I've had this problem ever since I bought this motor. It is a caprice engine. I bought it brand new from paceparts.com. At first I wasn't worried since it was just being broken in. 8 thousand miles later I'm beginning to get annoyed. At idle it will burn alittle oil. Enough to see. Oil still gets dirty quickly. I ran dino for the first change then switched to synthetic. Thought WTF maybe its because the synthetic. Went back to dino since with very frequent changes. every month no less. Oil is still getting nasty and burning. I run 5w-30 and from what Ive been reading may be good to go with thicker oil in summer? Car burns less oil when lucas stabalizer is added. Im assuming its the thickness.

Im about ready to pull the motor and put a new set of rings on it. Something isnt right. BTW yes I replaced the breather and PCV.

:::Edit:::: title says oilin...support to be oil. Ive been really sick and haven't slept in 48 hours so typing isnt to easy at this point.

 

10W30 is a good warm weather oil to run. Have you looked at the anti drainback valve that was in the oil filter adaptor you had to put on the engine? If it is shot you need to immediatly stop driving the car and get a new one.

 

a few questions. Are your blowing smoke out of your tailpipe?
About how much oil do you consume in a week/month?
Have you tried switchin to a thicker oil?

 

you may want to possibly pull the intake and check the gasket. i've seen quite a few sucking oil from under the intake past the gasket.

 

Intake manifold gasket installed improperly, or something wrong with the intake manifold are the most likely culprits.

 

Intake gasket could be: Open the valve cover, then, with the engine running, you can put a little oil in the place that the intake runners matches with the heads intake ports and test each "intake sandwich gasket". If putting oil at these places produces more blue smoke, the problem is in the intake gasket (or bad head/intake alignment, or bad block/head surface)


Morley: What is an "anti drainback valve"?


Regards,

Denis V.

 

I took a screw driver and checked for the anti drawback valve awhile back. Its still there. I guess it could be the intake. I will look into that. Motor and intake were brand new when installed so the surfaces should be smooth.

I think I got intake gaskets for a 88 305 instead of a 93 350 like i have. Should be the same correct? I may go ahead and try the intake gaskets since it will only take me an hour or so to change. Worth a shot anyways.

It burns alittle out of the tailpipe. Not that much tho. If I get on it I get more smoke but at idle it barely does. I dont even loose 1/2 a quart between changes. But I never do 3000 mile oil changes...more like 1000. I usually dont loose enough to notice.

 

Wow ok...this could be so many things. try the intake like these guys suggested. be sure to follow torque patterns and torque specs when re-installing. some people just tighten down the intake without realizing that there is actually a torque pattern to follow. If the idiot that built the motor did this you could have a warped intake. could alo be rings or valve seals. one thing at a time. easier to do the intake. when applying the new china wall seals and intake gaskets, it may be a good idea to use a little RTV on the corners. helps seal it up real nice.

 

I didn't think you could safley go back to dino oil after using synthetic.

 

what the hell is dino oil?

 

dino is non syntethic, natural oil. non-man maid.

 

You should generally wait till 10,000 miles on a new motor before you switch to synthetic. Chances are your rings never fully seated due to the early switch to synthetic.

Scenario 2: your valve stem seals maybe bad.

Scenario 3: your new motor was ringed improperly (incorrect ring gap maybe).

Just a few thoughts!

 

There is no problem going from synthetic to petroleum, other than losing the benefits of synthetic.

This is a GM crate engine. Per the GM break-in instructions, the engine is "broken in" after the initial steps and the first 500 miles. See http://www.gmgoodwrench.com/crate_eng/startup.shtml

The intake did not come on the engine, however. I have had a bad Weiand intake manifold new out of the box. It was not machined properly, and I suspect it was supposed to go in the recycle bin but ended up in shipping. Weiand is now owned by Holley, BTW.

Checking the intake from the outside probably won't tell you anything, since the problem would be between the lifter valley and the intake ports, if it is indeed an intake manifold or intake gasket problem.

