Ok, so to explain how I found the problems.... I was driving and some idiot in a ricer was swerving in and out of traffic trying to get ahead and well.... he wasn't about to get in front of me, and so when he finally got behind me (we were going about 60mph) I looked in my rear view mirror and the was smoke bellowing from my exhaust (it was dark but I'm pretty sure it was oil) and the back of the car was shaking a little, which at that point I promptly slowed down and got off the main road and took it slow untill I got home.

I think the shaking might be from having unbalanced tires, but what else could it be that I should check?
I don't know whether or not the tires are balanced because I got the rims and tires (already on) from a friend and they were fine while I normally drive (city car) so I never noticed until now since my car rarely sees 60 mph.

The smoke has been a small problem for awhile and I thought that they were just the valve stem seals but it was continually smoking when I was sustaining 60mph so would that mean that it is my rings? or could there be another problem?

I got the car about 8 months ago and it had for the most part just been stored driven about once a week to keep it in drivable condition and it never smoke when I got it and its been progressively getting worse its a 289 2v and I have no idea how many miles are on the engine or car but the odometer reads 50900ish... and I don't have the funds for a rebuild and I'm afraid that if I try to just replace the rings that something will be worn out to the point that I cant put it back in the engine thus costing me more money than I have. anyway any help would be awesome.
Thanks
Brian

 

Was it a bluish smoke? That would be oil...

You need to give us more details so we can diagnose the problem. Now im going out on a limb here, but is it POSSIBLE that youve got a miss on one or two cylinders causing the motor to run fairly unbalanced and the smoke is a result of all that unburned fuel? Just thinking outloud here, we need more info!!!

JIm

 

Based on the info It does sound like oil.

If its doing it constantly and worse at higher speed then yeah its probably rings.
My mustang will sometimes blow smoke out the tail pipes if im traveling at high speeds then let off the throttle quickly, doesn’t happen often but im also running a pcv valve that’s were i think the oil is coming from.

I suggest a compression test I would check all the cylinders and note there compression

Gun

 

Ok so it was about 8 at night and I was headed home so I couldn't tell what the color of the smoke is but in the past it has come out in gray mostly and sometimes blue (not as much blue as it does gray) but gray would be fuel right?

Would I notice a major difference if I'm having a miss fire? because sometimes the engine feels leggy and sometimes the engine is there. if one of the boots connecting to the cap was damaged could that cause it to loose spark but not be a complete miss fire? because I was (being very stupid) making sure all of the spark plug wires were connected firmly to the cap while the engine was running and got shocked by one of them when I was pushing them down from the top.... so should I replace the plug wires or what?

Oh and the engine runs decently smooth and I was getting about 15mpg before I did duel exhaust and it seems to have dropped after I got duel exhaust which seems weird because it would be running more efficiently now right? (the engine is a stock 1966 289 2v coupe except for the duel exhaust I got for Christmas)

so simply Yes it is possible, and would a miss cause the engine to run smooth then rough and back and forth? because when I'm watching the engine run it will run smooth then shake for about a second then run smooth then shake for about a second...

These are all things that Ive been noticing but have never really put any concern on them because nothing seemed to be that big of a deal until last night.

 

I did a compression test about a month ago and this is what I came up with...
1. 130
2.115
3.110
4. 110
5. 100
6. 105
7. 120
8. 105
In PSI

 

MY car shakes at 60, and my tires aren't balenced, so thats probably your problem. My car smokes, but doesn't do it when driving. If it smokes alot when your driving, your rings are probably bad. I think my valve stem seals are bad, but i have to remove the heads to fix them. Those compression tests are kinda low. My 289 which i believe has 53000 original miles on it had around 120-140 the whole time. a 289 should have from anywhere of 130-170 psi. With a tolerence of 20 psi per cylinder. SInce your highest is 130 and lowest is 100, that is a difference of 30 psi, and not within limits. So id be expecting the rings, since even 130 psi is low. You did remove all the sparkplugs when you did the test right?

 

a couple months ago and I got between 130 and 140 psi in all cylinders...I also have a 289 2v

Run a leak down test and see where you're losing compression

 

yes and some of them had a little oil residue on them and build up so I replaced the spark plugs at the same time as I did the duel exhaust which was the week in between Christmas and new years.

 

valve guide seals will cause more smoke at startup....

with low compression and smoke at high rpm's, I agree that it is probably rings

 

Yeah, thats why i suspect my valve stem seals are bad. It smokes alot when first started, but it goes away after awhile. but my valve seals are bad so i cant remove the springs,.