoke is blowby, probably from sticking rings. Slight miss is probably from dirty valve seats/faces. You haven't told us the mileage on the car, wich could be an indicator as to why it was parked.
As for the oil light blinking you need to remove the sending unit and install a mechanical gauge.
If you get reasonable oil pressure then let it run at a high idle for between 35-45 minutes. That's long enough to get it warmed up and may help unstick the rings and clean up the valves.
The simple diagnosis can be done by you! If the oil pump was frozen the distributor drive gear pin would shear and engine would not start.
However that doesn't rule out a plugged up oil pump pickup screen.
 
74 Harley said:
The white smoke is blowby, probably from sticking rings. Slight miss is probably from dirty valve seats/faces. You haven't told us the mileage on the car, wich could be an indicator as to why it was parked.
As for the oil light blinking you need to remove the sending unit and install a mechanical gauge.
If you get reasonable oil pressure then let it run at a high idle for between 35-45 minutes. That's long enough to get it warmed up and may help unstick the rings and clean up the valves.
The simple diagnosis can be done by you! If the oil pump was frozen the distributor drive gear pin would shear and engine would not start.
However that doesn't rule out a plugged up oil pump pickup screen.
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Very likely. Sludge could have clogged the Pump screen. Don't run it again until you drop the oil pan and take a look. Just saw a you tube video of oil draining from the pan of a neglected engine and it was as thick as pea soup. The top end will clean over time, but pull the valve covers and see what you can find. Filthy engines are not uncommon if rarely driven or serviced over the years.
 
If you wind up having a plugged up oil pump pickup it can be cleaned without removing the pan.
After you verify oil pressure if it's low drain the oil and put 2 gallons of diesel fuel in the engine. Remove spark plugs and crank engine for about 30 seconds. Let sit overnight. Drain diesel fuel and refill crankcase with a heavy oil. 20W-50 is preferred. Start engine and check oil pressure.
Oil pressure readings are taken at 2000 RPM.
If pressure is good run for about 30 minutes and change the oil again.
 
74 Harley said:
If you wind up having a plugged up oil pump pickup it can be cleaned without removing the pan.
After you verify oil pressure if it's low drain the oil and put 2 gallons of diesel fuel in the engine. Remove spark plugs and crank engine for about 30 seconds. Let sit overnight. Drain diesel fuel and refill crankcase with a heavy oil. 20W-50 is preferred. Start engine and check oil pressure.
Oil pressure readings are taken at 2000 RPM.
If pressure is good run for about 30 minutes and change the oil again.
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I knew there was somebody who had an in house treatment. I love the series of road worthy recues on Motor Trend. I was thinking kerosene but diesel is a good idea. Naturally more lubricating. Then change the oil every 200-500 miles for a while.
 
A technic I have used to de-sludge an engine was to remove the oil filter and crank the engine over to pump the oil out. It was too thick to drain out the oil drain. I then added 4 qts ATF and one quart of oil. I started the engine and let it idle for an hour. I then changed the oil, using 2 qts ATF and 3 of oil. I drove the car very gently for 10 miles and rechanged the oil. 5 years and 50K miles later the oil pan gasket failed. When I dropped the pan the engine was spotless!
 
Yeah I’m not sure how many miles are on the car as I never met the owner in person who was sick but The odometer says 60,000 on it and was told by the owners nephew, who I was dealing with, that the owner had told him that it ran good when he parked it who took it off the road after he bought a smaller car in 1974 thinking his wife would drive it who I did meet who said “ I drove it for about a year, but this car is way too much for me” At which point he went into there dry barn as it had too many memories for them to part with it. And I don’t know but everything is painted red, which kinda looks like it might’ve been rebuilt at one point in its life, but who knows. And yeah I’ll look into removing the sending unit (Which I just replaced) and adding a Mechanical gage.
 
So when your oil light is flickering are you at an idle? Does it go out when the rpm is raised?
 
Yeah oil light isn’t flickering it’s just staying on and I just Recently changed The oil sensor switch as the light wasn’t working at all before that. And yeah, I’m going to change the oil again and do a compression test to see what kind of readings I’m getting.
 
How long have you run it for?
 
I ran it for about 15 minutes after I got it started until it started smoking and I noticed the oil light came on.
 
My61bird said:
I ran it for about 15 minutes after I got it started until it started smoking and I noticed the oil light came on.
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I would take critterpainers solution a try. But before, I would pull the valve covers as that is where a lot of gunk accumulates and check the drains back to the crank case. You may have dislodged a bunch of gunk getting it warmed up. There is no problem of running it at idle with the valve covers off so you can see if everything is flowing, lifters really don't splash much.
 
yeah I’m going to pull the valve covers off when I get a chance and see what I can see, but first I think I’ll do a compression test and see if I can tell which cylinder is acting up. And what kind of ATF should I get? As I was looking for that the other day and see there’s many different ones.
 
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I think your first check should be oil pressure, depending on mileage usually cylinders 4 or 7 are common for burning valves, due to the vacuum port location in the manifold.
 
74 Harley said:
I think your first check should be oil pressure, depending on mileage usually cylinders 4 or 7 are common for burning valves, due to the vacuum port location in the manifold.
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Resurrecting an unknown engine is a long process. first do no harm until you know oil is flowing throughout. If all you hear is just a misfire, that can be worked out. if you hear mechanical or deep noises it may be more serious, As stated above it could be stuck rings. Smell the smoke, is it just blow by or has a hint of antifreeze. But protect the bearings or you are looking for a rebuild. As an old tinkerer, the smell of the exhaust will tell a lot if you know what you are smelling.
 
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