Long day and tired, could use a little help

[AmerigoHauler]

Hello all, I have a question. What could be the problem with an FE that started oil smoking badly and used 5 quarts of oil to go about 70 miles? This started after a run thru the gears but never going past 5000 rpm.

This is in my truck. A .030 over 428 with Ed heads, an RPM intake, Lunati hyd roller cam and lifters and FPA headers. This combo has given me no problems for the last 5 years. Even with the smoking and oil consumption all my gauges, including o2 are reading normal. I drove it 60 miles home and it ran fine. No missing, bucking, surging, stalling. Just 65 mph, 2500 rpm, smooth as ever. Just cant see anything behind me. It is a little embarrassing.

The truck is home now and I had no time to do anything with it. Just parked it. Trouble shooting comes tomorrow.

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas.

Any and all replies/help would be appreciated. This is a new one on me.

Erich

[gdaddy01]

pcv sucking oil into the intake ?

[jmlay]

I would say pvc or it sucked in an intake gasket.

[Stangman]

If this is all of a sudden then I also say intake or POV system. Probably intake.

[cammerfe]

I hate to say this, but the only time I've had a problem such as you describe, I found a cracked piston on teardown. Couldn't find a reason, but the piston cracked.

KS

[WConley]

Ken may be right about a piston, but the easier thing to check is the intake gasket on the floor of the ports.  Closing the throttle at high RPM will pull a lot of vacuum, which can easily pop the intake gasket into a port.

[wayne]

I think its a intake gasket but piston is a good idea also.

[frnkeore]

If it's a piston, it will puff like a train, out the breather. I had that happen, after a engine over heated, and the piston had 2 broken lands. It sucked oil, like your describing. A compression test will tell the story on that.

W/o the puffing, I say it is the gasket, with that much oil consumption.

[gt350hr]

   A hole in the piston should cause it to run rough and a sucked intake gasket would change the idle characteristics. Pull the PCV hose and see if it's full of oil . Could also be a broken ring land or broken ring. Either way it has to come apart. Smoking that much will kill the rings with carbon build up.

[frnkeore]

The PVC is easy to check, just pull the hose off and plug it.

I used to be a mechanic, for 8 years and I never saw one pull that much oil from a engine. It is not in direct contact with the oil.

[Jb427]

bore scope camera could be handy here if you know some one with one or they are pretty cheap now you could check inside each bore and down the intake before jumping into a huge job like pulling heads.

[6667fan]

X2 on borescope. If you go that route there is likely going to be oil on the intake valves just from normal use. How much you see could be telling. I helped a buddy with a sbc recently who had a pcv sucking oil through a valve cover without a good baffle. The tops of the valves looked like something from a volcanic eruption.

[AmerigoHauler]

Ok, first off, Thank you everyone for the replies.

I had a little time today so I figured I'd start by pulling plugs and see if I could narrow things down a bit. #4 is the problem, the plug had a large build up of carbon. It did look like it was still firing though, maybe the MSD unit kept it going. The rest of the plugs looked normal with the exception of #5 which did look slightly darker than the rest.

I did check the PCV yesterday when I was driving it back. I saw nothing irregular so today I pulled the valve and hoses and all looked good. I then pulled the carb to see if there was oil under there but everything looked good also. My PCV hose is connected to the spacer under the carb and is fed by both of the secondary's.

It looks like they pulled the rain out of the forecast tomorrow so hopefully I will have time to pull the manifold and see if the gasket is the problem. If that isn't the issue I will have to make some decisions.

Thanks again to all, I will let post back with what I find. Erich

[Tom Gahman]

The tru-arc snap rings that retain the piston pin in its place come out and then the pin mills a nasty gouge in the cylinder. Hope this is not your problem.

[Lowrider]

The tru-arc snap rings that retain the piston pin in its place come out and then the pin mills a nasty gouge in the cylinder. Hope this is not your problem.
[/quote

Had that happen to a 63/406 years ago. Puts a nice groove in the block and smoked like a chimney.