Hey motorheads:

I posted this over in the C3 section, but I thought I'd post it here as well, since you guys have all the answers to engine related issues.
What do you guys think?

I was thinking about a problem I've been having with oil. I seem to use it with my fairly new rebuilt motor (less then 5K miles). When I had it hooked up like factory, it would burn oil. I then ditched the PCV valve and passenger side valve cover to air filter breather and went with chrome breathers on the valve covers. However, it seems that they will leak during hard running so I've been trying to decide what to do when I remembered that my C5 buddy was running an oil catch can. I figure that I can run one of these inbetween my PCV valve and the carb. What do you guys think? Does anybody else run one?
Here's a link to a guy who uses a homemade one.
http://www.pbase.com/rsrock/oil_catch_can

trw

 

Based upon what you've told us, I believe that either your rings have failed to seat (best case), or you've holed a piston (worse case). You're pumping a large amount of air into the crankcase whipping up the oil in the process. When the PCV was connected this excess oil vapor was sucked into the engine and burned. With the valve cover breathers, the oil vapor is accumulating as oil on the outside of the engine.

Try a quick compression check, or better yet, a leak down test to measure the state of seal within the engine. The results should point you in the direction you need to go. The oil can is only a bandaid for the problem.

Hope this help!

 

I think its time for a leak down test. A lot of people here have been suggesting that. If I do have to rering the car (which will irritate my wife to no end since I just had the motor rebuilt spring of 2005) what kind of rings do you guys suggest?

Of course this does give me the opportunity to make the stroker motor I've been dreaming about...I'm thinking at least a 383 or larger

trw

 

If you have to re-ring your engine, see if Total Seal has a TSS Street Ring set that you can use with your pistons. (This ring set uses a gapless ring on the second ring and standard tension oil ring.) This would be my first choice on my '89 Z51 if the SCCA didn't prohibit gapless rings in my class (BSP).

You first move, however, should be to find out why the original rebuild rings didn't seat after 5K miles if that is the source of your problems. If you had the engine rebuilt professionally, take it back and have them resolve the problem. If you did it yourself, seek out some help from local enthusiasts that have experience in building engines.

As for scraping this rebuild and building a stroker, you're looking at more parts, more machining, more time, and of course, more money. It's your call as to whether or not the "more" factor would be worth it to you.

(As an aside, after re-reading your original post, I am now wondering if what you have described is the result of running valve covers w/o baffling for the PCV and breathers. If so, what you're seeing if not uncommon for that type of situation. The solution is to switch to valve covers with baffles. If you're already running baffled valve covers, forget it. There's a problem somewhere within the engine that is causing the crankcase to over-pressurize while running.)

Hope this helps!