1972 Satellite Barn Find and it's Smokey 318

[Magnes]

I bought this 72 Satellite Sebring Plus a couple weeks ago. Had been in dry storage for many years. It has a 318. The car has 80,000 showing on the odometer and from everything I see, it is all original. Hasn't been eaten up by rats. Isn't rusty as hell. And it hasn't been hacked up by a dozen different teenagers over the years.

The only modifications to the car are:

Edelbrock LD 340 aluminum intake
Holley 4160 carb. - (which from what I've found out is a 750cfm carb with vacuum secondaries)
and some M/T valve covers...

So anyway, I got it home and have gone through everything to give it a good chance at running once again including:

- I dropped the fuel tank, cleaned it and the lines, replaced the rubber fuel hoses and clamps, and new fuel filters (one before pump and one after just in case) then added new non-ethanol fuel.

- I swapped in new plugs (gapped .035), new cap and rotor, and new plug wires.

- Flushed the whole cooling system, removed the rad and cleaned, new thermostst (180), new coolant.

- Cleaned up the electrical grounds, new battery terminals, soldered any sketchy connections, put in a new battery.

- I took the carb off, soaked it in carb cleaner for a day or 2, lubed up the throttle linkage, got it cleaned up and not sticky... Seems to operate right but I did not rebuild the carb (because, honestly, I really don't know how to).

Ok with all that done, I opened up the choke and hit the carb with a shot of starting fluid and hit the key. It started right up.

It stumbles and dies when the rpm's drop but if you keep the rpm above the idle setting, it runs good, revs smooth, no noises to speak of. So it will not idle but it will run pretty darn good with your foot applying a bit of pressure to the accelerator.

After running for about 20 seconds, you start to notice the smoke. I've got the car in my garage *** first so I can only let it run for about a minute or so before I have to let it die off, otherwise my house is going to get all smokey as well. Now it's not the worst smoke issue I have ever seen, but it's smoking pretty good. I expected some smoke from the car after sitting for so long but you would think that the old dust and nastiness would burn off pretty quick...

I've run it about 5 times for about a minute each and by the time I shut it down, I've got some pretty good plumes wafting out of the garage so I don't think it's just burning off dust and crap... I'm thinking I have more of an issue than that.

I did some reading but didn't find someone with the same circumstances. But it sounds like possibly the carb is making it way too rich possibly or worse, that the valve guides are worn and it's making the smoke....

I never expected it to be perfectly functioning, I mean noone really just parks a perfectly good running car in a huge storage building for over 17 years and leaves it.. There had to be a reason someone stopped driving it, lol.

What do you guys think? What should I look for or try?

 

[rdrunning]

sweet find!

what color is the smoke? and what does it smell like. if its running rich it will be darker and more pungent smell, hard on the eyes. oil will be a lighter more blue color and will smell like burning oil...go figure..

if the car has been sitting the valve guide seals most likely got hard and are leaking.

Do a compression test and check for blow-by. did you fill the spark plug holes with trans fluid before starting it to help free and stuck rings? if not you might have some ring/blow-by issues

good luck! post up some more pictures

 

[terzmo]

if it takes 20 minutes to start smoking...could be an oil leak dripping on hot pipes

 

[moparmarks]

What color smoke?
Black = fuel
bluish gray = oil
white = antifreeze.
Soaking the carb and then not rebuilding it probably is the problem.

 

[Magnes]

The smoke is gray. I suspect it's a combination of a carb issue and also the valve seals and possible ring/blow by issues as stated earlier by rdrunning.

To be honest moparmarks, I didn't want to rebuild the carb until I found out if this engine was any good at all. If it was a heap, I would have just bought a crate stoker and swapped everything. Which is probably what will happen anyway. I've fixed a few more of the car's problems and will work out some more of the bugs tomorrow. I will consider whether it's worth it to me to repair this original engine or do the swap.

I'd like to get it running good enough that I can move it around and test some of the other systems as well as reposition it in the garage in order to do some roof rust repair. I have a bunch of brake components on order. That will be the next big project. I believe this master cylinder is seized up and so the brake pedal is frozen in place.

Thanks for the tips and advice. I will update again.

PS- Terzmo: It smokes after about 20 seconds, not 20 minutes. It's not leaking oil and I haven't run it long enough to get those pipes very hot because it would smoke my whole house out, lol. Thanks though!

 

[Magnes]

The adjustments to the carb worked out well. The car starts and idles great now. Still wants to smoke after a while but not nearly as bad as it was.

Here's a video of the car:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDsLvu_c7Uw&feature=youtu.be

 

[rdrunning]

Looks like a solid project, keep running it and letting it warm up. It will help soften those seals up( they might still need replaced). But sweet ride!