I have a 1953 Studebaker champion barn find that I’ve been working on restoring. The engine runs smooth, and when I first start it, it will sit there and idle perfectly. No smoke, nothing. But then after I rev it up or it’s under load, it starts smoking. And even if I stop, it will continue to smoke even at idle. The smoke is whitish, with maybe a hint of blue? Makes me think head gasket but at the same time the little bit of blue makes me think oil too. It could also just be from sitting forever as this car was abandoned at one point, maybe it just needs to run a bit? It hasn’t had much time running tbf. What do you all think? It has good oil pressure, runs smoothly and seems to have good compression.
V8 or flathead six? (I think most Champions had the flathead six but the V8 was offered.) It might be that rings are stuck due to the car sitting. That happened to me ages ago when I rescued a complete-looking 1964 Ambassador that had been sitting at a junkyard I frequented at the time. The thing smoked like crazy until the engine was run for a while and the rings freed up. What do the spark plugs look like?
It’s the little flathead 6. The plugs looked relatively normal the last time I checked them, haven’t pulled them in a while though.
I would try running it for a while and see if the problem starts to clear up. There's no PCV but make sure the road draft tube is not clogged up or anything like that. I forget where the crankcase air intake is, maybe a wire mesh in the oil cap? (It's been a long time.) That needs to flow as well so pressure doesn't build up in the crankcase.