Classic/Antique Car Repair: Ford 65 Mustang, oil drip, valve seals


Question
Smoke keeps coming out of my exhaust and sometimes it will spit a liquid substance like water on the ground. It happens everytime I give it any gas. This started happing after it overheated. Do you have any idea what might be wrong with it?
thanks

Answer
The color of the smoke is an important clue here. Black is unburned gasoline from too rich a fuel mixture and probably not related to the overheating. White is coolant leaking into a cylinder or two and could be a leaking head gasket or a crack in the head or block and that could be related. Blue is oil smoke and that could be from valve seals or piston rings. This also could be related to the overheating as the engine getting hot could have cause the piston rings to loose their temper and not seal or the valve seals to bake and now let oil drip past them. The water coming out of the tail pipe could be normal condensation or the signs of coolant leaking by.
Brad