454 issues please help

[big_truxx]

my 89 tbi 454 smokes a little and I can smell gas. also a ticking noise. It was overheated by my brother and has 163,000 miles on it. I am thinking blown head gaskets and a colapsed lifter. anyone help me diagnose my issue?

I am hoping to do a rebuild in the future (may have to wait till garage is built) but I would love tolearn more about problems and symptoms of engines.

 

[LongIslander26]

454

It's probably going to require so much teardown to fix what you got now, that you might as well just go for the whole enchilada and rebuild it, since it's got 163,000 miles on it.

 

[Mad-Dog]

The oil control rings are worn out and causing the smoke.

The gas smell indicates a fuel leak and/or rich condition.

The ticking sound may be a bad lifter, rocker or pushrod.

Check the oil for water contamination.

Perform a compression test on all 8 cylinders, head gaskets usually rupture between 2 adjacent cylinders.

Start saving for a set of +.030" pistons/rings and a healthy cam/lifter set.

Last but not least you should pop a cap in your bro's @#%
for screwing up your ride.......

 

[big_truxx]

actually it was my dad's at the time the belt went thus causing the no cooling situation lol he said he drove it for about 10 min till he got to the rest area to pull over it is ok though. @163k miles, and having a hard life on the farm a good time to rebuild regardless of the overheated problem really. I traded my 82 w/ mr goodwrench 350 for it and the 55 big back window cab & frontend and also for a scraper blade for my tractor so I can plow snow when I get my driveway in. My dad just needs something that he can use.

I just figured that this would be a good oportunity for me to learn more about engines and their sigs of problems.

 

[Mad-Dog]

Cool...if ya find oil in the radiator then the block is cracked,
if ya find water in the oil then the head gasket is blown.

Air bubbles in the radiator are also a good sign of combustion pressure leaking into the cooling system,
if the engine ran hot for a extended period of time (10 miles to rest area) then it probably warped the head enough to allow the gasket to rupture and place a nice little crack in the head/s right between the intake and exhaust valves in selected chambers.

Here is a link to my favorite engine builder in Southern California

http://www.larrysperformance.com/data/long.html

Try as you might, ya cant beat their prices....

He is putting together a 383 "long rod special" short block for me that will be ready by the time i get back to Cali.


I am still contemplating a custom solid roller cam (236 @ .050"/ 280 advertised/ .570" lift on a 108 LSA)
It's a single-pattern cam and the engine may want a dual-pattern design with the 6.0" rods.

 

[big_truxx]

found no evidence of oil in the antifreeze nor in the oil when I checked the dipstick. radiator was almost a gallon low but... that's not saying much since it was never checked after it got home from breaking down. We put water in it obviously to get it home lol but has not been shecked till today.

if therings were gone/not exactly new that would also cause smoke wouldnt it?

I need to go get a compression tester to check each cyl and see what it reads.

what's the compression supposed to be per cylinder?

 

[diesel4me]

454 troubles...

I've owned 4 454 motors,all of them smoked a bit,but used only a quart of oil every 700-1500 miles,slightly more in hot weather--all had at least 100,000 miles on them...

One 74 motor I had out of a Chevelle had noisy wrist pins--you'd hear them most when driving about 35 mph--standing still,you could not hear them much for some reason..a few guys at local machine shops sat 90% of BBC motors have loose wrist pins at rebuild time--many have cracked piston skirts too..2 of my motors did,and I didn't know until I took the oilpan off of 1 motor to replace it(rotted thru!),and found it in the oilpan!...the other I only heard about from the guy I sold it too!--luckily he's a friend of mine,and planned to rebuild it completely anyhow,so it was no big deal..

Your "ticking" could be any of theese things and more,could be valve train,bad cam lobe,timing chain loose,even the fuel pump or its pushrod,etc..it will take some probing with a stethascope or peice of hose in your ear to try and narrow down where its coming from...removing plug wires while its running might help diagnose the noise too(use well insulated pliers or you'll get zapped!)..wrist pins usually get louder when the plug wires on the cylinder with the loose one is removed...bearing knocks will get quieter or dissapear when that cylinder is disabled..

Compression should be at least 120lbs in every cylinder--but its more important that they are all close to each other more than the exact pressure..one of my motors only had 100-120 lbs compression,but it also was the one that ran the best!--a leakdown test gives more accurate diagnosis than a compression test.. I'd say its due for a complete going thru with the amount of mileage and its unfortunate overheating dilema...but it will probably limp along the way it is for a long time too...but you wont be doing it any good by running it this way for long...

 

[big_truxx]

I am actually in no need to drive it. I drove it to the store just to put $5 in gas in to make sure it had a little and to hear/see and fel it run. I really would like to rebuild the entire motor adding a couple goodies at that time. Still trying to decide if tbi is best to keep on it or if it will end up with a predator ontop... I plan on removing all smog stuff and running dual exhaust with headers so I am thinking tbi will not like me at that point