ok guys,
I cant seem to get this dang motor to stop burning oil.I have ran a leak down and it showed to be great and I changed all my valve stem seals and I have done the intake gasket 3 times now and it still burns oil like crazy,.when I pulled the intake back off yesterday I found that the number 7 cylinder had a good 1/8 inch of oil on top of the closed exhaust valve.all the plugs on the passenger side are black and # 7 on the drivers side is black. the other 3 look new.I torqued all the intake bolts to specs and used new felpro gaskets. I also checked to see if the intake was warped and its not.I was going to pull the motor and go through it again but I dont think it is the rings.How could the rings cause oil to get on top of the exhaust valve and all the other ports on the head on the passenger side...?I did notice that the gaskets line up right on the edge of the ports perfect, maybe a bit to close....
does anyone have any ideas on what I should do? I bought some oil dye that I will stick in the motor next saturday and on sunday I will pull the intake again and use a black light to positivley identify the oil leaking past the gaskets. but if indeed this is where it is coming from then how the heck can I get this thing to seal?the felpro gaskets I have been using just are not going to work so does anyone know of any thicker gaskets I buy that would possibly fix this?I have no idea where to go buy them from and o'reileys or autozone dont sell any other ones for my car...maybe I need to go to a performance house and order some but I need to know what exactly ones to order.anyway thaks in advance and oh ya, the motor is a 383 and it has the stock lower intake on it.

 

I would take another look at the valve seal. What kind of shape were the seals last time you replaced them ?

 

the last seal where shot because the big tripple springs where rubbing on them but the new seals I used are good to go.there is no way the springs can touch them.. also the bronze guides are tight with no play in them.

 

Are you 100% sure the retainers are not making contact too ?

 

100% sure..the cam only has .502 .510 lift and my springs set up at 1.850..

 

What rocker ratio are you using ?

 

Have you checked your pcv ?

 

1.5 right now...my 1.6s are not on yet .

 

I gather you have screw in studs. Did you use some sealer on them ?

just trying to go thru all the possibilities. An intake leak would more than likely cause it to idle like pure total crap, so unless that's the case, I wouldn't think it be the intake.

 

pcv valve? would that cause it to use that much oil?
also the studs are not leaking either.and the car does idle weird. when I pull up to lights it hunts for idle from like 500 to 1000 rpms.

 

also how the heck do you check the pcv?I am going to the parts store now to get a new one. I dont think it is the problem but it dont hurt to rule it out..

 

I had a similiar problem. When I changed over to the Holley Stealth Ram intake. I noticed I was puffing a little blue out the tail pipes. I also lost about .5 seconds in the 1/4 mi.
I figured the engine was getting old 135,000 mile so I bought a 383 short block and installed it. When I pulled the heads off I was shocked to see oil built up on the valves. They were only a few years old and looked like they had 100,000 miles of hard use on them. I traced the oil back to the intake gaskets. The vacuum was pulling oil in on the bottom and it was puddling on the valves. This killed the flow throught the heads. Thus my et reduction and blue smoke.

I too was using the Felpro blues with the raised ridge aroung the port. At one time they were considered the best. I saw a show on TV that stated that they were too hard and to try a softer gasket without the raised ridge. A flat gasket seals much better.
I have since started using Mr. Gasket Ultras with slight RTV around the ports. This has solved my oil dilemma.

Torquing won't correct for a slightly warped head or intake surface. Sometimes if the heads have been changed or milled the sealing angles will be different and won't match. i.e. an oil leak.

It sounds like you have checked everything else so this may be the culprit!

John

 

well my heads only had .010 taken off each of them.I just bought a new pcv and when I pulled it apart from the hose there was a bunch of fresh oil...also JOHN89, do you have the part number for the mr gaskets?and did you use rtv around all the ports ior just the water ports?

 

Are you using aftermarket valve covers and is the PCV mounted in the valve cover. If it is pull the PCV valve out and look into the hole to see if there is a baffle plate under the PCV. I had a friend that a shop actually overhauled his engine thinking the problem was rings. It ended up being that he had a set of Moroso valve covers that didn't have the baffle and the oil was sucked into the intake system via the PCV.

 

yup they are after market but there is a baffle there..can a pcv valve allow the motor to suck that much oil?I meen this thing smokes bad at idle and when you get on it it realy blows the blues out the pipes.

= 91 yellow vette

 

Eliminate the PCV valve and drive it. Then you will know. If it smokes that bad you have have other issues. Oil sitting on top of the valve has only a couple paths of which it can get there. One being the valve seal and the other being the intake gasket.

My friends truck a 302 ford used 3 quarts in 500 miles. That was all being sucked into the PCV

 

ok will do but what about the other valve cover that has the hose to the throttle body?should I eliminate that to? also this thing uses 1 quart of oil driving to work and back in a week. my work is only about 2 miles from my house and I make the round trip twice a day so about 56 miles to a quart of oil...

 

It isn't the best thing to do but put breathers in both valve covers for now and see if it still uses oil like it is.

 

well I just went for a 10 mile run in it and it didnt make any diffrence.I realy think it is the intake .it seems to be smoking way worse now than it was yesterday before i pulled it apart..does anybody have any idea on what gasket will suit my needs and where I can get it from..?also I know it isnt a great idea to use rtv on all the ports around both sides of the gaskets but I think I will try it next.

 

Get a straight edge and run it across the intake openings, and do the same to the heads, to see how much it's off. This will tell you two things. #1. if they are indeed warped and #2. how much they are. If they are, the amount of gap between the straight edge and the surface will show you how thick a gasket your gonna need in order to make a good seal.

We'll figure this out don't a worry