just got a 1965 dodge dart with a 225 slant six, manual three on the tree. it runs fine so far, but there are a few things that worry me.

when i first got the car (just four days ago) after it was warmed up, the oil light would flicker a bit, and sometimes just remain on fully when i was at idle. as soon as i got it home, i drained the oil, put in a quart of lucas oil stabilizer, and then regular oil, and about a third of a can of seafoam. the oil looked like it hadn't been changed in 45 years.

well the oil light went away after that, so that's good!

now the car smokes, and it smokes a LOT. white smoke, gray/black. no water that i can tell though. so i would think it's probably burning some oil.

speaking of oil, ha ha, it seems to leak oil or have leaked oil at one time or another, virtually anywhere it posibly could. the entire block, heads, transmission, everything is coated in thick, old, oil.

lastly, whenever the car is fully warmed up, and i've been driving it for a bit, occasionally after i shut the car off for 10-20 minutes, say to go into a store for example, when i come back out, it doesn' want to start up as easily as it would if i were to have let it set for say, 45 minutes to an hour. it idles really rough, struggles to keep running, and if i don't "help it along" with the throttle, it will just die. once i get it going, and take off down the road, no issues at all with it doing that. just seems kind of weird, and random.

so that's my first question, also, with the smoking, i would imagine if i were to just rebuild the engine, should in theory be good as new. so who sells the best full rebuild kit?

and as far as the "oil leaking everywhere", i would imagine that a full rebuild kit would have all the seals, etc. that would hopefully eliminate that also, right?

and lastly, is the "warm start" issue common? i can't make any sense out of it. it just seems rather random, and odd.

thanks in advance!

brian

Usually that's a carb choke issue...your choke is probably not set right and the carb is too rich after shut off to start unless you just floor it and keep the pedal to the floor to "clear the flood"...which is not good for a daily driver.
Depending on who does the rebuild (your machinist, you, or good old "Uncle Bob"-insert car nut relative here)...the machinist will get
his own parts and assemble for you, the machinist will machine parts and you or "Uncle Bob" assemble per parts manual/articles on this board in which case you might want to check:


http://www.northernautoparts.com

or

http://www.pawinc.com

as two good sources for rebuild kits.


Welcome to the board.

-D.Idiot

The low oil pressure is likely a combination of worn bearings and worn oil pump. The smoke may be a lack of valve stem seals, but it may also be worn rings and cylinders. Black smoke is usually too much fuel.

Hot restart issues are often caused by flooding or percolation.

I usually don't buy full engine rebuild kits from any one supplier, but when I do I like Northern Auto Parts.

_________________
Joshua

Brian-- how many miles on the engine?
clean off the gunk/grime that has formed over the years--
something as simple as a leaking valve cover could cause lots of road grime to accumulate.

after said cleaning--- check out your ride-- when was the last tune up-?
lots of info on this site---(Search is your friend) fuel line mod-- is one,vlave adjustment is another, etc....

before throwing in the towel on that motor -- diagnose the problems-- the smoke issues might clear up with valve /carb/'timing adjustments.
Any pictures of the car. Lawrence

thanks for the replys. i have enough money (within reason) to do what i want to/need to do to the car to make it a more reliable daily driver if needed. i have NO IDEA how many miles are on the engine. it is a 1965 dodge dart, according to the vin it was originally a 225 slant six car.

the numbers on the block are 2463430-17 i'm not sure if that means it's the stock motor or not. the guy i bought it off of had it for two years only, and didn't know much at all about the history of it, so i'm pretty clueless as to the history, engine milage, etc.

ideally, what i'd like to do, is find a second 225 /6 engine, and put it on a stand, and rebuild it on my own, and when the time comes, drop it in. that way, i'm not down for any significant time, and i can take my time learning, reading, and hopefully doing it "right" on my own.