Bummer - hope it's something simple like the rings' gaps lined up in a row vertically (I've seen it before).
Bummer - hope it's something simple like the rings' gaps lined up in a row vertically (I've seen it before).
Thanks to both of you. Yeah, I’ve been hoping for something simple for a while now, have actually been in denial. But I can’t deny 1/3 to 1/2 quart in 300 miles any longer. Funny thing is plugs do not look oil fouled to me at all, and the (hot) compression is good and consistent in all cylinders (approx 180 at three hits and 200-210 at five hits). And there are not clouds of smoke going down the road, even when I get on it with high load. It will puff smoke if I gun it at idle, though.
As for ring install, I followed the instructions that came with the Hastings rings to a T. There’s a backstory tho: I had to switch machinists mid-build. The first one was hitting the sauce pretty hard and he had about five missed deadlines. He also bought pistons that would have given me 10:1 CR with vortec heads. So I found a new machinist and bought some KB pistons that lower my CR half a point. Second guy, who has a good rep building high end motors, said the rings would be fine with the new pistons but now I have some doubts.
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Some rings take a different grit hone. Its possible if between the two machinists, the wrong grit was used the rings may take longer to seat or may not seat at all. The plugs look really good, so not a lot of oil is getting in there. I made the mistake of ordering Jegs crappy vortec heads, the guide seals leak even with under a 1000 miles on them. i will have to tear them down this winter.
Thanks for the info. I know there was something with the hone. The first guy did his own, but I know the final machinist did a cross-hatch hone too. He didn’t want to rely on the other guy’s work. I’m going to change the oil one more time and see if that helps. Initial start up and first few hundred miles were on conventional oil (Chevron Delo, I think) but then I went to Mobil 1 synthetic. Sounds like there’s at least a possibility that’s making things worse. I’m going back to probably Shell Rotella, put a couple hundred miles on it and see if there’s improvement. Also ordered a new AC Delco PCV valve tonight - just in case the parts store one in there now is adding to the problem.
how are you breaking in the engine? with a flat or hydraulic tappet cam, after initial break in i will dump the oil, but why are you changing oil after a few hundred miles? i normally goto a "normal" oil change interval and just add oil to make sure it stays at full until next oil change. i would do at least 2 normal OCIs befote switching to synthetic, but that's me. im also a fan of "beating on it" vs the old school way of driving like grandma.
I am a little different. For my roller cam small blocks. Mobil One in the pan, prime the system with a drill and priming tool, then start it up. Run it at 2,500 rpm long enough to get it warm and shut it off. Check it over for leaks, loose bolts, etc. Then take it out and beat the absolute crap out of it from the first stop sign. At 60K on the short block I used 1 qt over 2,200 miles and much of that was 75-90 mph. I am not even sure it was all the rings fault even. The valve seals were also a bit hardened and the front crank seal had a seep at the time as well.
It's a roller cam, stock L31 to be exact. I really didn't break it in. Everything I read said I didn't need to. But first start up was on an engine stand with a carb, radiator and water pump not hooked up. I had water in the block, but it wasn't circulating and I only ran it for a minute or two at a time and didn't take it much past idle. Really hoping that's not the cause of all this. Even when I got the motor in I didn't run it real hard at first. Wish I would have now, but I was also worried about the tune and having it run too lean. Since then I've definitely taken some hard pulls on it with high load, but perhaps it was too late. I changed oil because I eliminated the factory oil cooler (wanted to rule that out as cause of oil loss) and also wanted to check for any metal on the magnetic drain plug. (only a light fuzz)
Sounds like a good plan. I use to work in front of a machine shop. I had to do their R&R's sometimes when things went wrong. The big thing that got them over and over was hone grit. They would get in a hurry and just hone it with what ever they thought was standard. Different brands and ring types will tell you what grit to hone the cylinders. As far as beating on it, vs not I really don't think that makes the difference compared to having a machinist who reads and follows the ring manufactures instructions. Some cylinder pressure behind the rings though will push them out against the walls harder. I do think if your rings have not fully seated, switching to conventional oil may help. It doesn't even have to be the good stuff if you do not have a flat tappet cam. If it does, one with zinc will help.
I bought an 84 Dodge (new in 84) W150 with a 360 4BBL, it burned about a qt/1000 miles for about a year. 1 day it wouldn't start (turns out the distributor reluctor was bad), after cranking forever it finally started. I drove it home 15 miles with almost no oil pressure. I wound up sucking about a gallon of gas into the crankcase. After changing the oil and distributor it ran great and didn't burn a drop of oil. LOL. I drove it hard including pulling goose neck trailers for 206,000 miles before rebuilding it.
Thanks for the confirmation. Yeah, it's a roller cam so no need for high zinc oil, but Shell Rotella seems to be a good heavy duty oil from stuff I've read. There is some debate if it will cause premature cat failure (I'm running a cat) but I gotta resolve the oil consumption problem and then I'll worry about my cat!
Switched to Rotella T4 (conventional) over the weekend. We'll see what happens. Back to tuning.
I like the idea of winding it up and using compression to slow it down to seat the rings but there's a problem......that's where I have my worst tuning problems. After oil change I took it on a home depot run and it ran great until I came off the freeway on a downhill ramp. I dropped it down twice, when I hit second it went up to about 3000 and I started getting some popping/light backfiring out the tailpipe. And it seems like after that event happens, my idle gets messed up. 100-200 higher than commanded and some hunting with a range of about +/- 75 rpm. Then after an engine stop and restart, it seems to be back to normal, idling at commanded speed and no hunting. I have only seen that behavior a few times though so I don't know if it's consistent.
I've been shopping for a WB kit. Suggestions? I'll probably just go with a typical AEM kit with gauge and sensor. How does logging work with a kit like this? Sorry for the dumb questions, but does data go through my ECM (extra channels?) or does it go directly to my laptop/tuner pro and then logged simultaneously? I've read some threads on the former method and it seems like that may be out of my league. Or maybe I should forego simultaneous logging altogether to keep it simple? Again, if it sounds like I don't have a clue what I'm doing, it's because I don't! Is there a WB tuning for dummies thread that someone could point me to?
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