MTFCA Forum

My car ran fine all summer. Stored for winter and I made sure it had antifreeze. It sat for a month or two. I crank it up and start to drive it out of the garage , rolls bout 2’ and dies. It was extremely hard to get cranked again. Finally got it cranked and smoked so bad my neighbor thought my garage was on fire. I thought was gas or water bubbling from #1 plug. Rebuilt carb, new head gasket, intake exhaust gaskets. Cylinders looked fine, valves looked fine. I read were someone’s was leaking around head bolt threads so I put thread sealer on them. Still takes a while to crank and is still smoking, almost like a whitish smoke. Any thoughts? I have a video but I can’t get it on here

Possibly bad head gasket.
You may even be cranking against a little water in a cylinder or more. That may be why its so hard to crank or start.

you said new head gasket...are you sure you didn't maybe inadvertently put it on wrong? Very easy to do!

Does your oil look like a milkshake?

whitish smoke could be antifreeze burning. Head gasket or crack in water jacket.

I have a video but I can’t get it on here

You can put it on YouTube and post a link here.

Old, thick, evaporated, varnish-y gas in the carburetor bowl from several months of sitting can do that. It makes a T very hard to start and makes a ton of stinky white smoke. Usually, running a few minutes with fresh gas will fix it, but If you’re unlucky, it can stick one or more valves and/or require disassembly & cleaning of the carburetor to remedy.

White billowing smoke is coolant. No doubt about it. Did you retorque after installation of the head gasket? Doing that now just might help in any case.

If it’s antifreeze making that much smoke, you WILL be able to smell it. It is usually quite unmistakable and even someone who has never smelled antifreeze out the tailpipe generally will say “It smells like antifreeze!”.

Even a little antifreeze getting into an running engine will produce a very strong odor in the exhaust. To me, it smells like Coca Cola poured on a red hot stove to me... or perhaps wild hickory nuts....

Bubbling around the plugs is of little concern to me. Without some oil to bubble, I'd never know. Tighten the plugs a bit. That may reduce it.Then carry on.

Alln from down under

If the little wells around one or more of the spark plugs eventually start to fill with oil, you have worn valve guides. The car generally will smoke a little but it certainly isn’t something that suddenly happens over winter storage...

What happened to the OP, Tommy? Up in smoke??