Have you pulled plugs? If only one or two are getting wet/carboned, you've narrowed down where to look.

 

I havent pulled the plugs within the past month. Before all but #7 and 8 looks ****ty. The motor was running EXTREMELY rich at the time tho. I switched plugs and ran the lucas oil stabalizer, stuck on a new PVC valve and breather. Pulled the plugs a week later and they were much better. Its been about a month since tho. Im off work and if I feel better I might check tomorrow.

I put on the intake...I tightened them in sequence but didnt torque down. I dont have a torque wrench. Ive put on intake manifolds at least a dozen times and so far Ive never had a problem.

 

35-40 ft. lbs. if I remember correct. I can torque a bolt to 60 ft. lb. with just a ratchet. I can also bench about 240. so I would say figure how much you can bench, divide by 4 and that should be your approximate torque strength using just a ratchet. By the way this is my own BS formula. I know it's probably the best you've ever heard but, seriously, most people that do that find that I'm usually pretty close my buddy can bench 180. we were building a motor and for $hits n giggles I told him to torque a head bolt down as tight as he could. he did. I started my t. wrench at 30 lbs. it clicked. I moved it up to 35. it clicked. I kept doing this till i hit 45. it clicked at 45 but , the bolt moved before clicking at 50. go figure. just like your forearm is just as long as your foot. don't believe me? put the bottom of your foot to the inside of your forearm. The reason you go by bench press is because when you torque down a bolt you are using your shoulders and chest to do it. your inner fore arm only tensions up to keep your wrist stiff. doesn't contribute to any of your tightening strength. With that being said. if you bench any where from 140 to 160, throw all of your arm strength into it. should get you into the proper torque range. don't throw your weight into it. tighten purely from the arm. if you throw your weight into it and you say weigh in at 150, you just threw twice the amount of torque your arm alone can give. okay this is too long i'm shutting up now. (hooooorraaaaaaaayyyyyy)

 

88 Camaro350- How often and for how long do you drive your car? I take short drives mostly, but after a long drive- hiway driving after lots of short around town trips, I notice oil loss. I was told this is because if you don't get the oil hot enough, it will retain some gas that doesn't get completly burnt during combustion. The fuel leaks down, mixes with the oil. When you get on it, this thin, combustible oil is burned up and all of a sudden, you have lost a bunch of oil. Does the oil have a heavy gas smell? Notice too much oil on indicated on your dipstick? I guess this could also happen with rings that didn't seat.

 

I drive alot. I don't notice much oil lose but the smoke is there. Something is burning. Looks bluish. I can't tell for sure though. I need to pull a couple plugs tomorrow and look to see what they are doing. I drive mostly 15 mile trips to school and work and back. I have drove some long trips 300+ miles. And to thirdgen nationals...about 1000 miles total.

I bench press 205. Used to press 255pounds at 5' 9'' and 180 pounds but I got lazy. I don't tighten bolts as tight as I can. I just snug the intake bolts. They are tight but I didn't turn blue tightening the bolts down.

I need to pull the plugs and see whats up. Im getting ready to do a cam/head swap so hopefully Ill find some answers in there somewhere.

 

okay so you can bench 205 which means using my formula, your total torque strength using only an ordinary ratchet should be 50.125 ft. lbs of torque. so you wouldn't need to bear down when tightening an intake. you have more than enough torque strength in reserve. by about 10 -15 ft. lbs more than you need to torque an intake.

see

You big hunk of man you.

j/k kidding bro. I'm not that kind of guy

LOL

Good Luck. I'll keep watching and toss any ideas your way if I get'em

 

My cousin just brought up a good point
He said they could have warped the head gasket when they torqued it down if the lazy *** that built it didn't follow pattern. he said it might be leaking in on the ends at an oil galley

You'll be able to tell when you pull the heads he said. there will be oil on either the #1, #7, #2 or #8.

