bad oil burning problem
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 28
Likes: 4
From: Georgia
bad oil burning problem
I bought my first car/corvette last year and 3 weeks later motor blew. over the course of the next 6 months my boss helped me rebuild it (im an apprentice at a shop). Now i have about 5000 miles on the engine and burn about a qt of oil a week/150ish miles. On compression test all cylinders where reading about 180. did leak down test and had 4% leak down. we found no baffles on 9 bolt valve covers and thought that might be part of the problem but could not locate any with baffles. currently running ls6 valley pan and catch can set up which i just installed (have been running catch can on old pcv setup as well) and still burning an un godly amount of oil. Just wanted to see if anyone has any thoughts before i pull my engine back out and put new rings in.
Thanks in Advance
Thanks in Advance
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 6,005
Likes: 723
I bought my first car/corvette last year and 3 weeks later motor blew. over the course of the next 6 months my boss helped me rebuild it (im an apprentice at a shop). Now i have about 5000 miles on the engine and burn about a qt of oil a week/150ish miles. On compression test all cylinders where reading about 180. did leak down test and had 4% leak down. we found no baffles on 9 bolt valve covers and thought that might be part of the problem but could not locate any with baffles. currently running ls6 valley pan and catch can set up which i just installed (have been running catch can on old pcv setup as well) and still burning an un godly amount of oil. Just wanted to see if anyone has any thoughts before i pull my engine back out and put new rings in.
Thanks in Advance
Thanks in Advance
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 28
Likes: 4
From: Georgia
No, catch can is empty. i have blue smoke on accel and what appears to be white smoke that smells like oil come into my cab via sketchy welded straight pipes on decel.
Last edited by ecook48; Mar 8, 2021 at 02:04 PM.
Instructor
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 103
Likes: 16
From: Tucson, AZ
If the oil is coming through the valve stem guides, you may get really good compression numbers and still be burning oil. In fact my C1 (2 x 4 bbl/283 ci) burned blue smoke on acceleration. Kept replacing rings, valve guides etc., until just by coincidence I checked valve seals:5 out of 8 cylinders had them installed wrong! HTH.
Last edited by mister2; Mar 8, 2021 at 04:01 PM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 6,005
Likes: 723
When u first start from sitting over night does it smoke ?? If it was bad seals that's the first indication of bad seal. Runs down the stem and puddles on the piston. JMO
what I wrote is moot. Didn't that it burns oil when driving. Time to do some work. Like taking apart engine. Starting with valve train like what was sad already. Start with the easy stuff first before tearing into engine.
what I wrote is moot. Didn't that it burns oil when driving. Time to do some work. Like taking apart engine. Starting with valve train like what was sad already. Start with the easy stuff first before tearing into engine.
Last edited by helga203; Mar 9, 2021 at 10:22 AM.
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Race Director
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If the oil is coming through the valve stem guides, you may get really good compression numbers and still be burning oil. In fact my C1 (2 x 4 bbl/283 ci) burned blue smoke on acceleration. Kept replacing rings, valve guides etc., until just by coincidence I checked valve seals:5 out of 8 cylinders had them installed wrong! HTH.
Last edited by grinder11; Mar 9, 2021 at 01:34 PM.
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2004
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After not seeing any more info, I thought this over more thoroughly. With a 4% leakdown, it would seem that the rings must be OK, or leakdown would be worse. Still, it's hard to imagine bad guide seals would cause 150 mile/quart oil consumption. I suppose it's possible. I once ran low tension oil rings, and got only 700 miles/quart, but that's far from 150 miles/quart!!! Check valveguide seals out thoroughly. Best of luck.....
Last edited by grinder11; Mar 10, 2021 at 12:24 PM.
