I'm noticeing a lot of blow by on my newly fired up engine. I also see the breather on the valve cover is starting to drip oil. I'm using Moroso valve covers and I'm running a high volume oil pump. Is it possible that the oil is splashing around the baffle on the underside valve cover and dripping out and what about the white smoke blow by?

Do you have 2 breathers or 1 breather and a pcv? If I saw smoke coming out of my breather, I would suspect a bad/broken ring, especially on a new motor. How tight did you set the gap in your rings and did you have any timing problems on your initial start-up?

Mike

Is the smoke white or light blue? Light blue indicates oil but solid white means your burning antifreeze. I'm sure as a professional mechanic you already knew this so i'm only pointing out the obvious.

What kind of rings are you running? I just fired up my new 388 last week...I had a bit of blowby at first, but it was clear and gone with just a few miles of driving. Maybe the rings just need a chance to seat?

High volume oil pump wouldn't cause oil to be dripping from your breather. Is the white smoke coming out of the exhaust? If so, you have a coolant leak somewhere. If the coolant is getting into the oil, the oil will turn a milky-white color.

I'm not sure if its white or light blue. More of a white I belive. There is no sign of water in the oil. I'm useing a breather and a PVC valve and no I had no timing problems on start up. No back fireing or anything like that. I don't have a seat or tags on the car so I can't realy drive it.

Just for sake of clarity, are you seeing blow-by coming out your tailpipes or out of your breather? I'm :confused: because you mentioned oil dripping off your breather.

Mike

If there is a ring installed upside down you can have blowby. No way it is the oil pump. I have almost never seen blowby at the breather be anything other than improper crancase ventilation or bad rings.

The blow by is at the breather cap. I pray I don't have a ring upside down or something stupid like that.
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the moroso valve covers do not have a baffle in them which is why your getting the oil drip from the breathers, as far as the smoke out the tail pipe your on your own.

With a functioning PCV system:

If you don't have vacuum at the breather grommet, you have too much blow-by.

At fast idle, the vacuum at the breather grommet should be substantial.

Now, a lumpy cam will reduce manifold vacuum, therefore reducing PCV vacuum. Put your vacuum gauge on a manifold vacuum fitting, rev the engine to achieve highest manifold vacuum, and hold that RPM while you feel for vacuum at the breather grommet by blocking the hole with your finger. If you build vacuum in the valve cover, fine. If you build pressure in the valve cover, you've got problems.

I've got a realy bad feeling about my symptoms, I've got low vacuum and blow-by. I'm thinking maybe somehow I've got some rings in upside down or somehow wrong? I think I'm going to be sick. graemlins/sad.gif graemlins/sad.gif

Bad Rat 414, take a few steps back and take a break. I read your other posts and see the problems you are running into with this engine. We pour a lot of hard earned cash into these projects and it can be very stressful when things go wrong.

When you feel up to working again, I'd suggest the following: Do a compression test-it should be about 150psi or better on a new engine, anything less would indicate bad rings or valve sealing. Check the plugs-any of them off color? A very clean plug would show coolant in that cylinder. Is the oil pressure OK? Did the coolant level drop indicating an internal leak? Does the oil look muddy indicating coolant mixed? Is the oil pressure ok? If the compression is good and all of the above is ok then move on to tuning this thing. Disconnect the vacume advance line to the distributor for now- vacume advance is mostly for fuel economy and too much can screw up the tune so just disconnect it for now untill the mechanical curve is right. You will want somewhere between 35 and 40 degrees of total advance-this includes initial+mechanical and it should be all in by 3000 rpms. 12-18 degrees initial with an additional 26-20 usually works well as a starting point until you get some drive time to find out what she really likes. Tune your idle after the timing is roughed in, big cams like more air because of the overlap and reversion so it may be necessary to crack the secondaries open just a hair or drill 1/8" holes in the primary blades. Once the idle is cleaned up and plugs aren't fouling then tune your main jet at cruize speed, then power valve or enrichment circuit, then accelerator circuit for best response. Hopefully the problem wasn't internal and you can tune out the problems. There is a lot of support on this site, I'm sure you'll get this ironed out. graemlins/beers.gif

dont you get some blowby with moly rings during break in period.
shane

Your right, I need to sit back and think about this. I've been doing this for way to many years to let this whip me. But it's mine and I've been working on it for months and the idea of a major problem is messing with my thought process.

I've got my compression gauge with me now and I'll do it when no ones looking (at work). What I was think is that the rings have to much blow by and are not creating enough vacuum. I guess I'll know when I do the compression test.

Allright I did the compression test and the all came up 120 to 125psi. I'm thinking they are not seated yet. Also the plugs were fuel fouled.

I called Comp Cams and talked to them. They said I should have around 10" of vacuum. I also called Edelbrock and asked about the timing mark on the cam gear of their gear drive. It's not in the best place it looks like it's between the teeth. So I moved it to the next tooth. I'm waiting on the silicone to dry and I'll get back on it and fire it up and see what happens. Oh by the way, Edelbrock support was no help at all. The guy just told me "they're all that way".

I agree with a couple of the other responses. Have a beer and then realize there is no end to our crazy hobby so why get all worked up about needing some extra focus right now ;)

Hopefully shes just not fully seated yet. How much breakin time do you have and how did it actually go minus the smoke?

Hopefully not your rings. Did you align them(offset) as per manufacturer specs?

I'm going to trash the gear drive and install a double roller. As far as the pistons go. There realy is not much break in time on them. I can't drive it to put a good load on it either. Time will tell.

Nice Bad rat 414 another annoying gear drive comes off the street! smile.gif

i still like my accu-drive

Nice Bad rat 414 another annoying gear drive comes off the street! I agree, sound bothers me bad. Thought it was kinda cool for awhile but very irritating later on IMO.

125psi is very low even for a new engine. Most all rings are nice and round nowadays so breakin usually doesn't do a whole lot for cranking compression-others might disagree. Maybe your cam was severely retarded-that would explain the low vacume and low cranking compression. Hopefully that's the case and the double roller will correct the problem. Do a compression test after the timing set is replaced, also degree the cam to make sure the cam isn't ground wrong or the pin offset etc. Bob

Well, I realy don't want to pull the intake and I don't have a degree kit anyway. I'll have my new chain on Sat. and I'll see if it fixes it then.