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Subject:Rings? New engine?
From:Blake Thornton
Date:Sat, 26 Jun 2004 14:37:41 -0500

I am afraid that my 84 might need some serious engine work.  Here are the
symptoms:

- When I start up the van, it blows a lot of grey smoke initially.  Quite
a lot and it keeps getting worse.  After the van is warmed up, the van
runs alright.

- I just changed my spark plugs.  3 of the 4 were pretty oily.  I had an
exhaust leak and took off the forward most exhaust pipe.  The pipe was
pretty oily and black.

- Lately, my vans wants to stall out when cold, which leads me to needing
to keeping my foot on the pedal when I am driving.  This seems to go away
when the van gets warmed up.

I am thinking that my rings are probably shot.  My engine has 160,000
miles on it (with probably around 20K on new head gaskets).  What are my
options?  I am thinking that I can probably just run this engine for a
while longer (assuming I pass emmissions) and see about finding a used
engine or something soon.

Thanks for any input you can offer!!
Blake
84 Westy
St Louis

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