Hello there! I've enjoyed reading through all of the useful information you've all posted, and as a brand new Maverick owner, I figured I should introduce my car to y'all. It's a 1977 2dr with a good amount of options, including the 250 i6 with an automatic transmission (was there a floor shift available this year? Whelp, I've got the column shift), air conditioning, rear window defogger, power steering, lacy spoke wheels and the Interior Decor Group (Maybe? It has these plush tan vinyl bucket seats, but I don't think it has the "instrument panel wood tone appliqué's," whatever that means). Someone installed an after-market AM/FM cassette player, and although 8-tracks are interesting, weird and fun, I'd definitely prefer playing tapes instead of cartridges! I haven't looked up the original color yet, but it's currently in black primer and I plan to keep it that way. This is probably more for the Technical side of the forum, but... he smokes like the inside of a Willie Nelson tour bus! By some miracle, the mechanic I took him to was able to get him through emissions: replacing the manual choke someone put in there with an automatic one, replacing the non-stock carburetor, filling it with 20w-50 and making some other adjustments temporarily resolved the oil-burning issue. Now that he's passed DEQ, he's smoking again! Soft grey puffs when accelerating after idle. Probably would smoke heavier and more consistently when filled with 10w-30, as he did before. I'm not sure if that means worn valve stem seals, worn piston rings, or both. Also not sure if it's weird that the engine still runs strong. Anywho, looks like there are a lot of fellow Portlanders on here - maybe someone can recommend a specialist mechanic once the performance begins to suffer. Or maybe I'll do that sooner rather than later: if Mavericks were supposed to be economical, mine isn't fitting the bill! I found a Chilton's manual on eBay, but figure I'll leave the eventual engine work to someone who knows what the heck they're doing Thanks! Looking forward to spending some time on here. Richard
Welcome I am just a hundred miles from you in Centralia Wa . If you need any help just ask if I can't answer it there are a lot of other fellas who can . I have a 71 Grabber with a 6 cyl .
Welcome from just west of you in Tillamook It sounds like you are correct in suspecting you valve guides or rings you did not state the mileage it has on it you were probably lucky that you got it to quit smoking enough to pass inspection as far as finding a mechanic to look at the car good luck with that most of us that own these cars are our own mechanics because you have to be to keep up with all the fun and exciting adventures that you run across owning one of these pieces of history but luckily they are mostly pretty simple to work on you can actually see the part you suspect may be bad and not spend half a day taking off parts to get to the carb. A mechanic could probably tell you real quick if the rings and seals are bad with a few tests that is the easy part the hard part is getting one to take engine out if needed and repairing it, it can get expensive to get it done correctly real quick. You could do some easy checks like pulling your spark plugs and seeing if they are gaped correctly and not oily and maybe changing to a different heat range.
Greetings, NE Ohio! If I'm introducing a Maverick I should probably show y'all what it looks like, eh? Here's my '77. Hello, Centralia! I really do feel like there's a bunch of Comets/Mavericks in the Pacific Northwest. When I was calling around for engine replacements, there were no less than four 250 i6s just over the border in Idaho. Here in Portland, I've seen at least four Mavericks and one Comet. How are ya, Tillamook? I hear ya. I bought it as a project car and, with the help of these forums (and my Chilton's guide, and maybe some old shop manuals), I'm hoping to learn it well. Trouble is, I don't even have a garage, let alone a shop where I can work on it, so I'll be dependent on Maverick-savvy mechanics for the bigger repairs until then. When I took out the spark plugs that were in there, they were old but not oily or carbon-fouled. The mechanic put in a high heat range set of plugs. This fella has 98,000 miles. Based on the condition of the interior (definitely worn but not decrepit), I don't think it's rolled-over.
Welcome from Portland, OR. I had an old chevy van that started smoking with 105K miles on it. It ran good and had decent compression so I figured the rings were so full of crud that they were not seated as well as they might if they were clean. So I cleaned them by pulling the plugs and shooting penetrating oil into the cylinders. I used a whole can on a v8. I let it sit overnight and cranked all that junk out before putting the plugs back in. It cured that engine from smoking. If you try this, you MUST change the oil immediately as that penetrating spray will leak into your crankcase and ruin your oil. Change the filter too. This may not work depending on what is causing your smoke. I never tried seafoam in the gas tank, but that is supposed to clean everything too and you dont even have to pull the plugs for that.
Hello! I tried Seafoam but it didn't do the trick. The other method sounds like a potential winner though, being that my engine also seems to run pretty good. Definitely wish I had a garage!
Is your car a daily driver? I dont have a garage either....but since my car is just a toy, I dont work on it when it is cold or wet....because I dont want too. If it were my transportation, I wouldnt have a choice.
Ah, it's just a project for me too. When I drive, it's usually in my '91 Econoline. For a 28 year old van on a 44 year old platform, it's surprisingly reliable!
Don't let the lack of a garage slow you down, many of my learning adventures happened in my parents back yard! So, diagnostics...does it smoke all the time or just on acceleration? How is it on decel? Usually rings cause smoke at most all times. I would start with valve seals, you can do valve seals with the head on the engine. I did a set on a 302 at a friends place in knee high cheat grass. Just wait for a nice day with no wind and get after it.
Hiya, Rick - glad to see yet another PNW-er on here! To be honest, I haven't driven the Mav since a month ago, when I decided I'd take on replacing the UCAs and ran into snag after snag. Right now, ol' Gus is on jack stands. However, between getting him through DEQ and beginning my first project, I did notice that the smoke wasn't much of a problem after switching to 20w-50. With thinner oil, it smoked both while idling and accelerating. I don't remember seeing any puffs when decelerating. Valve seal replacement sure sounds challenging for a total newbie like myself - maybe I'll give that a shot after tackling some of the easier stuff.
