Some may remember the issues I was having with my P210. The one issue which I first noticed was that there is a funny intermittent "Pfft" that comes from somewhere which I can't figure out. When I originally asked about it I believed it was coming from a backfire out of the carb. But now I think it might be coming from the other side of the engine, almost underneath, maybe from the crankcase barf tube. When the sound is occuring it happens at about two sounds per second, more often when the engine is in gear. Timing settings do not effect the behavior of the sound. OK that is one issue.

I have also noticed that oil oozes and bubbles out of the block along the head gasket when the engine is running. I have only seen this on the spark plug side since it is hard to see under the manifolds. Finally when the engine is running and hot and also after it is shut down, smoke can be seen rising from the vented oil filler cap.

I have checked my compression, first two front clyinders were between 135 and 140 psi and the plugs looked nice and tan. The third cylinder back registered the same but the plug looked oily. Finally the rearmost cylinder was higher at about 145-150 and was also oily. I performed this test quickly without heating up the engine, and the final clyinder might have shown higher since it was the last I checked. I also did not perform the oil squirt test.

OK, so I know I should perform the compression test correctly, but I feel a little lost with all of this especially since I am loath to take the head of right away.

Questions:
- Since I don't want to take the head of right away, what is the possibility that I am causing damage by operating my vehicle? The car still has power and seems to drive OK.

- I want to test the travel of my push rods with a dial indicator, or such method, what amount of lift should I be seeing with a B16 cam? (not sure what cam it has in it)

- What is the deal with the barf tube, can it get clogged up like other crank case ventilation systems? Can I remove it for inspection without removing the glass bowled fuel pump?


- How much if any smoke is OK to have coming out of your oil filler cap.

Any tips, advice, diagnostic proceedures, or hunches would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mario

PS- For those who might remember that I asked about a overheating problem some months ago, it turned out to be a loose fan belt due to a elongated front generator bracket hole. Now it works just as good as it did before.

Sounds to me like your crankcase breather is clogged up. It should flow
freely and not make sounds at odd intervals.
Your compression sounds pretty good, but a standard test does not reveal
a small leak in a head gasket.
--
George Downs, The "original" Walrus3, Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Interesting. Overheated a few months ago, now oil is leaking around head gasket and plugs are oily. Sounds like a slightly blown head gasket to me. My brother ran an american v8 car with a bad head gasket and ended up burning a groove between 2 cylinders, effectively destroying the block.

As for the dial gauge thing, just measure them all and look at the range of travel. If all the intakes are within about +/- .005", same with the exhaust, then the cam should still be good for awhile. If you pull the head you can pull the lifters( make sure they return to the same holes) and inspect the cam for scoring,


Lee Boerner

I am pretty sure that the oil leaking around the gasket happened before the overheating incident.

Come to think of it, when the car was overheated, it was doing the ""Pfft",,half second pause,, "Pfft"" noise way more and had no power, I never let it get really hot though.

I am really stuck on this noise that is occuring, any ideas of what it could be? Sometimes the noise does not happan at all, and other it happens quite a bit. I guess this one is not going to have any easy answers, just gotta dig in.

I'll try not to drive it much before I get this thing figured out.

mario