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77 Pontiac Spraying Oil Under Hood


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wolverine151
New User

Jan 10, 2010, 1:31 PM

Post #1 of 2 (1151 views)
77 Pontiac Spraying Oil Under Hood Sign In

Please Point Me in the right direction??? I bought a 1977 Pontiac Lemans Can Am, with a small block - 400 and Rochester quadrajet carb. The car has about 100,000 original miles on it, and was pretty neglected when I got it:
I'll give you the PROBLEM (then I'll get detailed after). I got in the car one day, and tried to start it and move it without warming it up, and it stalled (which is normal, because the car normally needed to be warmed up in order to run smoothly... old carb issues). Tried to start it again, and again it stalled ( I was in a rush). Then I tried to start it again, and it wouldn't start (figured I flooded it)... finally, I got it to start, and it ran, really broken up, sputtering and smokey as I drove it a few blocks away. ONCE PARKED, I OPENED THE HOOD AND THERE WAS OIL SPRAYED ALL UP UNDER IT! I couldn't tell where is was coming from exactly, but it favored the side of the engine where the dipstick and valve cover breather/pcv cap reside.
The next day I pulled the plugs and they were hideously black and gunky (oil I assume).
NOW, I KNOW THE FIRST SUSPECT IN THIS SCENARIO IS THE PCV VALVE... so I checked them out. I should mention that when I bought the car a couple of months ago, it was missing a valve cover breather cap. The car ran rough, but solid. No smoke... strong compression, torquy. I cleaned the gunk of the engine. cleaned the carb with gum out, and replaced the valve cover breather cap with a chrome after market breather cap with a pcv valve built in. The car also has a stock pcv valve in the block, thru the top of the fuel intake manifold. ANYWAY... after the oil incident I pulled both PCV valves and they were free moving (fine). I changed the plugs and tried to run the car... IT RAN FINE FOR ALL OF FIVE MINUTES AND THEN IT DID IT ALL OVER AGAIN.
The only background I can give you is that when I bought the car, it was missing several vacuum lines. I did my best to replace them, change the oil, adjust the idle, new air filer element, added the new Breather cap to valve cover... And after that the car ran really good. Just slightly hard to start, but after it was warm... ran strong! Then, I parked it one day. Four days later I got in it to move it, and the above problem happened... Now the car is just sitting. ANYONE HAVE ANY THOUGHTS? I REALLY DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY, IF I DID, I'D JUST TAKE IT TO A SHOP, BUT I NEED TO FIX THIS MYSELF. SO, THANK YOU. Tom


steve01832
Veteran
steve01832 profile image

Jan 10, 2010, 6:41 PM

Post #2 of 2 (1143 views)
Re: 77 Pontiac Spraying Oil Under Hood Sign In

Tom, first top off the oil. The place to start is to have an assistant start the engine with you standing under the hood so you can pinpoint the source of the leak. Then post back with what you find. You may get lucky and find a bad fuel pump or power steering hose.

Steve






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