Hi All,

I was hoping someone could help me with this. My 64 Starfire has an awfull smell when it runs. The exhaust smell is so strong that if I even get near the back of the car the smell sticks to my clothes. I am not sure if this is normal for a car of this vintage or am I missing something?
I recently replaced the intake gaskets because it used to smoke white and smelled like it was burning antifreeze.
At the same time I had the carb rebuilt. Now it is all together and running again and when it starts there is no smoke of any kind but after a few minutes there is white smoke for a while (no more antifreeze smell) and a lot of water coming out of the tailpipes for a while and it goes away again after it runs for quite a while.
When i give the gas pedal a quick shot of gas the engine hesitates a bit right away but if i give it gas slowly the engine accelerates nice and easy.
Don't know if these issues are related.

Any ideas?

 

is there a possability it's running too rich? mabye you need to adjust your needle valves? Whats the vaccume? Also mabye a float sunk? Just throwing out ideas but if it was mine thats where i'd start....

 

i would do a compression test on all the cylinders. could possibly be a head gasket with a leak between the cylinder walls and a water jacket....if youve done an intake gasket on this car then a head gasket is just a few steps harder but not to do. the compresion test or a cylinder leak down test will tell you if indeed that is the problem. white smoke in exaust generally means your burning water and making steam....and thats not supposed to happen unless water is getting into your cylinders....the only way in is throught the intake manifold or the head gaskets. hope this helps. good luck

 

I get water in my tail pipes too. And when i removed the exhaust there was about a gallon of water stuck in it i still couldn't get out. I always thought that was from consensation buildup inside the myffler? I have no clue but that was my assumption? I thought antifreeze burning was a greyish nasty color.... But i dunno

Robert

 

That is exactly what I thought it was. Condensation buildup.... but I wasn't sure. The car isn't ready for the road due to a few things that need to be repaired before the safety can be completed. (no money to do it). But i do start it up once in a while and drive it up and down the road.
It probably never gets hot enough to burn off the condensation build up inside the exhaust.

If it is burning antifreeze I will not be happy.

 

Yeah, if it sits for a while and hasn't had a good run thats probably what it is.... my friends 75 TA does it, my 55 does it and it usually takes a good run to get it out..... I wouldn't be too concerned at all.... antifreeze would be grey all the tim id' imagine because it will burn with combustion, but because your steam don't come untill you've had it running for a while it's probably in the exhaust... and yeah, My friends trans am stenches when you walk behind it too so i wouldn't loose any sleepover it. Once it gets really warmed up the smell lessens, but it still stinks

Robert

 

We have a similar problem with our Cutlass stinking. The smell really starts to give me a headache and sticks to my clothes. We just put a rebuilt carb on it..any other suggestions?
Oh also wanted to add that the engine cuts out for a moment upon acceleration sometimes.
Thanks

 

Wow this is an old thread, you ought to start one of your own. I have a few questions first. What is your timing set to, whats your dwell if have points, is your mechanical and vacuum advance operating correctly, is your choke in good working order? What steps did you use to set your carb. All these things can cause the rich condition causing your exhaust issue.

 

I would also ask (retroactive to Halloween of 2008), How many older cars have you owned / driven?

Do you know what normal exhaust smells like?

- Eric

 

Good question. The description of both posters seem to be past normal.

 

Unfortunately, on the interwebs we can't ASSume anything.

To me, the exhaust on a non-emission-controlled car smells normal, and a newer car's exhaust smells strangely like something's missing, but to a kid with no experience with older cars, a normal exhaust may smell like there's something wrong.

- Eric

 

Mine stinks too, I guess we are so used to all the bs smog equipment they put on motors now, we forgot about that good old nasty car smell

 

In any case it should not make your clothes wreak or smell really nasty.

 

Take your clothes off...

 

394's of that year have a vent tube(breather tube) that dumps out at the back of the engine to vent blow by,if the engine is a high mile or tired 394's are notorious for stinking up the area.10 and !/2 compression and bad rings will cause many things to leak.....Tedd