Thread: update2: ring analysis back

Tweet

hey erik: Forgot cam info, it's a stock replacement for a 283 power pack. (since this was a stock rebuild we went with a kit from federal mogul to keep it simple). On our other '57 we had a replica 270 hp dual four barrel 283. Went alot fancier with this one and it would pull 6000 rpm all day long. Our rod clearance on that one was .012. From other builders, it seems most feel .010-.012 for a bone stock motor is fine. I do agree with you that when you get into heavy hot rodding that you may want to change clearances around to suit that particular build up. I've heard of alot of crazy clearances that seem to work for people. By the way the crank and rods were checked by two different machinists. I'm not a professional builder so I asked for alot of help on the second rebuild. That's why this problem is so frustrating. (I'm not the sole person rebuilding it, and it still smokes!). this problem has begun to stump our best mechanics and machinists in our town. I didn't have the guage to do a correct leak down test, so today mike lent me his guage for the test because he's dying to know what it is too. (Mike and the shop he works at are excellent on figuring out the wierd problems people have with cars). Not a problem, but Mike told me years ago a lady had an idler arm replaced on her car and came back mad because her engine wouldn't idle right! The shop I guess had a heck of a time explaining it to the lady. Later

Originally Posted by DennyW

Do you have a good picture of the spark plugs from that motor ?

Also, any oily places on the externals of the engine, engine compartment ?

Did you actually check the valve to guide clearance ?

Was protectors used when installing the guide seals ?

oil sender ok ?

oil pan ok ?

Denny,did you see the date on this post??

Originally Posted by erik erikson

Denny,did you see the date on this post??

Anyone know what ever happened?

High ya all. Sorry I haven't been on the site for a long time. ALL of you were very nice and helpful! The problem is fixed, but we will never know what it was. Let me recap as simple as possible. Rebuilt motor, totally stock, 3 times. Multiple machinists and mechanics looked at it before the motor went back together, all three times. All 3 times the motor did the same thing, burn
massive amount of oil. Every person on this site covered every possibility that might cause this, so we did listen to every one of you and went through everything to make sure it was right. (and things that don't sound like it would be the cause. On the 4th rebuild, we took it to a shop that has some of the best equipment in our area, such as the honing machine used diamond cutting stones. This company even asked each other why this guy needs this engine rebuilt, everything checks out! So they rebuilt it for us and guess what, it did the same thing for about 5-10 minutes, maybe 15, and out of the blue it stopped smoking and using oil! 4500 miles later it is still totally fine! They even used the same make of piston and rings we used! I'll never understand this one. Things happen, but this one is for my book of wierd one's that happen to us now and then. Again, thanks to all of you for the help. It is appreciated. Don't have no current projects going on right now. I'll check the site more and see if I can throw my two cents worth in on something others may be dealing with. All for now

Rings never seated?? And plugs looked ok.

the plugs were oil fouled real bad, and yes oil was getting into cylinders, all 8 of them! it wasn't just one or two. everytime we redid the engine we used new rings of course, and even tryed a different brand once. we had one set of rings sent to hasting ring co. and they said they looked to be "ok" for wear characteristics of ring wear. (mind you it used approx. 1 quart of oil per 100-130 miles!). the first two hone jobs were done the same. the third job was done a "pinch" rougher. the fourth one was done like the first two, but as stated, done with diamond stones. Again, multiple people checked the cylinders after boring, and after honing them. as several machinist's said, you could almost leave the rings off the pistons and it wouldn't burn as much oil as our motor did. valve to guide clearance ok. rod side clearance ok. there is one vaccum hose to the wipers. no pcv valve. etc. we went through everything imaginable and non-imaginable to explain it, we just can't. Again, we spoke to a mix of mechanics, machinists, you guys, etc. no one can give a difinitive answer to why. obviously we are glad it stopped. people say the block is not a "hard casting" as some where the rings may take longer to seat due to the hardness of the cylinders. we used iron rings to which most feel these seat fairly quick. I've used crome rings before with no problem of seating them. in my early days I honed cylinders wrong and the rings seated. (piston to cylinder clearance ok too). all for now Later