Very thin layer he said. you'll have to feel for it. if you find one of these four pistons to be slightly greasy, that was most likely your problem but he advises taking the heads in to be magnafluxed just to be sure so long as you have them off.

 

No point of trying to fix a crappy swirl port head if it is warped. I am getting a set of vortec heads in a week or so. Once I get them Ill be doing a head and cam swap. Maybe I can tell more then.

I pulled all the plugs a minute ago. They look good. Looks like Im still running slightly rich because some have a dusting of black residue. Smells like gas but I guess it could be oil.

#2 had the worst plug. A little more black than the rest. Im stumped. If it was coming from my intake gasket could it possibly not be affecting the spark plugs?

 

BTW my oil is starting to get darker now. Been a couple weeks and probably ~250-300 miles.

Its getting better. It used to smoke more and it used to make the oil black in 2 days easy.

Maybe the rings are still seating?? I say I have about 7k on the motor now.

 

that sounds kind of long for rings to be seating. most rings are seated in the first 3-4k. I don't think oil would lead to excess carbons on your one spark plug. Are all the wires up off the exhaust? If one of them got hot this could cause that one spark plug to look darker. Open the hood at night, start the car and look for a light show. or look to see if your wires are "moving" I have bought new wires before and had them fail in 2 days from faulty insulation. It's an idea. the oil thing....I'm stumped.

 

Well I ran synthetic for the first 3k or so. So maybe the rings are just now seating. All the wires are fine. I dont know either im stumped.

 

is it true that the rings might not fully seat for 3k-4k miles????? I have 1500 miles on my new engine and it is burning some oil and smoking a little still

 

that's what I was taught and in my own experience seems to be pretty accurate. I noticed it started to slow down around 4,500 in my 350.

 

I AM BURNING 1 QT EVERY 2-300 MILES WITH BLUE SMOKE ON START AND AT FULL THROTTLE. NOT REAL BAD THOUGH. I AM NERVOUS ABOUT HAVING TO PULL THE ENGINE AGAIN. i HAVE 1500 MILES ON IT.-----(HAD IT OUT ONCE DUE TO MACHINE SHOP TECHNICALITY)

 

Assuming you guys eliminated the smog pump on these engines, did you put a bolt back into the mounting holes (if the location changed over the years, I'm talking about down on the lower passenger side front of the engine near where a mechanical fuel pump would bolt on)?? If at idle you are blowing smoke out the exhaust I suppose this is not it, but it could explain extra loss and smoke while driving still though... On my crate engine those holes came with nothing in them, and I didn't reuse the smog pump that would have bolted on there, I assumed they didn't pass into the block and just left them open. Back when my motor was new I was losing oil, and it would blow a bigass cloud of smoke after I had gotten on the throttle and backed off. Burned a bit just driving nomrally sometimes. Turns out I was blowing oil out the front of the block from the aforementioned bolt holes (they go all the way through, one into the passage the fuel pump priming arm/pushrod goes through, etc), windage was blowing some oil out those holes, which was burning on the exhaust and not actually in it. Chased that crap around forever, I wasn't obviously leaking sitting still, I couldn't spot the leak and it really appeared to be burning inside the engine the way the smoke blew out the back while driving... Just something to check, sounds like you probably have a little different symptoms but it could be a combination of problems...

Did you properly prime your engine's oil system prior to first startup? That is pretty important...

 

really!? I didn't know they went all the way through. wow. nice tip.

 

Yeah, I can't remember if it was more than one of them that went through, but at least one of them goes into the passageway for the fuel pump arm thing... It may have been rare to have a setup where it would sling/blow the oil out of there regularly, but dang did I think my new motor was dead with what it was doing... Finally saw a bit of oil sitting in the threads for the hole, and checked on my old 305 block sitting there and discovered that damn hole goes all the way in, lol! Of course that was after I had ripped the intake off a couple times looking for bad gaskets/warped surfaces, checked for a dead cylinder, etc. What a bitch for a lousy bolt hole leaking oil, lol.......

