red motor blowing fuel?

[Dave_EH]

Hi,

As some of you may know I have had my red 6 powered machine on the road for about 5 months now.  Over this time I have only covered about 700 miles or so as I am still making asjustments to mechanicals etc.

Yesterday I drove it to a workshop before work to get some front end work and an alignment done.  My girlfirend followed my over and said that the car was blowing a bit of "clear/white smoke" under acceleration and she could smell fuel (from an airconditioned vz commodore).

I haven't seen this for myself yet and I know the timing still needs some adjustment.  Fuel economy seems poor, however driving has been too inconsistant to make any assumptions.

The previous weekend I took out my plugs and it looked to be running a little lean (spark plugs burned a whitish colour rather than coffee coloured)

can anyone help me out?  I thinking of taking the car to a place to have a gas anyliser put on it and have the dizzy regraphed.

Head is reco so should not be any valve problems - hydraulic lifters - rockers tightened to 3/4 turn past chatter.

Specs as outlined below.

179 (192)
YT head - porting, large valves, double springs
mild cam (approx. 23/63?)
electronic dizzy (commodore)
holley 350 - 61 jets and 5.5 powervalve
all new ignition gear - plugs to 52though (as perscrived by Dr Terry)
X2 headers

Fuel mixture was turned down till ran rough then turned back up about 1/2 turn.

I'm looking forward to some trouble free cruising if anyone can help out!

Dave

[FB_MAD]

Dave. Hard to diagnose without looking at the car but white smoke as you describe may indicate oil consumption (don't panic,most likely something else)  although oil burning is usually a white/light blue colour.Smoke from excess fuel being combusted is black (for example too much choke).Don't know if you are running an auto but if it's a Traumatic (Trimatic) then it may be sucking up trans fluid via a perforated vacuum modulator diafragm into the inlet manifold and being combusted which produces a very white smoke but you can smell combusted trans fluid in this case.
Your engine isn't stock so will use more fuel and they tend to be a little fuel inefficient when running in but not normally by a great margin.Diff ratio affects fuel economy/performance as well as driving habits and engine mods.
Might not be linked to the white smoke problem but check for perforated fuel pump diafragm.This could be a cause of excess fuel consumption and fuel smell.
Could be a myriad of other causes,the above just a few and I'm sure others will add to this.
Good starting point would be a dyno tune if possible as actual operating conditions under load can be checked.
Hope this info is of use to you and sorry for waffling on a bit.....It's a habit of mine,

Terry.