Thread: Oil use of a 352 rebuild?

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Hi name is Landon Llewellyn I've owned this 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 Sedan since I was 14 and drive it everyday. It is in great shape and low miles.. just 48,753 miles on the body and less than 38,000 miles on the new engine.

Back to my problem it has always burnt oil which is natural for those FE engines... However lately it has burnt more than I like..It burns it only when I take my foot off the gas like slowing down of the interstate on the off ramp.. a cloud of smoke goes out the back... I just had duel pipes with Flow Master installed.. but I can't see how that would effect this.. Any possible answers to this problem???

Valve guides or seats?..

It is a stock engine.. 2 barrel Autolite factory exhust manifolds and intake....Any help would be great...

Guides and/or valve stems.

I second the guides/stems as suspect. You may also want to take a peek under the valve covers and make sure that the oil drainback holes in the heads are not clogged up with 41 years worth of gunk. Since the rockers and rocker shafts receive their oiling directly off the main bearings it's easy to get an oil flooding condition up top with even slightly worn rocker shafts. This can cause oil burning even with brand new rubber umbrella seals

I third that valves and seats notion. I have two 64 352 4barrels at home. One runs one doesn't (due to the fact its in my garage in boxes). The 352 I tore down had most likely 180K on her and the seats were starting to pit and the stems and guides were loose on a few. I even had one valve that had mushroomed at the top and was impossible to remove without some professional help. Also, it looked as if someone tried running synthetic oil in her which clogged the crap out of it making it impossible for the oil to drain out of the top of the head. Just some of my probs. Let us know what you find

Yeah it is a real upset.. the engine was rebuilt by Marshal engines in Nebraska..... All new components... the older 352 I had was junk... it burnt oil like gas.... we guessed it had over 200000miles on it... do to the wear and tear... or someone raced it to death.. lots of lead built up from the old style gasoline... and carbon build up...

But I look at this as a fun chance to do some work myself... I've been told the valve guides and steams are easy to replace.... I've got some help in my car club.. I'm hoping they can point me or help me do this job.. I plan to keep this car.... Everyone says they wished they keep there high school car.. And I intend on doing just that...

Thanks for the help I guys... I let you know more when I break it down later these week...

I'm not familiar with the company you mentioned that did the work, so this is not a direct slam on them. However, some companies will knurl the existing guides when they do a "rebuild". That's one of the ways to build down to a price rather than up to a quality standard. Knurling is a short term "fix". You might either ask if that's what they did, or, since you need to replace them anyway, just look to see if that's what was done. Unfortunately, if that's what they did, they may have taken other shortcuts too.

OK here's the update....

Well we've concluded that it's not the valve guides....

It seems to be leaking the oil somwhere in the back of the engine.... My guess right now is the aft gasket on the intake manifold....

I'm pretty sure its not my valve cover on the left side cuz I've got oil runing down my bell houses on both sides... My head gaskets seem fine...

This is a real puzzling problem.. I really can't see oil leaking when its at idle.... which is no surprise....

It's been surgeing and back firing kinda when I go down the highway around 50-70 mph.... not all the time but some once in a while... I really think its a leak of some kinde in the back intake gasket..

I've been told that guys use to do a melt to melt seal back there with gasket selant and no gaskets... for that reason...

Is this a true statement.. can you do a metal to metal with the intake and block... granted some kind of selant would need to be used...

Any words of wisdom... Its going to be a project I can fell it... petty... its not even summer yet...hehehehe

Regards, Madog Llewelly

Have you verified that your intake to block gasket is in place and sealed correctly? There are two of these, one at each end of the intake.

Yes I can see that the front gasket is in place... And by just feeling on the back side it seems to be there.... I would think the smallest leak could cause major problems.....

I know it was a bitch to put on right... We use a lot of selant on that intake when we put it on the engine....

I've been told by some old timer Ford guys that the exhaust manifold and heads were metal on metal originally and if you put any gaskets on they'll just burn out eventually. The intake to black definately had gaskets though. I've been having a similar oil leak to what you're desribing, and thought my valve covers were leaking so I rigged up some tension retainers from my many 350 rebuilds since the covers are a prro design for proper sealing. This did not fix the leak and bent the hell out of my covers!! Live and learn, but I still have something leaking on the back side but not actively enough to spot the problem spot or make the level go down significantly. My 64 Gal is still in storage for the winter but hopefully I will be able to get back there better this year and hunt down the prob. if you find the culprit please post it.

If you pull the intake, carefully examine the intake gaskets for distortion around the intake ports. Look for mushroomed / swollen gasket material at the bottom edge of the gasket. Ths would explain oil getting sucked into the cylinders.

With an external oil leak at the front or back of the intake, this can usually be traced to the intake end gasketss (intake to block). Some of the less expensive intake gasket sets have the end seals made of cork and these shrink over time and are guaranteed to cause a leak.

Yes some people do skip installing the intake end gaskets and just use a bead of silicone.

Well we used a cork gasket on the back and front of the intake to the block.... I was worried when we did this.. thye didn't look like good gaskets....

Also I've always had a puddel of oil on my intake on the right side near the back indentations around by the Valve cover... Basically between the Carborator and valve cover... never a lot of oil but always a puddel of oil I clean it up every time I change the oil... I do that around 1000-2000miles depending on the type of driving I do....

The engine has always leaked oil a little but thats what old engines do and I'm not showing the car for points just for fun at car shows.. plus I drive it all the time so it would be impossible to keep it in show condition... But leak or burning has me stumped...

Sometimes I think it might be the Main rear seal starting to go bad.. but how does that explain my oil on top of the bell housing???? Its a real show stopper.. don't even have 20,000miles on the engine I'm going to hate it if I have to pull that engine out again... They are not easy or light... But I'm not going to give up on this engine.. I'm a firm believer.. in the FE BIG BLOCKS>>

If its a engine pull out.... I'm going to do some upgrading... Like a new Intake for a 4 Barrel Holley 650 or 750... plus a new Distrubtor and coil... I've converted it over to Electronic already... All through High School I played with the points and condessor... One summer in St. Louis they went bad on me and I couldn't find any points.. and when I did condessor were a no show.. had to have one shipped to me from a local store back home...So I went to the Electronic and have liked what I got.... only thing was it was kit that went into my old destrubtor... but it works well...

I've pulled the spark plugs on the engine but they didn't show any sings of oil burns in the chamber... but that was about a month ago.. I'll take them out tomorrow and see what we've got... if they show sings I could have bad valve guides or a leak in the intake gasket to the head... like you said... but it doesn't explain my oil puddles on the ground... most of the time there small like about an inch to 2 inches.. but once in a while there bigger... 4-6 inches... around...

I don't know .. more trouble shooting... talk to you all later... thanks for the help..It has helped...

Regards, Landon Llewellyn

Step One : Find a friend or two.

Step Two : Convince them to help you.

Step Three : Get a decent intake gasket set with rubber end seals.

Step Four : (this is where the friends come into play) When you pull the intake, lift it straight up. A FE cast iron intake weighs slightly less than a battleship anchor.

Step Five : When replacing the gaskets, put a nice little daub of silicone where the end gaskets tab into the intake port gaskets.

Step Six : Make sure the intake gets set in straight down on the gaskets withoout having to "wiggle" the intake into place.

Step Seven : Buy your friends beer for being good buddies.