Oil in VAF Tube

[milehighbear]

TY for all the info. It does blow some smoke out the tailpipe and I need to resolve it long enough to get it emission checked so I can get plates on it. It is not a daily driver as I have 4 vehicles and wife and I are both retired. I bought this three weeks ago mostly to replace parts on my 93 but after I got it and found it to be in pretty good condition body wise and it has good A/C I am trying to get it running. I have to replace the left rear brake cylinder and main brake cylinder and get brakes going first and then get engine in good condition and if all goes well that will tell me to fix it and possibly get new motor or part it. I guess I will put ATF in it to clean engine out some and then good oil and then run it out on highway after I get 30 day permit to drive it enough to take it to emissions. Guess i'll keep my fingers crossed. The check engine light was on when I got it so I put a can of seafoam in gas tank and then checked 02 sensor and it was black and got a new one and check engine light stays off now so that was a big concern too. Its an auto and my wife said she may even drive it if I get it running good. I almost fainted cause she don't even like riding in Lil Red which I made into a convertible. She says it is too low to the ground, lol. Time will tell. Can't work in it for month thou cause I just got a pacemaker put in and I have to heal real good before I take on a big project. Have a great day all.

[Rick the Quick]

You didn't mention if it had been sitting for a long time before you acquired it. I have bought cars that sat for several years. It was not unusual for them to blow some blue smoke out of the exhaust when I got them running. I remember a '59 Rambler with a 6 cylinder flathead I bought that had sat for 10 years or so. I went home and got a battery and gas and got her started. To my dismay it was smoking bad enough to not want to drive it. I was by myself so it was easy to drive off in my daily driver and leave the Rambler for the time being. I got home and mentioned the Rambler to a good old school shade tree mechanic. He said it may be nothing more than the rings sticking to the pistons due to sitting. He recommended that I pour ATF down the intake while I kept the idle speed up. He said don't be in a hurry, pour it in slow enough so you don't stall the engine. I figure I have nothing to lose right? I go back the following day, start her up and proceed to pour the whole quart of ATF down the intake. It took a while to pour the whole quart without stalling the engine. When the last drop of oil was poured in it was getting hard to see anything around me. Anything but smoke that is. I pretty much expected it would take a while to clear so I kept the idle up for about another 5 minutes or so. At that time I'm expecting a neighbor to call the police. In my head I'm counting all the possible tickets I would be getting. I decide to get it over with and drive it the 20 miles home. I'm thinking the worst case scenario is they get me for no insurance (although I later found out I was automatically covered under my policy), no plate, actually wrong plate from my other car which today is a fourth degree felony.... And excessive smoke. So here I am running through the gears (three on the tree with working overdrive!) in a very nice residential neighborhood and dumping out so much smoke I couldn't see anything 100 feet behind me. I have about another 5 miles to go before there is no avoiding getting on the main roads. Driving down the main roads will surely cause me to get pulled over and my pretty little '59 Rambler will be lost to Johnny Law....Right? Well to my amazement when I get to the main road and look for cops and also check the rear view mirrors to my amazement I see nothing. That's no more blue smoke. I got on the main road and wound the little flathead up pretty hard and couldn't see any. Made it home with no problems, cleaned her up and made some fast money on the little gem. Sorry for the long story but just trying to illustrate a point. Since that day I have run into similar situations several times. I also worked on a mint condition '81 Kawasaki GPZ550 that sat for 20 years in Louisiana. I was thinking if the cylinder walls were as rusty as the brake caliper bores there is going to be a problem. I cleaned the fuel system and got it running. It ran ok but had a rough idle. A quick compression test revealed one cylinder that was down about 25 psi.The owner was quite unhappy but being the optimist I am I told him I might be able to fix it at no cost. He looked at me doubtfully. I pulled the plugs and squirted ATF in all the cylinders and let it sit for the rest of the week. I then slowly cranked it with the plugs out. Not too messy if you go slow and repeated the procedure. A week later I fired it up and yeah it smoked bad for a few miles. I got home pulled the plugs and found the offending cylinder was still low, but this time only by 5 psi, not 25. Just a few of my stories from my archives. I have been flipping vehicles for a lot of years and I might be in the shade tree category (no offense intended Rob) but I have learned a lot by doing. A few squirts of ATF down the plug holes and a weeks time may free up stuck rings if the Festiva has been sitting for a long time. It does not always solve the problem but it has worked for me several times and the best part is it will cost you nothing. If you need any help maybe there is a forum guy close to you that will help out a veteran. Good luck with the car and have a speedy recovery.
Rick.

[milehighbear]

The car only sat for about 4 months that I know of. I use to see her drive by my house and then one day I drove by hers about month ago and saw car sitting in driveway with no plates. I will try the ATF in the plug holes seeing how it will be sitting for couple weeks. Will give me time to do that. TY Rick and I enjoyed your stories. One other thing I learned that I do is before I take my cars over to emissions to get them checked I spray bleach in the tail pipe and take a toilet brush or so and scrub away the black soot that is sitting in there so when they sticke the probe in it don't get a bad reading from all the black soot. Works every time. I also bought a catch can to put in between the hose that goes from top of valve cover to MAF cover to keep oil out of that tube cause I found lots of oil in it.