What the hell man.....where's my oil going?

[HardcoreZ28]

Well my engine has been burning massive amounts of oil...about a quart every 200 miles. There is a lot of blue smoke when I start it and when it's running you can see some all the time.

I checked all my plugs a few weeks ago and the #4 plug was pretty oil soaked so I pinned this as the trouble cylinder.

I did a leakdown test on that cylinder and an opposite cylinder that is good and the readings were the same so I think that ruled out bad ring or valve seal.

So I spoke with my engine builder and he thought it was the intake gasket maybe. So I spent 4 HOURS today removing my Super Ram and intake and the gasket was perfect....now the car is apart until my new runner gaskets come.
The intake ports all looked perfectly clean including the #4 problem cylinder. Only theory my buddy and I can come up with is maybe the valve seal is bad and it's drawing oil right down into the combustion chamber when it's open and the gasoline is washing the intake port down so there is no trace of it. Since I have the valve cover off (which is a PITA) I think I'm going to change both valve seals on that cylinder. Hopefully when it's back together I won't have any more smoke.

Anyone else have any ideas on where it could be burning from?

[IROCdan330]

valve guides?

[Fasterthanyou]

Originally Posted by IROCdan330

valve guides?

That's a strong possibility although it's unlikely since it's burning oil visably even when it's warmed up. Seals usually expand and the oil consumption goes way down.
Paul, did you do a compression test or a leak down test? A compression test could easily be fooled by oil in the combustion chamber. If you can, get a borescope and check the cylinder wall for any noticable or unsual wear. That'll tell you if the rings are messed up.
I'll give you a call tomorrow to see what you're up too. I can probably stop by.

[Fastbird]

Just a thought, but could it possibly be a spring catching the valve guide as it moves and causing it to leak, or another possibility would be that your oil drain passages from the head are possibly clogged and allowing oil to accumulate thus submerging the valve seal. Just a couple of thoughts.

[HardcoreZ28]

Prevo,
I did a leakdown test on the suspect cylinder and two others. There was very, very minimal leakdown. I put 100psi into the cylinders on a cold engine and leakdown was less than 5%.

The AFR heads I have on it only have about 5k miles on them so I certainly hope I don't have a guide problem....the oil drainback holes in them aren't great though...oil does tend to pool in the valvetrain up top due to their location. These valve seals only have about 1200 miles on them though....so I"m thinking maybe a defect seal that wasn't caught during installation?

[HardcoreZ28]

Checked the valve seals last night....they seem ok. Really frustrated...hoping when I put it back together it's better. Maybe I didn't see the intake problem but it was there.

If not then Prevo and I discussed it possibly being the valve guide...that would really suck!

Have to put it back together for the show next weekend though.

[camaroracer1992]

i had valve guides go bad on my world products sportsman 2 heads when i got them. after a month i actually had 2 valves stick open. they wouldnt warrant it or antying. ill never buy a ****ing thing by those guys again

[9secfirebird]

i think its pretty hard for anyone to try to figure out without having the car infront of them.

just keep that in mind.

[HardcoreZ28]

I've got a feeling it's my guides too because I pulled the intake last week and all the ports were clean and I pulled the springs on the suspect cylinder, filled the cylinder with 100 psi and sprayed Simple Green all around the seal and got no bubbles.
I'm going to have my engine builder check it out in a week or two.

[unstable bob gable]

Originally Posted by HardcoreZ28

I've got a feeling it's my guides too because I pulled the intake last week and all the ports were clean and I pulled the springs on the suspect cylinder, filled the cylinder with 100 psi and sprayed Simple Green all around the seal and got no bubbles. Â*
I'm going to have my engine builder check it out in a week or two.

I'm thinking guides, too, Paul. Mucho el sucko!

[Fasterthanyou]

I'm not off kelter on this one BUT, most aftermarket heads don't see the miles as a set of OEM heads. For this reason, and the fact that OEM almost always has the better toleranced equipment, the heads last longer. This is just an educated reasoning for your bad luck. It's not the first time I've heard of AFR heads needing the guide's done. Where as OEM expects to meet emissions standards on thier vehicles for over 100,000 miles mechanically... the aftermarket could care less. Dart, TrickFlow, AFR, Edelbrock, Canfield, all of these are out to make a profit so their tooling might not be top notch on a production run. Quality control is there but it's not a fraction of that from the OEM.
All in all don't feel like you've been gipped. Those heads are great but with anything there are compromises.
The one thing that's misleading is that you're burning oil THROUGH the valve seals. If they're teflon this is possible but with the normal ubrella street seals it takes a BIG valve guide problem to start burning noticable oil.
The last thing I can think of is your oil ring was installed wrong. It's common for the oil retention ring to overlap itself causing it to be pulled away from the cylinder wall. This will kill a cylinder eventually and show up as burning oil while the compressiong rings are still good.
Also, I can't remember, did you install new spark plugs? Sometimes just a bad spark plug can cause wash down. New plugs, try it out.

[HardcoreZ28]

I threw a new plug in it last week. I'll see how much oil I burn to and from the show this weekend.