Is this normal

[tbirdmike63]

Hey everyone, I have a 428 motor, took it for a drive and warmed up the motor, came home and was adjusting my carb. And I noticed what looked like steam coming from the oil filler cap, I checked the temperature with a laser temp gauge and it was at 185 to 200 degrees I checked different areas of the intake manifold. Is this normal to have this coming from the oil filler cap. The gauge in the car was at 1/3 to the right. Are those normal temperature readings? Thanks!

[jopizz]

It's most likely oil smoke and not steam. Oil smoke out of the fill cap is pretty normal for an older engine when you shut it off. Since your temps are normal there's no reason for steam to be building up inside your valve covers.

John

[tbirdmike63]

But it was doing it as it was idling, are those temperatures normal operating temperature for a 428, what temperature would be considered overheating? Thanks!

[jopizz]

If you have the factory thermostat it doesn't open until it reaches 195 degrees so 180-200 is well within it's normal operating range. If you are getting excessive smoke out of the oil cap when it's running check your pcv valve.

John

[OX1]

Most likely blowby past the rings if there is that much of it on
an idling engine that is fully warmed up and has been run a bit.

[tbirdmike63]

New pcv valve, what does blow by mean, is that bad?

[tbirdmike63]

Well, now that I think about it, I was adjusting my carburetor with a vacuum gauge that was tapped into the PCV line so maybe that's why I was getting more blow back because the PCV was disconnected.