So I went to the track on Sunday. I wanted to get a few passes in before I hang it up prior to my move.
I have 1400 miles on my 454. Under WOT I left a trail of smoke the entire track. This is the same motor I had the low tension springs in very early on. The builder replaced them with std tension and all seemed well. But as of late its been smoking a little bit more and more. Only a tiny bit under idle, but it sould be none. Its buring about a quart every 200+ miles or something to that effect.
Is it still the rings? Oil or compression? Why ? WHy? WHY!!!!!???

Sounds like rings to me still, is there any blow-by through the breathers on the valve covers?

Dave

No blow by. I have great vacuum and can feel it from the breather opposite the PVC. PVC is clean too.

Leadown test time!

Did you ever over rev your motor by chance? Just an unrelated question.

No Vince, never over-reved it. If you recall i never went from third to second on my shifting, I went from 3rd to reverse!!
I dont want to do a leak down test just yet. I cant get to any of the plugs except for 1 and 2 without taking the headers off.
I guess I am just going to lean it out a bit more and give it some more time. It runs good. Ran a best of 12.06 at 115 on Sunday and that was taking it easy with a 1.84 60'.
Military is moving me in April. I just need to take a step back and set the car aside.

You may have Low tension oil rings....

I had low tension OIL rings in the beginning. I had oil all over the place. Puddles of oil under the carb. I was buring 2 qts every 50 miles.
I pulled the motor and the builder replaced them. After that no smoke. But lately it has picked up. Sometimes when it is idling it smokes a little. Sometimes not.

What color is the smoke? Blue smoke would indidcate the valave guides.

Leadown test time!
An engine can have problems with oil burning even though the rings seal compression just fine. A leakdown test won't hurt, but it may not help, either. Kinda depends on what exactly is causing the oil usage. For instance, loose bearing clearances may flood the cylinder walls with oil which overwhelm the oil control rings. Alternatively, oil coming in past a defective intake gasket won't show anything wrong with a leakdown test.

What color is the smoke? Blue smoke would indidcate the valave guides.
Ummm...oil burning in general will often cause blue smoke.

A puff of blue smoke upon startup is often valve guides/valve stem seals.

Nothing upon startup. Only idle ( occasionally ) and under WOT, yes its blue.
I am going to have a buddy flog it while I follow. I want to see for myself. Maybe Ill take a video and put it up on you tube.

Since your motor is smoking under hard load/WOT i would thnking ring seal issues etc,thats too much smoke all the way down the track for just guides/seals as is getting approc 200 miles perf qt of oil too.

If your motor wasnt plate honed esp for the low tension rings you have then inproper ring seal is likely the issue but of course i would check intake first ,do leak down test ,etc to be as sure as possible it was in fact a ring seal issue prior to disassembly.

The fix in that case would be to plate hone cyls and re-ring with low tension rings again if your brave enough. But after all that work i would not use low tension rings again wanting to avoid any possiblif it were me to avoid any ring sealing issues again,too much work involved to do it over a 3rd time.

Scott

Any chance your dipstick is blowing up or oil might be getting out somehow, or are you sure it's coming out the exhaust?

Any chance your dipstick is blowing up or oil might be getting out somehow, or are you sure it's coming out the exhaust?

No chance. I have the ultimate in dipstick oil recovery systems. I invented this. Helps lube the rockers too. :cool:

http://home.ec.rr.com/jeffhansen/454%20146.jpg

How do the plugs look? Whats the exhaust port look like. Oil on spark plug threads and in the exhaust port is good sign of oil past the rings.

Jeff, how do you check the oil with that system?

The plugs are sooty but dry, there is oil around the threads. The carb was rich but I added a spacer and it leaned out real nice. The headers/exhaust is sooty as well. Not really bad.
To check the oil I just pull the tube off the dipstick and insert it , get my reading and slid it back on. It comes out as easily as if there was a dipstick inserted.
The actual reason I created this thing was to cover up a pinhole from a broken mounting tab in the dipstick. When the car reaches about 5800 RPM there was a fine spray of oil hitting a header tube and oiling down the windshield. Just a dumb, 'functional' gimmick that adds a little more personality/uniqueness to my car.

I am inclined to think that the rings are just not properly seated. When I changed the low tension oil rings to STD, its only been 600 miles. Maybe in time they will seat?

Too bad there isnt some sort of silica like product that you could dump down the carb while the engine was running to 'freshen' everything up all at once.:p