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smoke from air filter?

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miranda

miranda

Senior Member
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Not mechanics ourselfs, but just new drivers we run in to some problems, and need some help from time to time. This time has once again come. One of our air filters is letting out a little plume of smoke. Could it be that it is just dirty, and we need to clean them, or is this an indication of something else?
Any suggestions would be appreciated

sjoerd and miranda
 
Not knowing the circumstances I would offer one possible suggestion: you could have had a backfire through the carburetor and now are getting the ignition residue out through the air intake. Also occasionlly you can have the backfire acturally ignite residual gas laying in the airhorn. This would happen if you had tried starting the car and turned over the engine several times without it catching. The raw fuel from the previous starting proceedure would be running out the air intake and when you get the igintiion to happen through the intake (backfire) you will ignite the raw fuel.

GregJ

GregJ
 
I suspect that it is the rear air filter. The crankcase vent is connected to this filter via the hose from the top of the valve cover. The smoke would indicate worn piston rings which are letting combustion gasses into the crankcase. Not an immediately serious problem, but will probably get worse with time.

I like the color combination on your car.
D
 
Thanks GregJ
We do have some issues with starting once everywhile, a bad cable to the starter. But today also after a little test drive we still saw smoke from one air filter. It was running at idle when we checked. The Car appears to be running smooth though, or maybe we just do not know better.
The smoke comes from the bottom part of the air filter.

sjoerd
 
FWIW- my rear air filter was saturated with oil, no smoke but oil. After the engine was pulled and disassembled it was obvious that the rings were stuck in the pistons and not sealing...allowing the compression to blow into the crankcase and ventilate to the rear air filter. I bet smoke is an early indication of the same problem although I would think it would be drawn in by intake and foul the rear plugs eventually.
 
Thanks for the swift reactions,
It indeed is the rear airfilter. And it is good to hear it might not be too serious for now. We plan to take the car to europe next year and do a complete restauration on it (with some help from people that do know cars). We will keep an eye on it, and will keep asking questions! We like the color too, i will post some better pictures of the car soon.

sjoerd
 
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