my 1985 chevy truck with a 305 has had a funny exhaust sound on the number 1 side for years. By watching the tach and doing the math, it is from one cylinder and it sounds like that cylinder has a much harder pulse. It did it with stock manifolds and duals, headers and 2 different cams. In cold weather when the engine is cold, you will see a smoke ring on that pulse. This has been going on for years and 175k plus miles so it can't be bad it just has me wondering. Anybody ever seen this on other engines?

As stupid as this sounds, it may have a true f/t or maybe even a short domed piston in that cylinder that create's more compression. Or it's pin compression height may be tighter to the deck??

My old '55 265 Belaire 2-dr H/T had two different heads on it and one bank was making more compression than the other and I could feel it running. Didn't hurt anything, but it still wasn't right.

You won't ever know unless you pull the topend and check everything out proper.

pdq67

That has crossed my mind. The truck has been in my family since day one and my dad and I have done all the work on it so it would be a factory screw up. With 200k on it the 350 crate will be coming soon and then the heads come off.

Just for kicks, do a compression test. See whats different between cylinders. Other than that, I'd leave it alone. If it runs good, just forget about it. If you open that motor to find out, at that mileage, you gonna be into a can of worms for sure.

I have done a comp check but saw no difference between cylinders. I'm going to run it til it dies then open it up.