how LONG is a 3vze supposed to smoke after...
 

...finishing up a HG on it??

Thus far Ive changed the oil 3 times, the 2 last times I had chocolate milk and smoke. Thus far on this 3rd time the oil is still clear. But oddly enough the truck still smokes! How long is this supposed to last?

that don't sound good.have ya driven much since done

After my HG repair, I decided to run open valve breathers to help clear things out. Really just two hoses pointing toward the ground. They were spittin' milk-shakey ˟˟˟˟˟ for at least a month.

no this is first time firing up after HG

hmmm that makes me feel better, but what about the blue exhaust smoke that just wont quit? Should that have stopped by the time the truck warms up?

if it had a blown gskt it may take a while.that stuff settles in the exhaust & has to burn out.sounds kinda funky though that still getting in oil

saw your thread on the repair.i hope it doesn't blow the bottom end out(rings)i was concerned about that for ya.just took my own block & heads to machine shop yesterday

Yeah, it takes a while for that stuff to work its way out of the system. After a few hundred miles, you should check your spark plugs too. Mine were kind of fouled from the gunk.

I had another thought. The gas in my tank is OLD, probably 8months and on its way to varnish. I thought I had drained it all out courtesy of the fuel return line being disconnected and running the fuel pump, but there was still some in the fuel lines and fuel rails. So I put about 3 gallons of new 93 octane in the tank, and again ran the fuel pump.

So if varnish is mixed with mostly brand new gasoline, will it smoke when combusted?

After changing the headgaskets and getting a valve job done on the heads on my '91 it took about 25 minutes of driving before it stopped blowing smoke out of the exhaust.

take it out and drive it and see what happens..mine never did it but the 22r that was in my pickup did for about a 1/2 hour. just out of curiosity how many miles where on the bottom end?

276,375 are on the bottom end

man i hope for you you don't blow the rings out.thats a lot of miles with a new top end

I would say that its fine. Probably just a lot of funk left over.

took about 30 miles of freeway driving to clear out a little 4 banger with a cat full of antifreeze after a head gasket failure. I was starting to get worried as well but once my friend returned from his little freeway trip it was all good. The cat can really hold the gunk and it takes forever to clear it out, you need to run it under load to get the cat hot enough to clear it out.

this has nothing to do with your smoke, but be careful of the 02 sensor. when headgaskets blow and coolant goes into exhaust it can ruin the sensor. just something to be careful of if you didnt already know.

thanks you guys are life savers! (or rather hair savers since I was getting ready to pull my hair out worrying about it! lol) I set the idle and timing today after work. Interestingly enough when you line up all the marks the engine will idle at 800rpm but the timing will be at about 20*BTDC. Well when I dropped the timing down to 10*btdc, and moved the idle back up to 800, the engine went from silky smooth idle, to a slightly lumpy idle! :D Weasy2k's cams do impart a tiny bit of lumpyness afterall...its SOOO cool!!! :D

hmmm that makes sense but I had not thought about that! When the O2 sensor goes bad, will it still dither back and forth? Also how will I know?

No it wont dither, It will sit on lean.
If it was on my runner it would lie, Saying it was on, Not send a CEL and make life misserable for me.

I wouldn't think it would keep smoking much past a few minutes into a check ride.
I hate to piss on your parade, but it sure sounds like she's still leaking.

I would suggest performing a compression check and pressure test the coolant system.

Yea, it doesn't sound good.
SHOULD NOT smoke or have milkshake oil after 1st running up to temp.
Once it's hot and the oil's been changed it should look normal from there on out.
Is your coolant level changing?
All the plugs look the same?

O2 sensor should be replaced. It's not that much $ for what you get.