 

My 83 has been leaking a little bit of oil lately. A few drips, possibly a leak somewhere. I'm suspecting a blown head gasket??? or would a blown headgasket pour out more oil than water at Niagra Falls? It's not much, about a quart low, but I am suspecting a blown head gasket due to a recent overrev

 

i did the same thing with the bolts out----chased that leak for a week. I think it is only the top hole that goes all the way thru.

 

Hm, do a compression test to check on the head gasket. Also, I would just try and find where the leak is coming from first. Might not even be the head gasket, could be the valve cover gasket down to the oil pan from the excess windage overreving can do. I know there is some stuff you can buy that you can pour into the oil, and then run a UV light around the block and the leak should show up where the oil is leaking at.

-Dan

 

My block doesnt have a fuel pump rod at all...Not even machined for it.

If it was the intake gasket I fixed that today when I put the lt4 camshaft in. All I have left to do is the rocker arms and fill the radiator back up and Im done.

 

??? You sure? Unless I'm sadly mistaken all standard SBC blocks have the provisions, you'll just have a block off plate over the passage on the side of the block unlike in this picture below. One or both of the holes indicated go all the way into the passage, and oil can get blown out if they're open. If you're sure the oil smoke is coming out of the exhaust, and is visible doing it at idle this won't be your main problem, but still... Hopefully you've fixed it with the intake gasket regardless, did you observe any indications that oil had been seeping into the intake ports?

 

I'm thinking rear main seal. overrev will shred an old seal. where is it leaking from? rear? front? slightly left or right? You're going to have to under there and take a look.

 

You're right. my 305 from my 91 still has the hole. they just used the block off plate. It's cheaper for the company to just slap a pump delete on the block than to change the casting mold. However, the hole for the pump rod may not be machined either. again cost efficiency.

 

It is the top hole............Also what color is the smoke?

 

My block doesn't even have a fuel pump block-off plate...there is no hole for the rod at all. Its just solid.

I have the holes your talking about plugged anyways with accessory bolts anyways.

I can't hardly tell what color it is. I think I still could be running rich. The smoke doesn't look blue. It also isn't white. Its a grey color almost. I wanna say its fuel but it isn't black. I think It is probably running rich. I am not loosing anti-freeze or oil so I don't think thats it. I need to see whats up with the carb.

On a side note....the car no longer even tries to diesel. It used to diesel alot...Must have been a intake gasket vaccum leak. Because before it would diesel at 1k. Now it won't diesel if turned off at 2k. Timing was set at 6 degrees before to try to stop it. Now its set at 8 and it doesn't diesel.

Im gonna look into my fuel situation. I think its running rich. But shouldn't the smoke be black and not greyish? Its dark grey.

 

I don't know about the sad part, but even though all the castings have the mounting boss, as stated, not all are machined/drilled for the fuel pump rod. So, that hole can't leak.

 

Sounds like your running rich and also try bumping your timing up to 10 or 12 degrees BTDC....................And report back..lol

 

I messed with the carb some today. Idle appears to no longer be smoking. I managed to get 21psi of vaccum at idle. Runs alittle better now. I am going to mess with it more tuesday when I have time. Right now its raining so I can't do anything.

 

good to see you've had success.

 

It took about 200 miles for my rings to seat in all the way. All but #5 seated right off. #5 had lots of oil on it, it would smoke blue at idle and WOT. Last friday I took #5 out and it was clean, I was happy. I was afraid I messed a ring up or something putting it in. Now it smokes because of the transmission leak I think its the front seal.

I would run a compression check and maybe a leak down test and find out were your problem is before you put heads/cam on it. thats just my opinoin though.

Good luck.

Jason

 

if you took off the conv. you're front seal is definately going to leak. however look for pinhole leaks in the weld of the conv. as well. better to be safe than sorry.