[smokes]

Its on my 469 BBC, It has maybe 400 miles on it, I took it out of town yesterday for a 110 mile trip for the 1st. time, It used up 1.1/2 quarts of oil, It doesn't leak a drop, But the plugs always have oil on the threads & seat, sometimes i see shiny deposits on the porcelain & ground strap, The plugs lately have been burning dark & wet at the base of the threads, there R44TS's, This engine has had everything done to it machine work wise, was told even the guides were in great shape, they installed fixed seals, The rings are Moly plasma, It was freshly bored .070", In the beginning the plugs stayed clean but still had oil on the threads/seat, What could be going on that its using so much oil? Now i need to get my fuel pressure down, Its around 7.5-8 psi. Could this be causing wash down on the rings preventing them from properly sealing? Its strange in a way, I'v built many many Mopar SBs & BBs & they have never consumed oil like this, not even close.

Ironically the last engine i had in it was a 406 that was bored, It too consumed tons of oil, what the heck gives?

 

[zombie1969]

Sure your not sucking it through the pcv or the intake isn't in need of machining so it's getting in through the valley area? Might just need to drive the piss out of it till the rings seat who knows.

 

[WurlitzBurg]

By "fixed seals" do you mean press-in valve stem seals? What type of material are the seals?

 

[smokes]

By "fixed seals" do you mean press-in valve stem seals? What type of material are the seals?

I'll have to check again with the machinist, He is usually swamped, I can them fixed as in not riding on the valve stem like umbrella seals.

 

[smokes]

Sure your not sucking it through the pcv or the intake isn't in need of machining so it's getting in through the valley area? Might just need to drive the piss out of it till the rings seat who knows.

I'm starting to think this could be the problem as i noticed oil in the runners when i changed intakes, I used a different gasket set & ran RTV along the F&R rails this time. There a cork style gasket for the runners, I coated each side of the intake ports with Copper coat hoping this would help.

At 1st. i thought it might be the Rocker studs leaking oil down through, but these are 781s & was told there not drilled all the way through like on Rec. port heads.

 

[72LS3Z27]

My new gm crate 454 did this with the low tension rings,and non baffeled valve covers.
I wound up making baffles for my valve covers,installed an air/oil separator(moroso)and put some sealant on my rocker studs.On a valve train switch out,I noticed oil leaking down them into the intake port on a few.GM didn't put any sealer on there,and it was needed.
That took care of most of it.I also switched out the low tension rings for some hastings regular tension rings.Seems ok now.
Just some things to check.

 

[WurlitzBurg]

Joe,
Oil entering the combustion chambers can end up passing the intake gaskets and reaching the intake manifold. My heads were rebuilt with teflon press-in seals and ultimately caused 1 qt/mi oil usage. Viton seals fixed it. I was told teflon won't hold up if everything is not in near perfect alignment. Oil getting past the rings can do the same thing.
Do the easy stuff first.

 

[BillK]

Joe,
The others have some good suggestions. I would like to say that you should not waste a lot of time worrying about valve stem seals. The early Big and Small blocks had no seals and they still did not use any appreciable amount of oil. A qt and a half in 110 miles is a LOT of oil. Who assembled the engine ? Any chance one or all of the second rings are upside down ? I put one second ring in upside down in a 305 many years ago and it used a ton of oil

 

[496blaze]

Curious what pistons are in this thing?

How much total timing? Does it have vacuum advance?

 

[smokes]

The rings are standard size with a top moly ring, There Hastings, The pistons are Probe Forged 18cc domes.

I'm sure i put the rings in right side up. I always try & pay attention to detail when i assemble an engine so i don't mess something up lol

Timing is 12* int., 35-36* total all in around 3800 rpm, I am running vacuum advance.

I have the PCV valve on 1 VC & a breather on the other. There is no blow-by at all, PCV hose at rear of carb shows no signs of oil entering the manifold, Bottom of intake plenum is dry no oily residue or raw fuel.

I'll look into the rocker studs, was told though the only factory heads that were drilled all the way through were your Reg. port do to the large runners, never hurts to check though, because i didn't add any sealant to them.

 

[ddeennis]

The rings are standard size with a top moly ring, There Hastings, The pistons are Probe Forged 18cc domes.

I'm sure i put the rings in right side up. I always try & pay attention to detail when i assemble an engine so i don't mess something up lol

Timing is 12* int., 35-36* total all in around 3800 rpm, I am running vacuum advance.

I have the PCV valve on 1 VC & a breather on the other. There is no blow-by at all, PCV hose at rear of carb shows no signs of oil entering the manifold, Bottom of intake plenum is dry no oily residue or raw fuel.

I'll look into the rocker studs, was told though the only factory heads that were drilled all the way through were your Reg. port do to the large runners, never hurts to check though, because i didn't add any sealant to them.

I threw together a 305 for my sons first car, 1986 engine original to the car that was already pulled out and had no idea of it's condition, I tore it down saw the original bearings was decent and I honed out the block and slapped the old rings and pistons back in with the original bearings. Something I never ever did before. Slapped in a small 204/214 cam
slightly ported the heads and lapped in the valves,added some z28 springs and this is what my son used for his first engine for awhile.

That thing smoked when you got on it pretty good, after awhile we took it to the race track and we was able to tune it to 15.2 @ 93 mph with 2.73 gears and 3k stall th350 tranny. since he was turning more rpms around 5500 the engine started to use more oil
to a point of about 3 quarts on a 120 mile round trip to the track with about 5-7 passes
or more. the engine would foul plugs weekly, he was always changing one or two out a week.

The engine didn't have any blow-by with the pcv hooked up and a breather on the other valve cover. Once the pcv was pulled out the smoke rolled out the valve covers.

It's 100% a ring problem on his engine, I put new umbrella seals on the head when I refurbished them to run again.

Maybe pull the pcv and see what you have for blow-by, thought I would share how bad an engine could use oil if it's a ring seal issue.

 

[CPMotorworks]

Valve guides first suspect, , usually too loose of clearances. Second would be was the block honed with a torque plate?