Need suggestions for 289 smoking issues

Hey, I'm new to this site here after meeting an active member at a car show at Yearone. I've got a problem that I can use some help on...

I had two oil breather caps, one on each valve cover. I was driving back from a show and smoke was coming into my vehicle through the firewall and was coming out of the breathers on the engine. I pulled over checked it out, continued on my 30 mile journey home with some smoke coming in, temp gauge normal, oil pressure around 60. After bringing the car to a shop to have some gauges installed, the mechanic said I didn't have a PCV system installed so he did it, running the PCV and hose from the passenger side cover to the carb which should create the cyphening (sp?) effect to reduce the smoke.

Drove it yesterday and again was getting some smoke in the car. (Not a ton, but smoke non the less) Went to NAPA and the old timer (who has been racing here in GA for a long time knows a lot) told me to try to shake the PCV and if it rattles, it's no clogged so it wouldn't be that. (Tested at home and wasn't that) And he also suggested cover cap so that there is no breather on the cover so I went back out and got one. Just tried it, and oil starting spewing out of my dip stick. What's up with this??? I put the breather back on and let it idle for a couple minutes w/o the oil spitting out. There's no sludge in the covers b/c I changed the gaskets recently after the initial smoke situation.

He said I may have a cracked piston ring too and oil is burning which is a possibility. With my symptoms above, does anyone have a good diagnosis? Has this happened to anyone before too? I have had this car for a year without any issues of smoking.

I am fully convinced that teh engine needs a good old fashioned re-building...

Poor rings cause the smoke to be in the crank case and the smoke to STILL be coming out after the PVC installation. Blow-by will over power your pcv system easily...

Sounds like just a tired engine....

Yes, it sounds like the rings are toast. You are getting some compression blow-by that is building up in the crankcase and that can cause the dipstick to come out. Time for a rebuild.

By the way, don't cap off the breather again as it will aggravate the situation more as the built up pressure will force itself through seals and cause further oil leaks. You need to let it vent until it gets torn down.

I think they are kind of hard to find anymore, but used to be a divice that was simply held over oil inlet in a valve cover. Via a swing gauge, it was to measure if the PCV was still working via using a negative pressure.

If it went positive, then the device was no longer working. Blown rings, bad piston, etc. like FE mentioned. All problems which still indicate to remove the cylinder heads. All causes of positve pressure.

They used to be at early day smog testing stations, and I don't know who uses them anymore for that is past technology.

Wm.

I would start with a compression check to see just what kind of shape those cylinders are in. It sounds quite obvious that you have some bad rings for sure. Are you getting some oil fouled plugs too?